Round up receipts
Dedicate a box near your front door as the spot where you stash your everyday receipts from the grocery store, fuel fill-ups, clothing purchases and more. Then, if you need to return something, say that pair of shoes you wore once before the trim started fraying or the bread that went mouldy after one day, you’ll be able to easily locate the receipt for a full refund. On a weekly basis, separate out the ones you’ll need for your taxes or expense reports in labelled envelopes inside the box. Estimates show about 50 percent of employees never turn in receipts for reimbursements for personal money spent on business expenses.
Rearrange the refrigerator
You won’t eat the food you can’t readily see – and worldwide an astonishing 30% of food that gets produced is not eaten, the retail equivalent of $1 trillion every year. Organising your fridge smartly is key. Keep the food that will spoil first or that lunch you want to remember to bring to the office tomorrow at eye level. Store leftovers and snacks, like pasta salad or cut up fruits and veggies, in clear containers so they’re easy to spot.
Purge the pantry
Have dinner at home more and you could save $3,000+ a year, reports the Bureau of Labour Statistics; that’s the amount the average household spends annually on eating out and ordering in. An organised pantry is the first step toward making cooking at home a whole lot easier. First, toss out the old cans of soup that have been sitting there forever and donate the will-not-use items – this will not only make more space for your favourites, it saves you the time and effort of hunting around. Next, group like foods together so you can quickly scan your available ingredients and be able to whip up a meal – and some savings – in minutes.