Jump Start January: Week 1 Day 4

Time for a little bit of spring cleaning before we properly get on to the decluttering in a few days. Today is financial filing day – work fast and it should only take a few minutes. Not scary at all.

Jump Start January 2015 Week 1 Day 4

Whether your statements are paper ones or given to you online, many of us are guilty of being disorganised with them. The last couple of months that’s included me too, and it’s time to get it together and get it properly filed and sorted.

Today, sort out the paperwork for your main financial dealings (i.e. the paper trail, real or digital, of your spending).

For example, that will probably include:

  • Bank or building society current account
  • Credit card accounts
  • Possibly other accounts such as PayPal

No need to include the utility bills or insurance documents in that, because those usually come out of your current account anyway. That’s a different mess we can sort out another time, so let’s keep it manageable today…

Work fast. For paper statements, open envelopes if necessary and get the papers into date order in a folder or filing cabinet.

For virtual records, request for the data to be mailed to you. Then keep it somewhere safe and organised where you can find and check it easily.

No need to study the contents of any statements today, just get them filed and tidy. Don’t start going through them and getting sidetracked. That keeps the task undaunting and easy to complete.

If you’re already up to date on filing paper or virtual statements for your current account and any credit cards, well done! Put five or 10 minutes aside today to do some shredding and/or recycling.

How much do you need to sort through today? I have to check PayPal and generally have a tidy up.

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3 Comments

  1. mine is in piles ready to be filed,so going to do it now!
    Anyone else keeping a spending diary?
    I’m finding it very scary!!!
    My change pot is now divided for various projects…I’m going to decide how much of our credit card to pay off and do it now!
    Thank you for organising and giving me focus Penny!
    Hope everyone is getting on well x

  2. Hi Nikki – good luck with the filing. If it’s already in piles it should take very little time, but there’s a nice feeling of satisfaction when it’s all organised and put away 🙂

    I’m keeping a spending diary too, so far I’ve only spent £1 on milk because we’re still living off leftovers and have been entertaining at home and using freebies. It can be a little scary, but give it a few more days and you will probably start finding it useful too. We’ll be reviewing it as part of the Fine Tuning section at the end of this month.

    Well done for tackling the credit card!

  3. yay!!
    All bank statements and credit card statements filed away!
    A quarter of credit card payed off!
    Spending diary ongoing…would be feeling smug but have to admit,have not prepared at all for returning to work!!not to worry I’ll just go in early tomorrow!

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