K. WOODWARD PERSONAL FINANCE
  • Start
  • Bio
  • WealthBlog
    • Books
    • Random Thoughts
    • Femail
    • GirlBanker
  • MyBooks
  • MoneySpot
  • Coach

Receipt Please!

24/11/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
I dashed into a shop to buy whatever it is my dad had sent me to get. Upon my return he asked, "So where is the receipt?"

"Oh, I forgot!" I said, annoyed with myself for I so hate to disappoint my father.

"You forgot? Business people don't forget. If you forget to ask for receipts you won't make a very good business person, my girl!"

I was only seven years-old. I sat in the back of the car dejected at the prospect of my pending doom as a businesswoman.

You might be thinking I was made money-aware at too young an age but I'm glad I was. Bad habits form early and once a bad habit has been etched into your persona it is very hard to give up. When you are very young and impressionable you absorb and accept things much more easily.

Receipts are important. That's what I learnt that day.

If you start a business you'll need receipts to offset against tax but even if you are not running a business, receipts are your only barometer for how much money you are spending.

Learning the Habit of Asking for Receipts

I have a challenge for you to carry out over the next week. Get an envelope. Put it into your handbag and every time you buy something, ask for the receipt then make a note of what you bought on it. At the end of the week lay out your receipts and note down everything you bought and how much it cost you on paper or, even better, in a spreadsheet.

I can almost guarantee that a) you will be surprised by how much you spent over the course of just one week and b) you will realise that you didn't need to buy some of the things you did.

Do I always remember to ask for a receipt?

Not always but 95% of the time I do and this practice has served me well. I recently started my own business and when it was time to get my annual tax return sorted out I didn't struggle to find my receipts. They were all saved in one folder and any receipt that had been received via email was already stored in a specific folder on my computer.

Receipts received via email are ALWAYS immediately saved to a unique folder as a PDF in the format:YYYYMMDD {Amount} {Item}. This makes them supremely easy to find. So, for instance, the receipt for the artwork of my recently published book, "Chichewa 101", is saved as: 20120619 MWK9000 Chichewa 101 Artwork.

This way, when you need to summarise your receipts in a spreadsheet you won't even have to waste time opening the PDF document because it's there in the filename.

What does all this mean for your personal wealth goals?

The sooner you get used to keeping receipts the better you will get at understanding what you spend your money on and the easier life will be if you one day start your own business.

Running a business alongside your regular job is the best way to boost your income but you need to have business habits before you decide to start a business.

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery." - Charles Dickens

Picture
Click for FREE wealth creation tips by email
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Heather Katsonga-Woodward
    For 2 years until early 2014 I wrote a weekly personal finance and business column for Malawi's leading media house, The Times Group. The target is middle-class, working African women.

    This is a reproduction of the articles that appeared in the weekend edition of Malawi News.

    Categories

    All
    Business Books
    Business Ideas
    Business Mentor
    Business Partners
    Business Start-ups
    Clearing Debts
    Do It Yourself
    Emotions & Money
    Energy Saving Tips
    Finding Suppliers
    Goal Setting
    Household Help
    Impulse Shopping
    Investing
    Love & Money
    Marriage & Money
    Opportunity Cost
    Organisational Tips
    Pensions
    Planned Shopping
    Property
    Raise Rich Kids
    Saving Tips
    Stock Market
    Water Saving Tips

    Archives

    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012

Picture

Podcast Links

Wealth Blog 

  • Children
  • Financial Independence / FIRE
  • Pensions
  • Retirement
  • Saving
Buy me a coffeeBuy me a coffee
Picture

© 2007 - 2021, The Money Spot™ ~ Make Money, Change Lives!
Heather Katsonga-Woodward, a massive personal finance fanatic.
** All views expressed are my own and not those of my employer ** Please get professional advice before re-arranging your personal finances.
  • Start
  • Bio
  • WealthBlog
    • Books
    • Random Thoughts
    • Femail
    • GirlBanker
  • MyBooks
  • MoneySpot
  • Coach