How to make returns easy

The best way to make returns easy is to not have them in the first place. Don't ever buy anything just because it's on sale (you probably won't be able to return it, anyway), without knowing where it will live in your home, or if you don't need it or love it.

However, sometimes returns are unavoidable, and a lot of the time people lose their money, their space and their mental energy on returns that never get made. Here's how to make them happen.

Keep your receipts in one central location.  Once you have decided to return an item, locate the receipt for it and place the receipt and the item in a (reusable) bag. Place the bag in the area of your home where you keep items that are leaving (library books, mail, etc.). The next time you will be in the vicinity of the store in question, grab the bag, place it your car (or take it with you if you use public transportation), and enter a reminder in your to-do list or calendar to make the return. (Using Apple's Reminders app on your iOS5 iPhone, you can even program the address in and when you arrive, you'll get pinged.) If the return is to a store you are rarely near, take note of the window you have for returns (usually found on the front or back of the receipt) and schedule a time to get there before the window is up. It's not a bad idea to mark in your calendar the last day to return the item anyway, as time can get away from us.

More tips:

• Take note of the payment method and make sure you have the card you used to make the purchase on you when you go to return, or you may have to take store credit.
• Try to pair the return with another errands at the same store or in the area so you don't have to make a special trip.
• Avoid making returns without a receipt. The process will take longer at the store, you may not get the full value of the return,and you will probably only get store credit.
• If you do accept store credit instead of cash or charge back on your card, try to use it right then so you don't have to make an extra trip to get your money's worth.

Do you have any other tips for making returns easy?

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by John Bell

Get organized, save money

Getting organized really can save you money. I've decluttered many things in my own home as well as in client's homes that other people in the household were just about to go spend money on because they needed the item. No need, I'd declare, depositing the item into the hands of the person in need. Money, time and effort saved all in one go.

Do you want to save money by getting organized?

Call Lelah at 818.269.6671

or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

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Gift card bonanza

It's been six months since Christmas, but I bet more than a few of you out there have at least one gift card that you got as a present still sitting in your wallet, or in your desk drawer, or maybe in that bowl of junk by the phone. Gift cards, unlike cash, seem to be more easily lost and forgotten about. I've come across hundreds, maybe even thousands of dollars in gift cards over the years with my clients that they've forgotten about, which is a shame, because it can be really fun to buy something for yourself without actually spending money.

Well, if you have trouble keeping track of your gift cards, the easiest way to alleviate that is to the spend them.

If you have quite a few saved up, set aside a weekend day in the next month and make it the goal of the day to use up each and every gift card in that single day. If you don't live near the store in question, see if they have an online store.

Don't be afraid to use up your gift cards! You will enjoy the product or service so much more than having to keep track of the card and keep reminding yourself to use it.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by Kerry Woo

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com. Sign up for Lelah's News, a once-monthly newsletter.

Financial organization: credit reports

I’m a fan of Suze Orman. I think she gives smart financial advice that sticks to the basics and to common sense. She’s always insisting that you know your credit score and you check your credit reports. Being organized financially means you are aware of your financial situation. Even if you feel you have a clear picture of your finances, keeping tabs on your credit report is a simple and smart thing to do.

A credit report isn’t a credit score. A credit score costs money to obtain and gives you a number that credit agencies use when determining your borrowing rate. You can get a credit report once a year for free from each of the three credit agencies. It basically shows you what lines of credit you have open and in what standing they are. To obtain the report nearly instantaneously online, you provide your social security number, address and must answer a few multiple choice questions about your financial history. Once you have it, it is short work to make sure that all of the items reported were in fact opened by you and you know what they all are. Sometime there are errors, and that is where it really pays to do this. You can fix the errors, but it takes time. If you are trying to get a credit card or a loan, those errors my harm the rate you will be able to get, so don’t wait until the last minute.

Here's more information on credit reports from Suze Orman.

 

Reminder, I am not in any way a professional financial planner or advice-giver!

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Clutter-free gifts: Financial and charitable

We've made it to the final category in the clutter-free gifts series. Money has not always been considered an appropriate gift at the holidays, but money can buy lots of useful things. Charitable giving, however, has been associated with the holidays as we use it as a time to help people in need. If you want to give a gift of money to your friend or relative, but don't necessarily want to hand them an envelope of cash, here are some ideas. If you want the money to go to a good cause, you can find ways to make that reflect on both you, the giver, as well as the person in whose honor will be making the donation.

• Contribute to an established savings account/college fund/CD for a child.
• Buy blue chip stocks for a child under a custodial account. You can buy a few at each holiday and birthday, and their pool will add up over time. They may not appreciate it until they are older, but you could use the gift as a teaching tool about investments.
• Buy a gift card that works like cash, such as American Express. 
• Charitable donation in name of receiver for a charity they are interested in—just ask where they'd like the money to go, rather than guessing!
• Allow the receiver to choose the charities of their choice by giving a Good Card. It's like a gift card for donations. (Via Jeri Dansky)
• Volunteer your time at a favorite charitable organization of the receiver, such as a retirement home, homeless shelter or food bank.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by Photos8.com
Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com 

Paperless billing and living simpler

Over the last few years, I have slowly switched from traditional paper bills to paperless billing, where instead of getting a piece of mail that you have to open, read, store until you are ready to pay the bill, then file instead you get an email that you have to open, log in to read, and then either go back and pay at a later date or sign up for automatic bill pay (which is extremely convenient). Aside from saving paper, as well as a money for both the service provider and you in the form of stamps, the biggest reason to choose paperless billing is to never have the dilemma of what to do with the bill after you have paid it. Most bills you will never refer to again, and knowing that you can access them online if necessary is, for most people, enough to ensure peace of mind. For those people who feel like they need more control than that, or who track their expenses far more minutely than most, you can always save electronic copies downloaded from your service provider's web site in a folder on your computer (and back it up with the rest of your files regularly).

I just signed up for paperless billing from my electric company, and in the email from them thanking me for doing so, they actually touted "helping you live simpler" as a main reason for choosing paperless billing. I never thought that huge companies would be interested in helping their customers live simpler, but in this case what benefits them benefits us as well.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by G & A Sattler

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com