For years now I have kept all of my receipts (or I should say, all of the receipts that I didn’t lose) just in case. Really what that means is envelopes stuffed full of loosely organized paper – the general strategy was when I found a hidden pile of receipts I would put them into whatever envelope was handy and deposit that into my file pedestal. A month or so ago C2 and I were out for drinks with another couple and he was going on and on about his new scanner, this and that and the next thing. We all got a good laugh at the level of geekery that was being displayed.
Fast forward to today. After being haunted by the neat receipt displays in every airport and mall I’ve through I finally broke down and bought one to test out. Two hours later I have every receipt I’ve been able to find so far for the past four years imaged, cropped, categorized and of course the original shredded. Just the experience of eradicating a significant source of clutter in my life has been fantastic. So now of course I’ve been calling and spreading the Neat Receipt geekery to my friends.
May 8, 2008
I had a similar experience after getting a Fujitsu ScanSnap last year. I went on and on about how great it was and the wife-unit would roll her eyes, until – tada – she tried scanning a pile of paper, too. I use it for contracts, all save-worth incoming mail, etc etc. It’s not really practical for small receipts though, so maybe I should get a Neat Receipts, too.
Btw, my accountant talked me into not shredding the originals; but at least now I don’t feel bad about just putting them all into messy (more or less) yearly piles.
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