bills/paperwork organisation and storage

kimplus8

hi everyone,
i searched for this type of thread and it didnt come up so I hope this isnt repeating another thread.
I need serious help organising my bills/documents.
I have all of my important things like birth certs, driving licence, certificates etc in one folder and a huge pile of everything else. I have kind of sorted it into, utilities/ tax credits/ car bills etc but i have stuff dating back to 2004!!!
I guess my questions are.
how far back do i need to keep paid bills for future reference if needed?
How far back do i need to keep bank statements?
how do you guys order and organise your bills etc?
How do you remind yourself of renewal dates such as tax/ insurance/yearly subscriptions??
thanks so much in advance for your advice. kim xx

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Small filing cabinet from IKEA, £20.

One drawer Money (bank, work/benefits, etc)
One drawer Utilities/Bills
One drawer 'things' (warranties, instruction booklets, etc)
One drawer 'personal' (passport, health, birth certificates, current ID docs)
One drawer 'Miscellaneous' (everything I can't categorise as anything else)

Adding a handwritten sheet of A4 with the renewal dates/payment/important dates for everything in that drawer on the top.

kimplus8

this is brilliant. i cant afford the ikea thingy as we live no where near an ikea so ill have to pay delivery but i am going to use the categories that you have used for each of your drawers. thanks

flissh

I've always (well since I got organised) kept mine in paper wallets. One for water, one for bank statements etc. these all sit in a big drawer in a desk. When stuff comes o/h opens them and sticks them in a pile till dealt with then they get filed in respective envelopes. All my wage slips Ive always hole punched and filed in a folder.
Im not sure how far back you have to keep things but we have a clear out for most things about once a year. This system seems to work for us and it makes it easier to find things.

:rotfl: ETA, makes us sound a bit traditional that o/h opens the bills but I absolutely hate it opening all mail I'd rather hide it under a carpet!

LameWolf

I keep most things for seven years. Everything I can have digitally, I do - filed on the computer with a back up on a flash drive.
Everything else is in plastic wallets which are themselves kept in lever-arch files scrounged from where Mr LW used to work (they were throwing them out and said if he wanted them, to help himself). I have one lever-arch file for Utilities, another for Receipts (in case something needs to be returned), another for Bank paperwork, and so on (as one can't have everything digitally).
Mr LW's motoring documents have a box file all of their own which I refuse to touch. Hell, I don't even drive the car if I can help it!

kimplus8

kimplus8 wrote: »

this is brilliant. i cant afford the ikea thingy as we live no where near an ikea so ill have to pay delivery but i am going to use the categories that you have used for each of your drawers. thanks

I have a wad of plastic wallets, and 2 files so im gonna roll with that.
Have u found only keeping things for a year has ever been a problem if something arrises later down the line? like if a bill come up from an old house etc and you have to show that you have already paid it??

kimplus8

LameWolf wrote: »

I keep most things for seven years. Everything I can have digitally, I do - filed on the computer with a back up on a flash drive.
Everything else is in plastic wallets which are themselves kept in lever-arch files scrounged from where Mr LW used to work (they were throwing them out and said if he wanted them, to help himself). I have one lever-arch file for Utilities, another for Receipts (in case something needs to be returned), another for Bank paperwork, and so on (as one can't have everything digitally).
Mr LW's motoring documents have a box file all of their own which I refuse to touch. Hell, I don't even drive the car if I can help it!

what is a flash drive??? id it one of those usb sticks that you can save stuff on, as i have a bunch of them from uni.
also why do you keep things for 7 years? Is that just a number that you have decided on or is it because of a particular security/papertrail reason? i only ask because i have no idea how long i should NEED in financial terms, to keep past documents/paid bills.
thanks so much for your responses guys :T

monnagran

I've always kept things for 7 years as this was the length of time we had to keep stuff for the Inland Revenue when I ran my own business.

I'm also a fan of plastic wallets. Very handy to e able to pick up a wallet and have everything you need in one place.

LameWolf

kimplus8 wrote: »

what is a flash drive??? id it one of those usb sticks that you can save stuff on, as i have a bunch of them from uni.
also why do you keep things for 7 years? Is that just a number that you have decided on or is it because of a particular security/papertrail reason? i only ask because i have no idea how long i should NEED in financial terms, to keep past documents/paid bills.
thanks so much for your responses guys :T

Yes, that's a flash drive. I have back-ups of absolutely everything that's on the pc, the laptop and the netbook; I've seen too many friends lose vital documents they had stored digitally because they forgot to back them up.

I've always kept stuff for seven years because Mr LW used to run his own business, and as such he needed to keep his records for that long. I guess it's just a habit that's stuck.
I'm not really certain how long you *need* to keep stuff for purely domestic use, tbh.
*Throws question open to rest of thread contributors*.

Gers

I've always been told six years (for companies) and much less for individuals (HMRC).

I scan everything which comes through the door now and dispose of the original. Saved to laptop and regular backups taken and kept elsewhere. Obviously documents like birth certificates etc are not disposed of but I do have digital copies.

My DM recently gave me a huge bag of phone, gas and electricity bills she's kept from 1966. I had a great bonfire and know that there's more to come.

Owain_Moneysaver

I punch things and file them in stacks with treasury tags.

I recently had to prove where I was living 15 years ago, so my stock of bank statements going back approx 15 years came in useful!