In Garber, for the longest time I had a paper sack by my nightstand that I would put the bills in after I paid them. The plastic zip lock bags made the move from Perry, but I had not taken the time to put each bill in their appropriate bag. Well, one night we got pulled over at a check point in Hennessey and I did not have my updated insurance with me. The officers got a pretty good chuckle as I continued to pull expired insurance after expired insurance form out of my car for a good 15 minutes. I then remembered PAYING the insurance but never putting it in my car (this story has a point I promise). The officers did let us go with no ticket. Well that I night I had to find that insurance and went to my paper sack beside my bed stand that would explode if I were to put one more piece of mail in it... and that was the mess I had to find my insurance in. Ryan decided it was time for me to get organized again. That was over 6 months ago.
During that time he convinced me to shred old bills from past apartments and houses that I no longer had any type of service with. I don't know why, but that was hard for me to do. For some reason, even though I closed the accounts in good standing, I thought I might need them one day. I did it though... and got everything organized and in its place. I haven't done such a good job since then.
Since then, I have not been leaving our mail in the bedroom. Paid bills have been going in a bowl on the table, and when it gets full they are moved to the guest bedroom closet. Well it has happened again. I received an unusually high (okay ridiculously high utility bill) and had to find all my past pay stubs so I could go talk to the people and see what was going on. If I had been putting everything away in its proper place this would have been easy BUT.... See below:
This was the mess I sorted out last night. Everything from bills, cards, magazines, etc. Don't let the pile size fool you! It is deceiving... the pile was never ending. So this is how the process works. Everything gets sorted into its appropriate pile. Below:
After everything is sorted (and no this is not all the piles) they go into their appropriate sack. I keep saying that I don't have room for a filing cabinet, but I seem to make room for all of this???
It gets even worse. Everything these days (well almost) can be paid online. You can receive paperless statements in your e-mail and save the environment, or use debit cards instead of checks. I refuse to own a debit card and finally gave in and got an ATM card even though I still don't like it. I don't know if it just feels foreign to me or what, but I like to actually write the check. That way I know a certain amount of money is going towards this payment and I will have a record of it. I will pay my bills online... not automatic withdrawal if I can help it. I think it is a control issue. I want to make sure everything is correct and in its place before I submit my payment. I still receive the paper statement. Got to have that record!! I know many of these statements can be found online when you log into your account, and I do that too, but for some reason I can't let it go.
So there you have it. One of my many quirks.
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