Interesting Car: Not your mama's VW
For today:
How long do you keep cancelled checks,
receipts and bills you pay and or receive?
For years I kept them forever, meaning never threw them away. A few years ago I tried burning my collection of
checks, it was a mess, like burning a Sears and Roebuck catalog, very slow.
I
had them all, personal and business, many thousands. I took a barrel filled it with water added some
bleach and let it set for a week. Then I stirred them and made paper ‘snow’
balls of the remainder. I did the same with many records of houses I had built.
As I did it I wondered why I had kept them,
not once did I remember having to have or refer to them? So after I downsized I
tried to keep our record keeping to a minimum (2-3 yrs). At times I would go thru and
thin out the older stuff.
THEN this week we got a bill from a
medical firm for a few hundred dollars, saying our ins nor Medicare had paid
anything on the total.
No problem I says to myself. I pulled the
folders. Since the bill was for normal yearly ‘bloodwork’ and the ins had always covered it
all, I figured to look at last year’s bill. All I could find was last year’s
bill for the exact amount with a note saying the bill would not be paid because
it was a double billing. BUT then I could not find the original bill where the
ins had paid, there was NOTHING for that date in my file.
So it seems with age I am not keeping
good records and will have to find a better way to prove we do not owe this. I
think we are being double billed again. It sure would be nice to have this
paperwork in my hand when I go to complain.
That will probably be next year when we get back. So we will wait. It bothers Sherry and I to OWE bills. WE
always pay before the due date.
We even pay our taxes early. I hate to admit my record keeping has gone to
pot. OUCH. I guess I am getting OLD---(and
it hurts my ego. LOL)
Nite Shipslog
+018.jpg)
+040aa_edited-1.jpg)
5 comments:
Can you get a copy of the bills and payments? Call the insurance co. that said it was a double bill and they probably have the info. We all do that - it is not age!
I have so much stuff electronically these days for records that I haven't seen a canceled check for years, although I can get one from the bank if I need to prove something. All bills come email too and a lot set up on auto pay. That makes it hard though because in Arizona we need to get a new license that will be acceptable for airline travel and one of the things we need to prove our identify is a bill from a utility company that comes in the mail. All come electronically so not sure how that is going to work. I too am thinking you were billed twice, hopefully it will be an easy fix!
betty
My mother was super careful about keeping paper records … for 7 years, I think they advised. Then I, too, became a bit of a pack rat. Call if frustration or panic:at the 11th hour of our cross-country move, I threw all sorts of records into a big box and carried them to Office Depot to be securely shredded.
Blame it on (my) old age, but I'm too tired to keep up with paper records; most everything we have is saved online.
You probably could check Medicare and your insurance online. I’ve held onto them too long. I had a lot shredded before we left NC but still have some I didn’t have time to get through.
Take care, Sheila
We keep records for at least 7 years. Then we shred them. It mostly tax stuff since we do a lot online now. If you have a lot of stuff to shred, you can check when the big shredder will be in town. You can take box loads to them to shred for free.
Catching up
Lisa
Post a Comment