OK, I will admit it.  Sometimes, I am better at giving advice than I am at following it.  One prime example would be when it comes to staying organized.  When all is said and done, I think I do a pretty good job of keeping myself organized.  But, between juggling a career as a teacher, a writing business and being a mother and wife, things fall through the cracks sometimes.

I guess that is what happened when it came to the receipt for our television.  After we were robbed last December, we purchased a new television to replace the one that was stolen.  The insurance company sent us a settlement for the things that we lost, but told us we could collect more money if we replace the items for more than what they paid us.  Of course, in order to get the additional money, we need to produce a receipt.

Sweet!  I thought.  We replaced most of the things that were stolen and we were hanging onto the receipts, so that should be no problem.

I was wrong.

I searched all over the house for that cursed television receipt and I never found it.  Finally, we couldn’t wait any longer because there was a time limit for sending in the receipts.  So, my husband sent in the receipts that we had and we figured we would just have to lose out on the extra insurance money.

Well, wouldn’t you know, we had problems with that very same television just a few days ago.  I got home from a long day of teaching and turned on the television, only to have it turn itself back off.  After trying to turn it on a few times and getting the same results, I contacted Sony and was ultimately told I would need to contact a repair service to get the television repaired.

“If you bought it within the last year, it will be covered by warranty,” the customer service rep happily told me.

Receipt?!  What receipt?!  I thought.

Here I am with a shoe box filled with receipts for fast food restaurant stops and meaningless food purchases, but the one bearing proof of my $2,500 television purchase is nowhere to be found!

Luckily, I contacted Best Buy, which is where we purchased the television, and they told me they could give us a new copy of the receipt. So, I guess the moral of the story isn’t to be better organized.  Rather, it is to remember where you purchased items so you can rely upon the store to give you a new copy of your receipt. 

OK, maybe that isn’t the best system, but it is good to know that you can use it as a back up plan.  Besides, I am sure it was my husband that lost that receipt and not me….