A few weeks ago, I explained why I’m finally going paperless over at Quizzle Wire. If you’re a cautious sort like me (I have a tendency to save every document “just in case”), switching to paperless can seem like an overwhelming process with too many chances to lose things or become so disorganized that you can’t find what you need. So here are some tips for making a stress-free transition to paperless:

Develop an organization system on your hard drive that works for you – The first thing you need to do is figure out how you are going to organize your digital documents. I love nested folders, and my digital filing system starts with a folder dedicated to paperless documents – namely, statements, bills, receipts, and such. The next level down is a folder for each year, and within those folders, I have a folder for each month. I don’t get too hung up on saving documents in the exact month – for example, I have statements with a closing date of March 31, but since it was April by the time I saved the PDF to my computer, I just saved it in the April 2013 folder.

Start slow – I started the move to paperless years ago when I began paying my bills online through my bank’s online banking system. Rather than print out confirmations or write down every confirmation number, I began taking screenshots of the confirmation page. Since then, I’ve gradually been switching one account at a time to paperless status – I just save the PDF version of monthly statement to my hard drive when it becomes available.

Figure out a tracking system that works for you – I like to keep my email inbox uncluttered, so I delete notification emails almost as soon as I get them. However, that means I don’t have due date and payment information right at my fingertips (and some companies don’t include that info in the notification email anyway). I’ve created a simple word processing document that lists my paperless bills, and each month as the notification emails arrive, I jot down the due date and payment amount (I usually log into my account and save the PDF of the statement at that time too). When it’s time to pay the bills, my list of paperless bills has all the info I need.

Find the right software – I’m no expert on computer software, so I’m sure there are better programs than what I use, but they were free or inexpensive, and they work for me! I have a Windows computer that came with a nifty program called Snipping Tool, which makes it easy to grab a shot of anything on the computer screen. For full-page captures in Firefox, the add-on Abduction is very handy.

A few years ago, I tried a screen capture program called Snagit, which has been really great for the transition to paperless because it can create PDFs. It shows up as a printer option when I go to print a page, and then once it’s “printed” in Snagit, I can save it as a PDF. There’s a free trial offer, and it’s only $49.95 to buy the program (get it for free with Amazon gift cards from Swagbucks!).

Develop a system for backing up your files – We’ve all heard horror stories about computers suddenly becoming unusable. You don’t want to risk losing all of your files if something like that were to happen to you. Fortunately, external hard drives have become very affordable. I back my files up once a week to an external hard drive – that’s a short enough span that if something happened, I wouldn’t lose much, but long enough that I don’t feel I’m constantly doing it. Thanks to Christina of Northern Cheapskate for reminding me to add this section!

It’s taken me years, but I’m finally on the verge of converting the last of my accounts to paperless. I have a lot less paper clutter to deal with now – so not only is going paperless good for the environment, it’s good for my sanity!

Banner ad via Escalate Media Network

This post was originally published in 2011, but I wanted to remind everyone to send in your Box Tops to school because they really add up!

When it comes to saving money, you hear people say “it’s the little things” and “little things add up” all the time. In fact, David Bach became famous for coining the phrase “The Latte Factor” in reference to money that people spend on things like coffee without thinking much about it.

But when you’re trying to reach your “big picture” financial goals, it can be hard to see how $2 here and $5 there is going to help erase your $20,000 credit card debt or $100,000 mortgage.

Whenever that happens, I recommend thinking about the Box Tops for Education program. It’s a marketing campaign by General Mills – selected products have a “Box Top” that can be cut out and sent in to General Mills for a 10-cent contribution to a participating school.

The average school earns $574 in Box Tops per year – that means an average school redeems 5,740 Box Tops! Side note: The highest earning schools get $50,000+ from Box Tops, but after discussing this with our Box Tops coordinator, I’m guessing that these schools won a contest, and didn’t actually redeem 500,000 Box Tops.

My son’s school earns over $2,000 in Box Tops each year – that’s more than 20,000 Box Tops at 10 cents apiece. Each individual 10-cent label may not seem like much, but add them to all of the others and it really does add up to real money. It’s money that our cash-strapped school can put to good use for the students.

And similarly, every dime or dollar that we save for ourselves adds up to real money that we can use to achieve our financial goals. So instead of getting discouraged, get inspired and look for all the different small amounts that you can pool together. Before you know it, you’ll have a meaningful amount of money to help you reach your goal.

P.S. If you know a child whose school participates in Box Tops for Education, save those Box Tops for him or her! Their school can definitely use the money

A while back, the credit bureaus started providing free credit reports to consumers (as required by law). At AnnualCreditReport.com, you can get a free report from each credit bureau every 12 months. That’s three free reports each year.

Experts recommend checking your credit report on a regular basis to catch evidence of identity theft in the early stages (the more damage that’s been done, the more work it will take to fix). So instead of getting three reports once each year, it makes sense to spread out your three free reports over the course of a year and get one from each credit bureau every four months. While the information contained on each report differs slightly, monitoring reports more frequently should help you catch any illegal activity sooner than if you only checked once per year.

You should also check your insurance policies as some may include free or inexpensive riders for identity theft assistance. You can take advantage of these programs if you suspect you are a victim of identity theft, or even if there is suspicious activity on your credit report. In fact, a few months ago, my husband and I spotted a suspicious inquiry on one of our credit reports, and took advantage of the rider on our homeowner’s insurance policy to help us figure out what it was. It turned out to be innocuous, but since repairing your credit history after identity theft can be difficult, it’s nice to know that there are experts in our corner if we ever need them!