Receipt of memories

A few days ago, I had the day off.  Of course one normally associates a day off with sleeping in or lazing about to watch TV/play games.  Relaxing.

But to be honest - that is not really me.  Most weekends in fact, I still get up early but am on the 'net surfing.

But these days I feel I need to be productive.  So waking up at 6am, I felt the need to clean up.  Mainly the paperwork on my desk and sort out my cupboards.  It was such a mess that every time I looked at it I would think, "I'll deal with that another time."

Or, "I'm too tired."

Terrible.

So I decided to be proactive to clear as much as possible: filing, sorting and cleaning.  It was a task I had started a few days ago - as I was filing away my paperwork which had piled up.  I keep most receipts - from buying my morning coffee, grocery shopping to all the receipts from holidays.  Every week I extract a wallet full of receipts and plonk them on the table or squirrel them into envelopes.

So you can imagine how many receipts I have accumulated over a short period of time.  I had every intention to track expenses but found it such a hassle I don't.  I keep them in case there is a dispute or an incorrect charge.  Ok, ok - I need a better system and  am still searching for that!

Going through a table full of receipts is downright distressing,  however, the upside was I needed to read and determine if I wanted to still keep the receipt (for warranties etc).

Strangely, most recipes were readable, and still had a lot of information.  Times and dates of my purchases.  Restaurant receipts still had the addresses of the places, what I ate and the tip I gave.  Interestingly, the memories came flooding back to the exact places I was at.  I don't recall everything - like what I was wearing - but the situation, vibe and how I was feeling did come back. All these receipts made me think of all the places I tried on clothes, the shop assistants, the stores - pretty much putting me at all these places - some of which I had forgotten all about!

One of my friends had told me about a shoebox full of movie ticket stubs - something he had collected ever since he started going to the movies.  I was just thinking whether a scrapbook full of receipts would ever be a thing, but it certainly made my day as I never thought something as simple as a kept receipt would ever be a memory of a good thing (especially if it meant I was paying!)