how to easily get rid of bills

Brie

p00hsticks said:

Brie said:

Thanks all for the suggestions - I shall try to remember them in another 2 years when I do this again.

Any reason why you are reluctant to switch to paperless billing to avoid having to do it all again in a couple of years ?

You obviously have acess to the internet so why not switch to paperless billing, downlaod the bills and store them on a thumb drive for backup...

Because I am finding I am needing to supply copies of things and people (aka government agencies) won't accept pdfs by email - they want a paper copy.  And I don't have printer access anymore so that limits my options.  I've actually not had a printer for a number of years but worked for a very large company where I could print things whenever I wanted.  

And some of the bills don't have a paperless option.  

Also due to vision issues particularly with tiny print something on paper is much easier for me to read.  Particularly things that involve several pages of T&Cs etc.  

Ben1989

I don't know if this has been mentioned but I have a charcoal starter (essentially a metal bucket to light charcoal in) which is PERFECT for bills. I collect them and every two weeks I just put them in the bucket and set them alight on a Saturday morning before people have windows open and washing out.

If you have a charcoal BBQ I highly recommend one.

jimpwarsop

Keep all this paper, you might need stuff to burn later in the winter.

getmore4less

Brie said:

RobM99 said:

Scissors. Just snip up the important bits. What's wrong with a shredder anyway? Niot a lot of £££ to be secure.

Shredders appear to start at £25 and go up from there.  Not money I want to spend for something I then have to store somewhere for a couple of years until I need it again.  Add to that I'm trying to cut electricity use not add to it.

My last one lasted more years than I can remember some Tesco cheapy.
Still works but getting blunt and the auto feed plays up, getting pumped to shred Amazon packing for the compost heap.

Most paperwork like statements can be composed as they went to non toxic inks 
Best if shredded but will still work unshreded helps with the mix if composting kitchen waste.

-------------

Recent replacement sits next to the waste bin in the study/computer/filing room
Does not take up a lot of floor space.

Argos pro action 6 sheet micro. £20.

Gets used regularly for day to day stuff not being kept. 

More often when a batches of paperwork gets archived to digital.

The 25years of monthly mortgage statements is on the list(3-4 sheets per month) to get done this year.

greensalad

I'd rather buy a printer than buy a shredder, and then go paperless. When you need to you can print, vs having to shred mountains of paperwork. Or go to the library on the rare occasion you need to print something.

p00hsticks

Brie said:

p00hsticks said:

Brie said:

Thanks all for the suggestions - I shall try to remember them in another 2 years when I do this again.

Any reason why you are reluctant to switch to paperless billing to avoid having to do it all again in a couple of years ?

You obviously have acess to the internet so why not switch to paperless billing, downlaod the bills and store them on a thumb drive for backup...

Because I am finding I am needing to supply copies of things and people (aka government agencies) won't accept pdfs by email - they want a paper copy.  And I don't have printer access anymore so that limits my options.  I've actually not had a printer for a number of years but worked for a very large company where I could print things whenever I wanted.  

And some of the bills don't have a paperless option.  

Also due to vision issues particularly with tiny print something on paper is much easier for me to read.  Particularly things that involve several pages of T&Cs etc.  

Well, obviously it's your choice and you know what is best for you, but I would have thought that if you have problems reading small print the ability to zoom in on a pdf document would make things much easier to read than a printed copy. 

I'm interested to know which organisations are still requesting paper copies of things, as in my recent experience (e.g with conveyancers and my local council) in general they wanted any paper documents scanned and uploaded electronically rather than posted to them. And if you go paperless then banks and utilty companies all give you an option of requesting a paper statement to be sent to you if and when you need it.

So unless you circumstances mean that you have to be in continual discussion with organisations that keep asking for paper documents, I'd still suggest that going paperless would be less hassle for you than having to securely dispose of large quatities of aper every few years without a shredder.

Bigphil1474

We have a shredder we haven't used for a couple of years. We used to shred our bills every few months, but we are almost completely paperless now apart from my OH's credit card bill. For that, we just separate the account details from the spend info - one bit goes in recycling, the other gets torn up into little bits and put in the general waste bin. Haven't had any requests for copies of utility bills, and as suggested above, if you need to print you can use the local library.

Unless you are very unlucky and have a low life going through your bins, once the recycling has been collected, the risks are pretty low. Just tear through your name and address, and any account numbers.

Bendy_House

Mojisola said:

Bendy_House said:

Take the lumps outside, stand on them, and chuck them straight in the paper recycling.

I'm not sure the recyclers will be happy with the result.  Ours can't take shredded paper because the short fibres reduce the quality of the end product and papier mache might have the same problem - check first locally.

On the rare occasion I've done this, I just chuck it in with the rest of the paper recycling in the provided green plastic bag, and nothing has been said. At the same time, they are happy to pick out any plastics from the recycling bin that they believe don't conform....

I think the last time I did this, I left the mashy ball outside to dry, so it was effectively just a solid lump of paper :-)

kdotdotdotdot

When I had bunches of statements (because I was travelling and only periodically back home), my NatWest were perfectly happy to take back all the statements they'd posted me for safe disposal.  They were also kind enough to take statements from another bank as well.  Not sure if that's bank policy, but the folks working there were ever so nice.

That was before I switched to paperless.

oaksandacorns

Check on eBay/Facebook marketplace etc for a shredder, electric or manual crank handle, I bought one for 99p second hand that works great, or ask on Freecycle/similar. Before I found one I would sit for ages scribbling out the sensitive information then snipping it with scissors.