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Good-bye old receipts, hello dinner

As a compulsive expense-tracker, I drop credit-card receipts into a file folder after having entered the charges in Excel. After a few months, disposing of the resulting fat collection of paper can present a challenge. The wad quickly builds up to enough to choke a shredder, and besides, who wants to stand next to a shredding machine for an hour or so feeding old, faded credit-card receipts into the thing?

Typically, I burn a pile of them in the fireplace once a year. However, it’s only May and the junk receipts folder was full to busting. In hundred-degree weather, I don’t much feel inclined to fire up the hearth. Soooo….

You’ll only read it here, my friend! No other PF blog on the planet will clue you to this ingenious idea.

The Bookkeeper's Stove

I have a charcoal-starting chimney, a gadget that allows you to light charcoal using just a couple pages from a newspaper. No petroleum products need apply! So this evening I wrapped the mound of old credit-card receipts inside a double-truck spread, crammed it into the chimney, and used it to set fire to a load of charcoal.

It’s working! Soon the coals will be ready for a steak and a fine cob of corn. And six months’ worth of credit-card receipts will be cremated and returned to their Maker, dust to dust, ashes to ashes, never to present a temptation to an identity thief.

How many people on this earth at this hour can say they converted a mountain of junk paper into dinner?

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May 26, 2009 | Filed Under Idle essays

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One Response to “Good-bye old receipts, hello dinner”

Why Shred Paper for Security Reasons? Another Way To Dispose of Receipts on May 27th, 2009

[...] come up with the ingenious idea of “cremating” 6 months worth of credit card receipts using a charcoal-starting chimney, while simultaneously heating up charcoals for dinner. I wish I could do what she does so [...]

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