I finally got around to cleaning up my home desk which was
flooded with lots of credit card receipts, letters of insurance payments,
medical payments. While pictures taken throughout the year can tell you a story
but so can the paper trail. It can tell
you even more detailed story. One can see the dental appointments and bills,
lens bills for which only other record perhaps would be your medical history.
So what did I find in this year’s paper trail. The bulk of
it was receipt from Curry Point which is the mainstay of everyday dinner,
followed by QFC. Then you have all other restaurants in Redmond like Matador,
JJ Mahoney, Celtic Bayou frequented occasionally. Potbelly is missing from the
paper trail as I don't collect the receipt there. Neither does RajaRani Cuisine
which is cash on delivery. Memorable ones are Tap house, Applebee’s &
Cheesecake Factory with friends. Then there are ones while travelling like
Shari's Cafe and Pies, Wildflower Grill, Pietro's Pizza, Ihop in Norwalk,
Missippi Studio & BarBar etc.
On medical side it was dominated by insurance notice like
for dentist visits, optician, general physician, podiatrist etc. One look at
the bill and you can see that medical costs in US is really high. There are
bills from Bartell drugs but they pale in comparison to the fees charged by
doctors. There are big packets from Microsoft/Premera explaining next year's
HSP plan. Without medical insurance one will have really have big hole in the
pocket.
On money side you have mostly credit card offers. My stock
holding firms also inform of their presence by occasional dividend notices. My
bank has sent few letter as well.
One big bucket would be auto related items. The bulk of
visiting cards I have are from the car dealers I visited this year. Then you
have parking receipts from places in Bellevue and Pacific Science Center. There
are correspondence for traffic tickets & notices. Then you have auto
insurance bill explanation and notices. This is one area which I hope to see
less of next year. Small paper bills consists mainly of gas fill-up credit card
receipts initially a lot from ARCO on willows or from Chevron on 51st.And lot
of other gas bills from various parts on the west coast.
Pamphlets providing information about tourist sites from
various trips this year. Printouts of American byways from May and July road
trips. Half a dozen flight tickets. Not too many hotel bills since others paid
for hotels as in last stay at Doubletree was paid online. So I have bills of
stay at Mitchell & very special stay at Zillah.
Bills of clothing, personal care & some of the books
bought. Most valuable is the swimming trunk. Ah. Small table bought at Habitat
EKC. I don't see any bill of big IKEA purchase done in March looks like I lost
it. Fair amount from QFC. Some from Fred Meyer. None from Target or Trader Joe.
Some bills from Bed, Bath & Beyond. Stubs of Movie Tickets from Bella
Botega, Lincoln Square, Pacific Science Center, Totem Lake & AMC in
Norwalk. Supercuts is there as well.
There are rare ones like printout of first company meeting
entry, KCLS (need to go there more often) back to school notice. 13$ check of
car registration refund which expired because I was too lazy to deposit it.
That pretty much wraps up the 2012 various paper bills.
