2012 in review through bills, letters, notices, printouts, pamphlets, tickets, receipts & stubs

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.