Old monthly bills

96tacolx

96tacolx

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2005
Location
Gastonia
Went thru my box that I keep old bills in. Realized I still have them dated back to 2003. How long do most of you keep monthly bills or do you shred them as soon as they are paid?
 
All my bills are paid online too but I still get 3-4 bills that are mailed. I have a couple that are e-mailed.
 
I keep all my financial paperwork (including paid bills and receipts for major purchases) for the entire year in which it was received, plus 1 year. So at any point this year I can look back at anything from as far back as January of last year.

Not sure why I do it that way... just always have. But it has come in handy a few times. And when stuff ages out, I either shred or burn it.
 
I keep a couple years and any year-end statements. That's it. I used to be covered in all that stuff, never got around to throwing it out. I smartened up a few years back.
 
dmoore714 said:
I keep all my financial paperwork (including paid bills and receipts for major purchases) for the entire year in which it was received, plus 1 year. So at any point this year I can look back at anything from as far back as January of last year.
Not sure why I do it that way... just always have. But it has come in handy a few times. And when stuff ages out, I either shred or burn it.
Click to expand...

thats pretty much what I do, except I might let them pile up a year or three or four before I purge
 
I used to file them and clean out all but the last month when I did taxes. Now I have a small file shelf 'inbox' type thing, that I simple stack them in as I pay them. And every so often I pull the bottom half out and shred or burn them. I like to keep some around so I can refer back.... I like the cable bill when I call them to bitch about how high the prices are I reference the last 5 time it went up..
 
shred everything, but I do have a list on PC of every bill or expense I spend money on.. I keep about 2 to 3 years on PC
 
I have monthly folders and keep everything for a year. When I finish filing this month, I clean out last year's for the same month and shred everything. Anything tax-related you're supposed to keep for 7 years, I think, but so far I still have everything since I started paying my own taxes. Anything house or home-improvement related I tend to keep indefinitely, too.

Before we got a shredder, I had a bad habit of letting them pile up for a couple of years (in the monthly folders)... I'm trying to get better. Most of mine are paid online and I have 'budget' documents that usually keep the same info, but the bills still get mailed to me.

It isn't a bad thing to hold on to utility bills and have the chance to compare... could clue you in on a leak or some other problem. Same with CC bills... see how you're spending money better/worse/differently than a year ago. <shrug>
 
My credit card and insurance is e-billed. Just set up an online account with gas company so I'll get an e-bill from them too. Nice thing is you can view past billing and spending habits online. No digging thru a box. Looks like I've got allot of shredding to do.
 
HA!!! paying bills is sooo pre Obama.....:popcorn:
 
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