Thought Provoking Thursday

Thought Provoking Thursday's goal it to offer a new-ish perspective to saving on necessary items aside from our grocery and household needs. Each week I will bring an idea to the table to share how I personally tackle areas of my own family's spending. I am hopeful that my faithful readers will feel the freedom to offer more advice through comments below each post.

I have a LOVE/HATE relationship with snail mail.

I LOVE getting magazines, *coupons,* birthday cards, invitations and even an occasional 'just because' card in the mail! I'd call this 'GOOD MAIL!'

But... I HATE getting thick envelopes/packet with seemingly useless information that needs to be kept for the sake of taxes! I'd call this 'BAD MAIL!'

I've been trying to reinvent my long lost organizational skills (I believe that I tucked it into my placenta just before I gave birth... oops!). I desire to be up to date, but actually getting paperwork filed away and bills into the mail on time... well, that's another story!

I recently found an organizational site, Discover Organization, and I have since overhauled my paper piles!!!

Discover Organization challenged me to file my necessary evil paperwork into a sectioned 3 ring binder--- get this--- instead of a traditional filing drawer.

So I tried it, and I'm HOOKED! I LOVE it! I have several sections for our most common paper trail contenders; bank info, health care, and school loans just to name a few.

Since most of our bills are paid automatically, we have very few bills to actually pay via snail mail! But for the few that we do, I have decided to paper clip the flap of payment envelopes around the right hand edge of the paperwork that it applies to, allowing me to have my envelope ready to pay the bill- avoiding late fee's if applicable!

Now, as we get ready to collect our 2009 tax info for our accountant, we can easily hand over a binder (no losing/spilling papers) of our paperwork. (He's going to love me!!!)

Next year, my plan is to section our paperwork into smaller 1 inch binders, so I will have a single category per binder!

I love this new paper trail organizing trick... I'm saving time, money and my sanity!