A photograph of a glass jar full of coins and some piles of coins with plants growing out of them

Episode 17 – Save money with organised paperwork

We come across so many people who have fallen out of love with their home and are on the verge of moving or taking drastic action. But sometimes it’s not the home itself, it’s the clutter that resides there. In this podcast we are going to talk about what you can do to fall back in love with your home again.

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Transcript of this podcast episode

Intro  0:07  
Welcome to today's episode of The Declutter Hub Podcast, your channel for super easy, no nonsense advice on how to declutter and organise your home. Please welcome your host, professional organisers, Ingrid Jansen, and Lesley Spellman.

Ingrid  0:30  
Hello and welcome listeners to Episode 17 of the Declutter Hub Podcast. I'm Ingrid. 

Lesley  0:35  
And I'm Lesley

Ingrid  0:37  
If you have clutter and want to sort it out, this is the show for you. In today's episode, Lesley and I are talking about how you can save money when your paperwork is organised. Now we realise that decluttering and organising your paperwork is a massive job. But one of the great benefits is that you can start saving yourself a heap of money. So in today's episode, we will be discussing some of the things you can look into and get more organised with your money. Now, I love saving money easily. So I'm really happy we're talking about this.

Lesley  1:11  
I think it's really important, isn't it? It's like, it's almost that final step in decluttering, your paperwork, where you kind of go through you declutter, you organise, you categorise. And then you also write an action list of things that can be tackled, and you see that, you know, sometimes you see in this paperwork for the first time for a long time, and you can see, oh, I can't believe I need to double check that I need to check that I'm not still paying for something that I shouldn't be paying for, or something like that. And I think that's what today's episode is all about, isn't it, it's about reminding ourselves of some of the areas that we just let slip over time, we just forget about it. And then all of a sudden, the little two pounds here and five pounds there might mount up to quite significant amounts of money. And it's about not in that not letting that slip by. Yeah. And and being in control of your finances.

Ingrid  1:57  
Absolutely true. I mean, I always when I do a decluttering of paperwork, I say to my clients, or when I do it myself, I have a notebook ready, and a pen, and I make notes myself, check that amount has that come out of the bank, I need to follow up on that. Look at my pension paperwork or anything, you know, all those little things that are niggling in your head somewhere or that you think I lost track of that, then this is the time to write it down. Because you can actually really save yourself a lot of money. So I think the first thing to do is though, to start with basics, and to start with checking your bank statement and your credit card statements. What kind of money is coming in? And where is it going to? And does it all make sense? I mean, I'm not talking about whole financial systems in Excel sheets, and but just having a look on a regular basis. Or if you're a little bit behind, sit down now when you've got it organise your paperwork, and go right, where have I spent my money on in these last couple of months or year? Or whatever it is? Does it all make sense?

Lesley  3:06  
I think I'm you know, I'm in the habit of going into my banking app regularly just because obviously, I'm getting paid by clients. And so I go into double check who, who's paid me and things like that. So I do probably go into my banking every my banking app every day. But and that's really helpful, because it just Oh, yeah, I paid for that. Yeah, that looks make sense. So it doesn't have to be this big chore once a month, or once every two months to try and remember what you spent two months ago. Yeah. So I think that's really important to sort of do it on an on an ad hoc basis, and maybe get that into routines to check on a regular basis. Yeah, you know, how much is going in and out, you know, if you're not spending, if you've only got five or six transactions a week, then you don't need to be going into it every day. But if you're spending more, or there's a lot of movement within that, it's just good to keep a check. I think the fraud teams are very good at picking things up that are fraudulent at the moment. But you know, the amount of fraud that I've heard about happening at the moment, it's quite scary, really. And we need to be the ones that are picking that up. Really?

Ingrid  4:04  
Yeah. Well, I mean, just last week, my lovely friend got hacked. And interestingly enough, it wasn't like a big amount. But it was to pound here, three pan there five pan, they're all from the same Strange Company. And just because she was really looking into her money also, because she checks her money regularly. She picked up on it really quickly. And she could walk her accounts and call the bank and they were really good. But don't, I think that's the first basis is already to be ahead of that and kind of pick up on those things before you've even really delved into your paperwork. It's just kind of, does it all make sense? What's coming out and coming in?

Lesley  4:46  
Yeah, absolutely. So I think it is, it is getting getting that into your routine and making it become a habit. And that takes a little while to go through really. I mean, you know, so that's banking. And while we're talking about banking, one of the things that I'm have certainly and I know a lot of people have is a kind of bank account that you pay some money for each month, that's kind of a, I don't want to, I don't really know what it's called, but you pay some money each month. And for that, you get some kind of banking benefits. So many people have got that, but the amount of people I come across, who are not utilising the benefits of that, you know, you might be paying, I don't know, 1520, sometimes 30 pounds a month for banking comes with fantastic benefits for you. But people have been doubling up. And so it was my bank, and I get mobile phone insurance, I got car breakdown insurance, I got travel insurance. And these are all things that can save an awful lot of money, but you have to be really on it, I think, to know what the benefits are, I mean, mine's quite nice, I get things like that. So it's easy to forget about all those benefits. So you have to constantly sort of remind yourself of what's available and make sure that you're looking at the letters that comes through when there are changes and things. So have a look because some people are just not aware that they've got these benefits with their banking or kind of thing car that doesn't, you know, that's not me and, and forget it. So, you know, when I categorise within paperwork, filing cabinets or filing, I'll always keep that membership booklet that that details every single benefit that you have, so that you can look and keep a track a bit.

Ingrid  6:13  
Yeah, excellent point. I mean, my husband lost his mobile phone over the summer. It's a long story, I won't bore you with it. But um, he lost his mobile phone. And he actually, we realised that we also have repaid data from banking. And we had a mobile phone insurance, and he could actually hand in his invoice was mobile phone, and he got the money back. So we were absolutely delighted. And also when we've got also got travel insurance. And when we go on holiday, I always double check to make sure that it's the holiday fully insured, the sports that we're going to do, are they covered? So just double check that we've got everything sorted, but don't need to have a separate travel insurance for 99.9% of my holidays, which is fantastic. So I save money.

Lesley  6:57  
I think I do you know, I think absolutely right. But I think the main saving for most people is the mobile phone insurance, because you're probably talking 567 pounds a month, you know, times however many phones and if you're still in the business of paying for you almost grown up children's mobile surance, I'm sure I must have stopped that now. For five phones, not one. And they smashed their phones every five minutes as well. So it's quite useful to have that insurance, things like that, that can really, really taught taught up. And I think a lot of time when you go in and you get a mobile phone, you automatically take Yeah, we'll take the insurance, it's only three or four pounds a month, completely forget about it, then you change your phone contract and you forget that you had the insurance with the previous one, it's things like that, that you can pick up off your bank statement, and that you need to keep on top on so that you don't haemorrhage that money away. And all of a sudden that four pounds has become let me think about the maths. 48 pounds is quite good at maths, but maybe not now. So yeah, that you can get that you know, at 48 pounds a year. And then you know, sometimes I've come to people and it's been five years and this mobile phone insurance is still going on. And obviously that's two or 300 pounds. But we'd be better off in our pockets than in there. Yeah.

Ingrid  8:13  
And I think also the breakdown cover as well. I mean, you see a lot of people who've got the breakdown cover as well with the ad, which of course is fine. But if you're really paying for it in your banking, you're doubling up as well. So that's another saving you can do.

Lesley  8:29  
Yeah, is it really important not to double up on these things as well. And you know, in talking about those kinds of things, as well shop around, you know, definitely shop around for breakdown cover for mobile phone insurance for any kind of insurance, in fact, and have a look, there tends to be things in life that we just like when you auto renew, and breakdown covers one, but actually, you know, that compact as competitive as any other provider have, you know, so we need to definitely look at a RSA green flag, you know, it's no longer just a one size fits all and one company that can do that. So absolutely look at that and shop around because even if you're only saving 20 or 30 pounds, you know, that's a night out, you know, so yeah, absolutely need to save that. And it gives you that great bones that we're talking about when you save some money while talking about

Ingrid  9:15  
insurances. I think, you know, we've got several insurances, you know, we've got car insurance, pet insurance, home insurance. Those are really big money eaters, you know, especially car insurance, you really want to be on top of that. And when you don't just automatically renew your car insurance, you can save a lot of money by using money comparison sites, and, you know, updating your details and all of those things a lot. I mean, sometimes even hundreds of pounds.

Lesley  9:46  
Yeah, I was, I was working for somebody. So part of my job, sometimes I go and I sort of manage people's finances and help them pay their bills and things like that. And so I keep a check on their bank accounts and things as I'm doing that. And I noticed an insurance policy for somebody In one of my clients was in a 70s, she was driving a little car around and your insurance was like 1200 pounds. And I'm like, I have you had an accident? Have you? You know, so I tried to get to the bottom of why is and she said no, no, I just haven't done anything with it. I quite like being with a customer, but and also the name of the company. Not because so you know, I like being with that company, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, Okay, let's have a look at this. And anyway, to cut a long story short, she had just let it auto in you for like the past 12 years. And when we actually looked at it, that folder pounds ended up being 280. You know, and that's a whole lot of money. That's a lot of money, isn't it? So it's things like that, you know, just, you know, make a mental note, next time you renewal comes round, to spend a little bit of time looking at that and to see whether there are, you know, things are very, the market has to be very competitive now. And certainly the new thing, I think, what we get is we get great deals at the beginning, but then it kind of talks about the following year. So you might get an introductory offerings, and that's brilliant tour and 50. Next thing, they stick it up to 500. And you've forgotten to renew it and forgotten to go and check in so I think it's really important to look at that for all insurances.

Ingrid  11:09  
Yeah, well, not only insurance, Lesley, I think also, a big expense is electricity and gas. And you know, the companies are constantly changing their rates, changing their tariffs change introductory offers. But once you are in a renewal system, it goes really, really quickly up. So that is definitely something you want to check every year, if you can save some money, because that is a big expense for people, isn't it electricity and gas? I don't think really you can water companies. I think they're all kind of the same in every area. But gas electricity, you can definitely shop around.

Lesley  11:45  
Yeah, definitely, I guess there's people that are on water metres. But that's we're going into delving into a different place really here, which is about, you know, energy saving and saving money in terms of not having as many showers and things. But for the most part, I think that most water bills if you're not on a metre like standard, and you can't do anything about that, because there's only one provider. Yeah, but you know, the gas and electricity and energy companies are very highly regulated now, and they can't get away with the things that they got away with years ago. So they have to send you things, you know, you get those things coming up with letters saying it's going up, your rate is going up, just have a double check. And you know, that should be the prompt to you to actually look and go in, you know, who's absolutely fantastic with this is the Martin Lewis website. I think it's called money. Is it calm money saving expert.com or something like that? Yeah, he's all about saving money. And there's so many fantastic resources in there blogs, there's letters in there, there's what it tells you how to talk to the energy providers everything. And there's also something that you can sign on, and it will alert you if there's a cheaper deal out there and things like that. So you know, in terms of saving money, if that's one of your things for this year, or whenever for the future. Absolutely. Martin Lewis is fantastic. I love Martin Lewis.

Ingrid  12:58  
Well, I tell you, I love him too, because my neighbour actually looked into a council tax banding. And I had no idea what that was until and she said, Ingrid, do you read I've had my council tax band checks. And what we found out is in our streets, there were two or three different kinds of council taxes, well, the how the bands are, the houses are all the same. And I actually just sent an email to my local council. And I was absolutely delighted beyond belief, when I found out that I was in a wrong council tax band, and I had overpaid for nine years. And I nearly got three grand back. And for a five minute email and it was like, Oh, yes, sorry, you're in the wrong Council. Thanks, man. We're going to give you money back. And I thought I'm going to celebrate this until I see this money coming into my account. But when seriously when it was all due to my Martin Lewis prompting my neighbour my neighbour telling me that it was because of me.

Lesley  14:01  
And then the council tax band and is definitely something to look at, as well. And you know, of course council tax is big money every year, isn't it? And so if you can, if they rebound you not a lot of them will go back that far. But you know, for council tax if you've been overpaying for X number of years, and that's absolutely fantastic. What a great, you know, benefit. So that money back in? Yeah. Okay, so we've talked about gas electric, you know, the same goes for broadband and TV. I mean, I It's to be it's, if I'm honest, it's a little bit of a game as well, sometimes. And so again, Martin Lewis, you know, I will absolutely try and get, you know, I've got sort of Sky TV, and I will call them and try and get them to save us money to give us a cut price or whatever. So it is a little bit it does become a little bit of a game as well, but I'm not paying, you know, the price on the ticket. I want it cheaper than that, because we've been long, you know, they give lots of benefits and deals to new customers. But I've been with you for 15 years. And so I want the same thing. And so, you know, sometimes it can be hard and you've got to hold your nerve But certainly Martin Lewis are not we, you know, we love Him. He will tell people how to do that. So yeah, make sure that you look at broadband and ring the providers.

Ingrid  15:09  
Yeah. And I'll same with, I'm with Virgin really happy with Virgin and we've got our TV and broadband and I think some phones and even a random landline, I think still here, but we call them on a very regular basis and go listen, you know, we've been longtime customers, you need to do better for us, because you sneak liquidity crisis up by a couple of pounds all of a sudden, every time and it just really adds up. But of course, having good broadband is very important for me. So you get what you pay for, obviously,

Lesley  15:40  
yeah, definitely, you've got to look at you know, it can't just be about the cheapest option. It's also got to be about service and customer service and quality as well. You know, we talked briefly there about mobile phones, I think it's really important to if you're in contact via mobile phone, it's really, really important to know when your phone is out of contract. So that you because what happens, you know, you might pay, I don't know, 25 or 30 pounds, I don't know, whatever, whatever your contract is, a month, and then when you get to the end of your two years are normally two years, aren't they? You know, if you're if you then carry on, you know, you should be in a page of what to call a SIM only package after that, or you should change the font to a new contract or whatever that might be. And so it's things like that keeping on top of when your mobile phone because they won't tell you, they won't tell you. We need to keep on top of that ourselves.

Ingrid  16:25  
Yeah. I think also what I found a lot when I declutter paperwork is stamps, all checks, vouchers, little bits of money, little gift cards, all those little bits and bobs really, really add up. You know, they're a great way, you know, and there are expiry dates on some of the gift vouchers as well. So make sure that when you receive the kindly received a gift voucher from somebody, make a note of the expiry date. So you can actually use it because apparently there is millions of pounds of money worth in gift cards lying around here in the UK if people haven't even spent the things they've been given.

Lesley  17:06  
Yeah, exactly. And I mean, I, I always put my gift cards in my purse as soon as I get them. So that, you know, the problem is then that they're kind of burning a hole in your pocket, and you just want to downsize in the decluttering world, have them in your purse as well, but at least they're in my purse. And if I decide that I want to buy something, then I can use that gift voucher then at the time. So I think that's yeah, absolutely. That's a really important point. And you talked about checks, I think didn't do as well. So we know that checks have normally I think only got six months on them. But there are some checks, things like dividend checks, things like Premium Bond checks, that kind of thing, that that money is yours, regardless of when that check was sent out. And so you can still go back and say I didn't cash this check. So please resend it. And obviously, personal checks. That's not the case, you could go back to the person that wrote it to you and say, Oops, sorry. But you know, I think quite often it's when people send checks for Christmas to people's kids, and things like that. Those are the ones that don't get cashed. And it's such a shame, really.

Ingrid  18:08  
I know. So lots of lots of ways to save money or when you've got your paperwork organised. And I think overall, it's just so much nicer, because you don't feel so much stress. Because you know that you're on top of things.

Lesley  18:24  
Yeah, exactly. It doesn't give you it's the same as taking a whole load of stuff to charity shop, all of a sudden, you feel that you're really in control. I think it's really important. You know, we can't, in this day and age, when everyone's struggling a little bit for money. We can't just let all this money go without being in control of it. And so it is a big, a big edge process. We have to declutter our paperwork, we need to organise it, we need to categorise it, we need to be in control of that paperwork. And then only then I guess, can we be in control of the money that we've got, I'm really looking at it. It's the kind of fine tuning. So it's the last part of the exercise, really, but that's what it's all about. Gaining combat control back into your family, into your home, and into paperwork into your life into your finances. It's got such a fantastic knock on effect. I

Ingrid  19:06  
couldn't have said it any better, literally. So I think we've got everything covered.

Unknown Speaker  19:13  
For our listeners,

Lesley  19:14  
I think there's actually a million other things to talk about in terms of finance, but we've covered some basics. Hopefully we've given people a little bit of food for thought in terms of some things that they could think about doing, you know, to try and save themselves a little bit of money. And so yeah, I've really enjoyed it. I love seven one and I love doing paperwork.

Speaker 4  19:32  
I know I know. Well, we're gonna we're talking about this stuff. Yeah, paper is

Ingrid  19:37  
we love it. So, listeners, we hope that you're starting to enjoy your paperwork decluttering and organising as well. And that's it for this episode. And we hope you've all enjoyed listening and are inspired to take action. And let us know in the comments how you get on. And if you're able to save any money or share your stories in our Facebook community, the declutter hub community. So thanks for taking the time to listen today. If you'd like to get more tips and advice, please follow us on social media. And if you don't want to miss the next episode, don't forget to subscribe to the declutter hop podcast on iTunes and Stitcher. See you next time.

Outro  20:18  
Thanks for listening to this week's episode of the Declutter Hub Podcast. Check out declutterhub.com For more inspiration, and don't forget to tune in next week

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Looking for more tips and advice for dealing with your paperwork? Check out our blog post below...

5 TOP TIPS FOR CURBING YOUR PAPER MOUNTAIN

80% of the paper that finds it's way through our doors hasn't been asked for. Paperwork is a huge contributor to clutter problems in the home. We want to share with you our top tips on how to reduce and deal with the amount that comes in, so it’s easier to sort out what is important.

Use a No Junk Mail sticker

Put a “No Junk Mail” sticker on your letterbox. Order a sticker online, use a labeller to create one or just write it on a white sticker and put it on your letterbox. Just controlling the amount that lands on your doormat will help you gain control of your paperwork.

Unsubscribe

Unsubscribe from magazines and papers that you never read. If you find yourself constantly recycling a magazine without even taking the plastic off or if you have a year’s subscription in your to read box, it’s time to unsubscribe and save some money as well.

Shop online and not from a catalogue

Stop the clothes catalogues coming in by looking online. How often do you really use a paper catalogue instead of searching online? This will reduce the paper coming in and it’s better for the environment.

Take photos of leaflets

Resist picking up every leaflet, folder or paper you come across during the day. If you see something that interests you quickly scan the leaflet there and check if it's worthwhile. If not put it back and don’t bring it home with you. You can also take a photo of the leaflet with the website details so you can check it out later when you get home.

Recycle or shred every day

The post that comes through the door needs to be looked at the same day. The second task is to decide if the paper needs to be recycled , shredded, filed or it needs action .

Is it Junk Mail? Recycle it
Does it have an address on it? Shred it
If it needs to be filed or actioned, put it in your intray

If it's a quick action, do it NOW!

When it's a quick action, for example, signing a form for your child to go on a trip, do that right away.

Schedule time weekly to action your actions!

If it involves a phone call, filling in a form or do some research put it in a “To Do” file and make time that week to do those tasks. After the task is done again ask yourself if this piece of paper now can be recycled, shredded or needs to be filed away.

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Fiona Wilks says:

16 May 2022 at 9:31 PM

Hi Lesley and Ingrid, Loved the podcast on 10 things to declutter. I am old school and love to keep paper at work and home…just in case. I really need to get rid and condense to one book, couple of folders for necessary documents…Thanks so much for kick start

Reply
1. Ingrid Jansen says:
  
  18 May 2022 at 3:25 PM
  
  Brilliant Fiona! Glad you enjoyed this podcast episode. I’m a paper lover and quite old school too, so Lesley and my husband are dragging me into the 21st century. Hahhaha. Glad we could give you a kick start.
  
  Reply

Episode 17 – Save money with organised paperwork

5 TOP TIPS FOR CURBING YOUR PAPER MOUNTAIN

Use a No Junk Mail sticker

Unsubscribe

Shop online and not from a catalogue

Take photos of leaflets

Recycle or shred every day

If it's a quick action, do it NOW!

Schedule time weekly to action your actions!

Episode 346 – Pros and cons of decluttering one item a day

Episode 345 – 10 things to declutter from your junk drawer

Episode 344 – Helen Flanagan talks clutter, ADHD and managing a home with a young family

Episode 343 – Dealing with the passage of time when decluttering

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