In my 21 years of life, I’ve bought ONE t-shirt from J.Crew online, but in the last two weeks, I’ve received the following e-mails from their online store:

Last Chance for free shipping
Presenting… free shipping
New at Crewcuts… Seaside Chic
Hello sale…
New men’s must-have: the cardigan

Let’s recap why this is annoying. First of all, I don’t need a cardigan, and neither do the rest of you guys out there. Second of all, I’m in Germany, and J. Crew doesn’t even ship here, so I couldn’t care less what their non-existent shipping costs. Third, CrewCuts is the children’s clothing line at J.Crew, and unless there’s something I don’t know about, I’m not buying baby clothes for a while. Though I do like J. Crew otherwise, I hate getting all these irrelevant e-mails in my inbox.

But now that Shoeboxed is up and running, I went to jcrew.com and modified my account settings. In about 20 seconds, I changed the e-mail associated with my account to my @shoeboxed.com address. Now all these store notifications come into my Shoeboxed account. I also one-click-unsubscribed from J.Crew e-mails, causing them to only show up in my Shoeboxed account, and to stay away from my personal inbox.

I still like J. Crew, and I still get those e-mails in my Shoeboxed account, but now I don’t have to have them in my inbox, where all my important personal communications are. My personal inbox is breathing easier, and so am I.

I also did this for all the other stores where I shop (and the stores that send me e-mails even though I don’t buy stuff from them) and changed out my e-mail address.

So now, whenever I’m in the mood to shop, I just go to my Shoeboxed account, see all my new e-mails, check out all the places that are having sales or recommending new products, and start shopping from there.

One of the biggest benefits of organizing your receipts is for reimbursement purposes. Everybody has been reimbursed at some time or another, and everybody knows the rule: you’ve got to have your receipt. Despite this, it can be a pain to keep track of everything you bought. Most of us have had to “eat” an expense that should have been paid for by someone else because we couldn’t find the receipt for it.

So how can Shoeboxed help? Well, first off, everything that you buy online will be in an easy-to-read, tabular format. And they’re not going anywhere either. You will always have easy access to everything you’ve bought online.

Also, you can easily forward any of your receipts to anyone at any time. Need to send a receipt to your boss for that fax machine you ordered for the office? No problem. Just click on the receipt from the My Receipts page. Then click “Forward this receipt.” Enter your boss’ e-mail address, and you’re done. Expect your check in the mail in 4-6 weeks.

Save money, save time, save frustration, get on Shoeboxed.

Have you used your Shoeboxed account in a really creative way? Do you feel uncomfortable with all the free time you have now that you’re Shoeboxing? Tell us about it! Send us an e-mail at help(at)team(dot)shoeboxed(dot)com.

You already know that Shoeboxed helps you keep your online receipts organized and your e-mail inbox free from the annoying clutter of spam and advertisements. But as I have learned over the years, there is actually more to life than just the Internet. For this reason, I made a list of a few easy habits that can help you stay organized in all aspects of life.

1. Reduce before you organize. One of the main reasons that people get unorganized is that they just have too much stuff. Since it is much easier to organize 10 things than 100, it’s a good idea to toss out all the items that you don’t need before you start actually organizing. Recycle papers when you can’t remember what they refer to, give old clothes to charity when they don’t fit any longer, and then start organizing that desk or closet.
2. Everything in its right place. Assign specific places for everything, and then make sure to always return items to those places. It’ll be a lot easier to find your sunglasses if you always put them in their “home” rather than just tossing them onto the table somewhere.
3. Take care of things now. Small messes are easier to manage than large ones, so get rid of the “I’ll do it later” mentality and start putting things away right when you’re done with them. That way they won’t build up and leave you with an unmanageable mess on your hands.
4. Write it down. I have personally perfected the talent of forgetting very important pieces of information until just after they are useful, at which point they miraculously come back. To keep this from happening to you, I recommend keeping a calendar or notepad with you and writing down important events as they arise. It is also not a bad idea to periodically go through your notebook and prioritize the things you have written down so you do not get bogged down by unnecessary tasks.
5. Make a system. It is not enough to just clean everything up once—clutter always has a way of coming back. Make a system to stay ahead of the mess. Have a cleaning schedule where you do a little bit every day, have a set method for approaching your paperwork, and put your kids to work. Okay, that last one may not be serious, but it doesn’t hurt to have kids learn the basics of staying organized at a young age.

Most people remember their transition into adulthood. One day your parents sat you down and told you that they believed you were ready for financial independence. (Parents use many variations of the phrase “You’re ready for financial independence,” but they all have the same underlying meaning: “We’re tired of supporting you. Now you can start supporting us.”) Regardless of how it was conveyed, this conversation officially made you a grownup. No more sitting at the kids table. Kids dream about adulthood for years: the freedom, the opportunities, not having a bedtime. The most exciting part of adulthood for me, though, was always the thought of doing taxes. Okay, that may or may not be a lie. Not too many little kids dream about doing taxes when they’re older, but we all have to do them anyway. Luckily, there is a ton of material offering advice on how to do them, and how to do them right.

One of the most prolific tax tips is that you should stay on top of receipt organization. When it comes time to deal with everyone’s favorite Revenue Service, it pays to have spent some time getting your receipts organized and categorized. The advent of online receipts has made matters a bit more complicated, though. Many of those tax tipsters say that you should go through your e-mail inbox and individually print out the receipts for everything you’ve bought online, and then file those receipts with the rest of your paper receipts. This process sounds like something less than fun, though, and it also takes a lot of time. Fortunately, Shoeboxed is here to ease your pain during tax season, automatically keeping all of your online receipts organized in one place, marked by date, with separate categories that you have created. It’s the same idea as putting all your physical receipts into files (or shoeboxes, perhaps?), but most of the filing has been done for you. Organizing online receipts has never been simpler. Now, we just have to figure out a way to get rid of those pesky paper receipts, and then doing taxes might actually be something to look forward to.

We all know someone who shops a lot. They talk about how much they love it, about what they bought. Some even openly admit that they have a problem. Nicole, blogger and author of Budgeting Babe wrote an article about her shopping addiction.[link] She gave a few smart tips for people who are trying to curb their shopping addiction. But how do you know if you have a problem in the first place?

If you think that you or your friend might have a shopping addiction, here are a few questions that should ask yourself:

Spending over budget. Are you in deep financial trouble because you overspend? Do you find yourself justifying purchases that you realistically can’t afford?

Compulsive buying. Do you ever go in for one pair of shoes and come out with 10?

A chronic problem. Is your spending more than just a Christmas spree, and a problem that you struggle with year-round?

Hiding the problem. Do you ever feel like you have to hide your purchases because you’re afraid of what your spouse or friends might say?

A vicious circle. Do you return purchases because you feel guilty, only to find that this guilt causes you to go on another shopping spree?

Impaired relationships. Have you lost touch with friends or family because you spend all your time shopping, use lies to cover up your debt, or generally isolate yourself others?

If you can answer “yes” to any of the above questions, seek help now. Shoeboxed.com is here to get your life back on track. Shoeboxed automatically organizes your online expenses in an easy-to-read format. It keeps you accountable, it keeps you organized, and it helps you confront your shopping addiction.

Leave a comment and tell your story, and let shoeboxed help you today!

It’s exciting to wake up to an email inbox with ten new messages. As often as this may happen, chances are that most, if not all, will be spam. Statistically, 8 of 10 emails received are spam. This has caused users to create disposable, or temporary, email addresses.

There are about ten frequently used websites where you can create a disposable email address. These temporary email addresses forward mail into your inbox, and are typically used for online purchases, blogs, wikis, and other non-personal contacts. Once spam starts to fill your inbox, you can cancel the address and start a new one.

One of the more prominent sites for disposable email addresses explains their purpose:

Most websites require you to register by providing them your email address before you can access their services. Usually this is not a problem, but some sites will sell your personal information, including your email address to other companies for commercial solicitation. This is when you start receiving SPAM.

With shoeboxed, you can use your personal email address for everything, and rest assured that spam will not be delivered to your inbox. Forget managing multiple email accounts, we will keep your personal mail personal.

After our launch, when you wake up to ten messages in your inbox, you will feel love, not hate. Click here to register with shoeboxed.com.

Chris Tingom had the right idea when he posted an article entitled “Receipts by Email” on his personal blog [link]. He had recently made a purchase at an Apple Store, and was pleasantly surprised with how they handled his receipt. When he went to the checkout counter, they asked if he wanted a paper receipt or if he would rather have one emailed to him. For the first time he realized what life would be like without paper receipts.

What’s funny is that we all deal with paper receipts on a daily basis. But they still seem like such an insignificant part our life: just a little piece of paper that comes with a new ipod, new shirt, or groceries. They come in handy when you need to return unwanted purchases, but otherwise they are just a pain to organize, store, and track.

But this is the thing: receipts are not an insignificant part of our lives. In fact, if we could just use them correctly, we would save time, money, and make our lives a lot simpler. For Chris, it only took one trip to the Apple Store to realize that there had to be a better way:

Andrew and I spent some time thinking about this and came up with this idea. What if their was a way to associate an email address with your credit card, and then whenever you used your card you could get a receipt in your email? What we need is a way to format this data (xml?) and get a feed for it, and then have shops and stores offer the email or xml feed option in addition to paper receipts.

When you really stop and think about it, we can all imagine this perfect world: one in which all your receipts could be automatically managed for you. You would log online and be able to categorize and organize your purchases. No more wasted paper. No more wasted time.

Well that day is finally here. Shoeboxed.com will automatically manage your receipts, fight spam, and help you get organized. It’s free, it’s easy, and it’s fun.

Sign up below and we’ll shoot you an email when you can start Shoeboxing!

We’re all looking for ways to keep our receipts neat. And with the advances in computer and internet technology, wouldn’t it be great to have a system that automatically managed your receipts? We could save time, save money, and make life a little simpler.

I was recently reading an article from the Salt Lake City Deseret News that discussed the option of storing your receipts in a computer file [link]. Marilyn Reston wrote to Heloise, a local columnist, recommending that she copy her emailed receipts and store them safely in digital files on her computer:

Dear Heloise: Don’t print receipts for online orders — just highlight the information, copy, paste and save to a computer file. Like everyone else seems to be, I’m drowning in clutter. This past year, I ordered most of my Christmas presents online, and I pasted the order information into a computer file rather than printing it out. I labeled the file by the vendor and date so I can find what I’m looking for if necessary. I have saved myself a lot of filing!

-Marilyn M., Reston, Va.

This is a great idea; you’ll also save paper and printer ink. And when the item is delivered, you can make a note in the file, along with any remarks about the item such as quality and shipping comments, as well as pros and cons of ordering from the particular company, for future reference.

-Heloise

Marilyn had a great idea. Email receipts are a valuable tool that can help you simplify your life - If you use them in the right way. These days, email receipts are only good for one thing - clogging up your personal inbox with unwanted, impersonal messages. They aren’t as useful as paper receipts because they are hard to read, hard to sort, and scattered among personal emails to family and friends.

Marilyn devised a great way to make digital receipts useful — by getting them out of her email box and into a clearly filed system on her hard drive. And as Heloise pointed out, she will be saving paper and ink the whole time. Al Gore would be proud. But there’s one problem. Marilyn must have a lot of time on her hands, because filing each and every one of her online purchases would take forever. I love the idea of organizing my finances and simplifying my inbox, but I don’t have the time to do it myself.

Lucky for me, Shoeboxed will take Marilyn’s solution to a whole new level. After signing up with Shoeboxed, your receipts will be automatically organized without cluttering your inbox. And as an added bonus, you’ll stop getting annoying corporate spam.

Now if I could only get in contact with Marilyn and give her the good news!

A new epidemic has hit America. While most scientists refer to it as oniomania, this condition is more commonly know as compulsive shopping, compulsive buying, or compulsive spending. Our society is constantly bombards by TV commercials, magazine advertisement, and online banner ads that persuade us to spend money—usually on purchases that we don’t need. And it’s having a significant effect on the nation’s population.

Shopping addiction is a very real problem, with an estimated ten percent of the American population making compulsive purchases or overspending. However, there is still question as to whether or not excessive buying is a true disease. It’s unclear if people can have a real addiction to shopping, or if their behavior stems from an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). What is known is that many excessive shoppers are multi addicted and may abuse alcohol or prescription medication in addition to buying compulsively.

So what do you do if you’re stuck in a rut? Do you think you might have a problem, but don’t know how to stop? Here are a few quick tips to help you manage your addiction to shopping:

First and foremost, find a friend and tell them how you feel. Let them know that you think you may have a shopping addiction. Don’t feel embarrassed or guilty, and try to talk openly about your spending habits and emotions.

Have a list of exactly what you need. Every time you go to the store, make a list of exactly what you need. If it’s not on the list when you get there, you can’t buy it. Even if you forget something that you really need, you’ll have to wait until next time to buy it.

Go shopping with friends. Don’t let yourself shop alone. Surround yourself with supportive friends who won’t let you relapse.

Don’t fall for the good deals. Deals are only great if you really need an item. If it’s not on the list, you don’t need it, and if you don’t need it, it’s not a good deal.

And most importantly, be honest with yourself about how much you are spending. You need to keep a close record of everything you are buying and make sure that you are only spending money on things you need. It’s really simple—only buy what you can afford.

Shoeboxed.com is committed to helping compulsive shoppers automatically and effectively manage their purchases. If you feel like your spending is out of control, click here. You can give us your email address, and we’ll let you know as soon as this innovative service is available. You deserve to be in control of your own life, and shoeboxed is here to help.

According to several high-tech retailers and technology firms, popular chains will start to offer emailed receipts when a product is purchased either online or in-store. Over the course of the next several years, shoppers will be given the opportunity to eliminate the hassle of organizing their paper receipts by choosing to accept digital receipts.

If email receipts are accepted as an industry standard among major retailers in the United States, shoppers will no longer have to worry about losing receipts because there will always be a copy stored online. Email receipts would represent an eco-friendly alternative that would help eliminate the need for unwanted paper receipts. They would be stored in a private database so that their information remains secure. Additionally, paperless transactions would improve the efficiency of transactions and would allow retailers to more accurately track consumer behavior.

Unfortunately, this may mean that your inbox will be filled with more and more receipts and promotional spam in the coming months. And even worse, you will be forced to give out your personal email address for all your impersonal transactions. Also, email receipts will continue to pile up in your inbox, but there will be no way to view and manage all of your receipts in one place.

Shoeboxed.com will automatically organize and manage these digital receipts for you and prevent corporate spam from reaching your inbox. Now you’ll have an easy way to track your purchases and keep your email address safe, secure, and personal.

Mommysavers.com recently published an article by Jamie Novak entitled “Stop the Shoebox Madness: How to Get a Handle on Your Receipts”. According to the author, shoeboxes are no longer considered an efficient way to organize your paper receipts. She suggests that instead readers set up a centrally located receipt station in their house that uses labeling and color coding to keep their finances in order. Frankly, it sounds like if done correctly, it could really work.

So why haven’t people made the switch yet? Well, according to Novak:

I know you love the shoeboxes, they are great for holding shoes, fantastic for making 3-D dioramas, and they even double as drawer dividers! And yes, it can be hard to throw out a good shoebox, you know the one, it has an attached lid, or it’s a cool color or it is made from the thick corrugated cardboard.

Wait, we’re too attached to our beloved shoeboxes to make the switch? I don’t know about you, but I just can’t find enough time in the day to get organized! Forget the cute corrugated boxes, I would trash them in a second if I felt like I had an alternative that took less time than throwing a piece of paper into a box and shutting the top. I have a lot of things I need to accomplish, and organizing my receipts is low on the priority list. I guess I’m stuck with shoeboxes for now.

But when shoeboxed.com launches, all this could change. Shoeboxed will not only prevent spam from reaching your personal email address and protect you from identity theft, but it will automatically organize and manage your online receipts. It doesn’t take any time out of your busy life, because it does it all for you! No matter how much you shop online, one piece of your life will be entirely managed for you.

We’re giving you time back. Maybe you’ll choose to spend a few extra minutes with the family. Maybe you’ll get a chance to exercise for the first time in months. Or maybe, just maybe, you’ll finally get rid of those pesky receipt shoeboxes…

On second thought, I could never do that. They’re corrugated.

Dan, fed up with his shoebox of receipts