How long do you keep bills?

i said i might be audited one day
she said WHY? BY WHO?
i said er er er

i shd check how far my bank statements go back -- my guess is 1983 also, the year i moved to london

I would keep everything else for at least a year. Medical and mortgage reciepts for tax deductions. Utility receipts should be kept so you can show a potential future homebuyer what kind of bills you pay. It also helps in budgeting if you have those numbers available.

I wouldn't worry about gas receipts so much, but I would keep repair and oil change receipts in case you want to sell your car. A portfolio with all that stuff inside it could impress a buyer, even if they don't look at it all.

Keep all your government stuff, of course. And your insurance papers.

I never know what to do with my check stubs from work. I'll find stubs from 1998 and think, I'm so glad I make more than seven dollars an hour now, but really. There's no practical use to keep them, is there?

Note: Any other "important" pieces of mail (including information on my IRA and life insurance) NEVER gets thrown away. And I keep all my old IRS filings. Just in case with both.

my eye just fell on my big box o'all the large padded envelopes i have received in my lifetime -- i keep them bcz every now and then i need a large padded envelope, and it might as well be reused BUT the box is huge and packed and i use like maybe one every three months currently

maybe once i start selling mny stuff on ebay these envelopes will come in handy

how much will my complete gas bills for 1983-93 fetch on ebay?

i am an idiot

I keep each bill, separated and categorized by type, in file folders and filed away in my own little file cabinet. I throw away the envelopes and unfold each bill, then stuff into a folder until one more bill would overstuff it, then label the folder according to a date span. I've learned to do this because my mom's done this for as long as I remember. The income tax filings are super-easy to stick into the file cabinet as they already come in a neat little folder (thanks, H&R Block!). The pay stubs I keep in storage bags and stuffed in back, labeled according to job and year. Again, this is what I've learned via observing my mother.