How to keep track of all your expenses and save the matching receipts?

[Anonymous]

Must say you need to do this for your miscellaneous expenses like entertainment, books,v etc. How would you organize all the receipts? Would you use a binder? (That's what I am thinking of doing). Or is there some other way that would work? And how do you keep the receipts from fading over time? This may sound crazy, but we may need to do this for my son's special needs bank account, although I am still not sure what we need to keep track of since he does not have the account yet. I think we need to keep the records for at least a year too. I am guessing it will be about 5 receipts a month that we need to keep.

[Anonymous]

For work, I take a picture of the receipt with my phone or scan them. There are apps you can use to record the date and reason with the pic. Pay for everything with a credit card you use for only that purpose (like I only use my corporate card for work expenses).

There are also apps you can use for mileage if needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Must say you need to do this for your miscellaneous expenses like entertainment, books,v etc. How would you organize all the receipts? Would you use a binder? (That's what I am thinking of doing). Or is there some other way that would work? And how do you keep the receipts from fading over time? This may sound crazy, but we may need to do this for my son's special needs bank account, although I am still not sure what we need to keep track of since he does not have the account yet. I think we need to keep the records for at least a year too. I am guessing it will be about 5 receipts a month that we need to keep.

Huh? Can you explain?

I'm not understanding why you need to hoard receipts especially miscellaneous ones. I could understanding keeping receipts for medications, doc visits, etc for HSA, but that's not what you are asking about.

[Anonymous]

Why? what's your son's special bank account?

I track via looking at my credit card statement online.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Huh? Can you explain?

I'm not understanding why you need to hoard receipts especially miscellaneous ones. I could understanding keeping receipts for medications, doc visits, etc for HSA, but that's not what you are asking about.

Op here

It's an ABLE account. The website for my state says:

No explanation is needed to withdraw money from your Attainable account. However, the IRS may ask you to verify that the money was used for a qualified expense, so you should keep records detailing how you’re spending that money.

I think this means to save all the receipts for purchases. We are really new to all this stuff, but want to do everything right. I like the idea of photographing the receipts. That seams fairly easy. My idea was a big binder with everything in it, kind of like a scrapbook of receipts and notes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Huh? Can you explain?

I'm not understanding why you need to hoard receipts especially miscellaneous ones. I could understanding keeping receipts for medications, doc visits, etc for HSA, but that's not what you are asking about.

Op here

It's an ABLE account. The website for my state says:

No explanation is needed to withdraw money from your Attainable account. However, the IRS may ask you to verify that the money was used for a qualified expense, so you should keep records detailing how you’re spending that money.

I think this means to save all the receipts for purchases. We are really new to all this stuff, but want to do everything right. I like the idea of photographing the receipts. That seams fairly easy. My idea was a big binder with everything in it, kind of like a scrapbook of receipts and notes.

You should've said ABLE to begin with. That makes more sense.

And it's to my understanding you can withdraw money out of this particular type of account that are truly a direct benefit to the disabled such as assistant technology, education tuition, job training, etc. - NOT miscellaneous things like entertainment, books, and whatever else you listed in your original post.

[Anonymous]

I don't organize, but I keep by year for audit purposes. One year - one poly string envelope letter size. I can go through if needed (only needed once in 20 years). They are in a fire proof safe. The real tracking is done electronically (I download the check images into a folder, again by year as receipts).

[Anonymous]

Mint is pretty cool. You can organize any purchase into categories. Example, if you primarily buy food from costco, you can label costco as groceries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Must say you need to do this for your miscellaneous expenses like entertainment, books,v etc. How would you organize all the receipts? Would you use a binder? (That's what I am thinking of doing). Or is there some other way that would work? And how do you keep the receipts from fading over time? This may sound crazy, but we may need to do this for my son's special needs bank account, although I am still not sure what we need to keep track of since he does not have the account yet. I think we need to keep the records for at least a year too. I am guessing it will be about 5 receipts a month that we need to keep.

Huh? Can you explain?

I'm not understanding why you need to hoard receipts especially miscellaneous ones. I could understanding keeping receipts for medications, doc visits, etc for HSA, but that's not what you are asking about.

I am the guardian for a family member. I am required to keep a receipt for every penny I spend. I then have to mail these original receipts and all bank monthly reports and an accounting for review every year.

I keep every receipt in a folder in a file cabinet. The requirements for guardian accounts in VA are archaic (ie can't use bill pay) so its old school filing system and copier and spreadsheet.