Receipt Rebel

“WHAT IS THIS FOR?” Ever had that question in your house when someone didn’t provide the receipts for their purchases?

One of the things we’ve noticed in our house that causes frustration and tension when it comes to managing the financial details is the receipt rebellion. One spouse is tracking spending and comes across transactions that there are no receipts for, so they don’t know what category to assign.

We use Quicken. For our finances it is the best solution. We electronically import our transactions directly from all our banks, check that they are categorized correctly, and save them so that we can track how much is spent in every category. The software does a lot more than that but tracking spending is it’s main function for us.

It is easy to categorize transactions from the gas station and usually the grocery store or pharmacy, etc. But what about places like Wal-Mart? A transaction at Wal-Mart could be for several different categories. If there’s no receipt we’re wondering, “WHAT IS THIS FOR? WHERE IS THE RECEIPT?”

The solution – have a central place for receipts to be dropped, or at least keep them in our wallet or purse so that when transactions are recorded we both know where to find them.

What do you do to prevent the receipt rebel from causing a mess at your house?

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