Eccentricity #1

A friend of mine inspired me to write a blog about 6 things that are a little strange about myself, and so I have decided to take that one step further and write separate posts about each eccentricity of mine. Some you may know about, some may come as a surprise to you. My first eccentricity is that I collect receipts. Grocery receipts are kept for at least a month in this little box beside my phone where all my bills etc. go and wait to be paid. Bank machine receipts are tucked in my wallet until the wallet gets too fat to close and I'm forced to clean them out. Receipts for clothing and miscellaneous often make their way to my dresser or my desk, only to be lost in the rest of my paper piles. I have some receipts that look nice (Pier 1 has really nice-looking receipts) and some receipts that I just can't figure out where they came from (usually a dollar store). I just can't get rid of receipts. I blame this on the fact that I have worked at Sears off and on for the past 12 years or so. One of their main policies is that you must keep a receipt for a return. Whether it was in the catalogue store, the call centre, or the retail store, I always had to remind the customer to "keep your receipts and there will be no problem returning the item". And so I hoard receipts. Even for things I could never return. Ricki's is the worst..."no sale is ever final" they tell me (How many times did you have to say that, Joy?). Well if no sale is ever final, that's a REALLY good excuse to keep the receipt. I have been working on overcoming this issue, this quirk, if you will. Currently I have a grocery bag full of receipts that I have been forced to sort through. But can you believe the bag has been sitting in my living room for 2 weeks now? I'm convinced I must shred all these receipts and so they will sit until I either a) remember to take them to the church to shred, or b) buy a shredder. And then I get even more confused when I wonder if I should hold onto my receipt for the shredder (it could blow up, you know), or just shred it!

Comments

kelle said…
You're not alone in this Dags! I, too, have this habit of holding onto receipts...even though I know I won't be returing the item (ie grocery receipts) LOL
Unknown said…
It must be a girl thing...Erin makes me save all of mine too. Crazy!
Renee said…
LMAO!!! You really should meet my hubby...he's a receipt collepto too...tee hee...this is a good idea to blog our quirks...I may just have to "blog lift"
Desiree said…
Ya, one day a couple of months ago I went through hubbies receipts. I was throwing out grocery receipts for weiners that he bought five years ago!! I guess the plus side, is that if I ever wanted to track what we spend I would have all the receipts!
Kelly said…
That's another reason I keep receipts. Each month I think that I will try tracking what I spend, but it never happens.
the Haazens :) said…
I just have one questions Dags...does this receipt hoarding (as you called it) save you ANY MONEY?? I at one time thought it would be a good idea to save our reciepts but when I realized it wasn't going to save us any cash I gave it up...as you know I can't stand a pile!

Oh ya and BTW, you asked about my comments on the previous posts. I hid them all...just a little housekeeping I guess. Maybe another quirk??

T.
shinbone #4 said…
hmmm at least you save them for good reasons... I save them usually without thinking about it, I just find them everywhere... I do look through them again and save the one with memories attached... but some I know I saved like that fade over time, and there is no knowing what it was from anyway. Ridiculous.
Anonymous said…
one reason to keep your receipts is if you do your purchases with credit cards, some will insure what you have bought for 90 days from being broken, stolen etc. (I wonder if that applies to groceries that have gotten eaten!) Of course anything we've ever boought that has gotten stolen (like a cell phone) or broken (like a dropped camera) have always been purchased just after the 90 day periodis up. Maybe there has been careful research done to determine the fact that itis 90 days and not let's say 100 days. How's it going Kelly?
ZimZen said…
All I have to say Dags, is one book title...one:

Overcoming Compulsive Hoarding..:)
Kelly said…
Alright, Zimmer. Is that a real book, 'cause you've kind of got me interested. And hi mag! Thanks for commenting on my blog--I'm so excited! I see that you have not yet been convinced to start your own blog..hee!
Anonymous said…
Kelly, " No sale is ever final" but here are my rules to keeping a receipt.#1 Birthday gifts you only keep them for a month after you give the gift. #2 Clothes you should only keep for six months tops, you can only return things that malfunction, not that you ware out. after six months its more likly you and not the clothes. #3 Food receipts week at the utter most. I get rid of those the same day I get the food or when am walking out the store.
It is good to be wise but also never to live over doing anything. don't eat to much, drink to much, be mad for to long.. ect.. keep receipts for years...I could go on but then I should just write my own blog. Yet if I do I might be over doing my point.
Anonymous said…
That was me but I couldn't put my name for some reason
Swoosh said…
I agree with Joy for the most part. But there's still that issue of going through the reciepts at some point. I think that I would put them in a folder based on a few different criteria: reciepts to keep for the month for statement checking, clothes, and other warranty type stuff. Alas, I would also procrastinate (and have) and never even go through them in the first place!
Anonymous said…
No, I have not been convinced to write my own blog. It seems to me to be kind of a groupie thing. I don't think most of my group (young seniors) probably have heard of the word blog, tho I did notice that Mrs. S is trying her hand at it. Congrats to her. Anyway, I have to confess that I have boxes of receipts, utility bills, visa statements, bank statements etc. It is interesting to go back 25 years (actually more but I didn't want to sound too old!) and see the ridiculous price we paid for the first ever scientific calculator, that my husband, who was a geek in high school, just had to have. Come to think of it, he is still in high school... and I also just realized that I have been sucked in to reading and commenting on these. Oh dear, what is my life coming to. Good grief, I just realized it it past my bedtime. Sleep well, all of Kelly's friends. P.S. Hi Joan (I'm sure you read these too)