Thrifty Thursday - Tax Time Made Easy

So you can't save money on itemized deductions if you can't find the receipts. If you're like me, you get swallowed up in piles of paper way too easily. A few years ago I figured out something that works great for our family.

We had an extra card box (you know the kinds they sell every so often at places like Hallmark to organize birthday cards, thank you cards, Christmas cards, etc.). We divided it into the main tax-deductible categories like medical, childcare, work-related expenses.

Throughout the year as we got receipts related to each category, we put them in their respective areas. Then when we sit down to do taxes, we pull out the box and sort through each set of receipts, add them up and staple them together to go in our tax folder for the year.

It has made doing taxes a lot simpler and I know we both have appreciated not trying to track down the receipts at the end of March. Consequently, because finding the receipts is not such a big chore, we are set to claim all possible deductions at the end of the year, which is very nice and puts more money in our pockets.

Happy tax time:)