ORGANIZE

NEW TO COUPONING?

NEED HELP ORGANIZING?

HERE ARE SOME WAYS TO KEEP THOSE COUPONS ORGANIZED FOR OPTIMAL SAVINGS!

I will show you how to organize your coupons to ensure you are able to see the best possible savings while on your shopping adventures. I will show you 3 ways to organize your coupons. Now I recommend taking one organization method and then putting your own spin on it. By doing this it will be easier for you find the coupons you are looking for. There is no right or wrong way to organize yourself, these are just some helpful hints.

 THE COUPON BINDER METHOD (MY CURRENT SYSTEM)

Materials:

2-3 inch Three Ring Binder (I use a regular style binder but a zippered one helps if you are prone to dropping things)

9 pocket Baseball Card Protectors

Plastic Insert-able Dividers

Plastic Sheet Protectors (the paper ones tend to get damaged easier)

Use the Baseball Card Protectors to insert your coupons and keeps them neat in your binder. The plastic sheet protectors I use to hold restaurant coupons and current week store coupons. I keep the current sales flyers in the front pocket of the binder. The insertable dividers I use to keep my coupons separated from my other coupon resources (I will explain in detail in a minute) that I also keep in my binder.

Now you can organize your coupons a couple of different ways.. USE DIVIDERS!

 

 

By Category

Example: Baby, Pet, Dairy, Canned/Boxed, Frozen, Home Care, Personal Care etc

Or Alphabetically – This is the way I use.

Example: Pedigree Dog Food would be filed under “P” and Cascade tabs would be under “C”. I just stick the coupon behind that letter. I don’t worry about every coupon being alphabetically filed under each letter. C’s going under C and that’s where the filing ends.

 

 

 Other Coupon Resources: These are some other items I keep in my binder.

These resources are places behind plastic insert-able dividers behind all of my coupon organization.

 

Store Coupon Policies (In Sheet Protectors).
Target Coupons (because they have so many)
Stockpiling (inventory, basic list, price book)
Menu Plan (basic list, current menu plan, recipes to file)

This method I have found to be the easiest. I know exactly where every coupon is based on the name and I never miss any deals that aren’t listed in the ad.

Upside: Each coupon is clipped and conveniently stored and organized in a binder. Easy to flip and access coupons. Ability to store other couponing resources in the same place.

Downside: Your coupon binder can grow fairly quickly. You may need to purchase a bigger binder shortly after you start (unless you start with a 3in). It gets heavy and you have to clip and organize your coupons weekly.

COUPON BOX METHOD

(these are not mine)

Materials:

Coupon Box (picture box, index card holder…whichever size suits your couponing needs)

Box Dividers

This method works a lot like the binder method except you don’t have a binder… you have a box. Instead of filing them into the baseball protector sheets all you would do is clip your coupon and put it in the appropriate place in your box. Just like the Coupon Binder method there a couple of ways to organize inside the box…

By Category

Example: Baby, Pet, Dairy, Canned/Boxed, Frozen, Home Care, Personal Care etc

Or Alphabetically

Example: Pedigree Dog Food would be filed under “P” and Cascade tabs would be under “C”. I just stick the coupon behind that letter. I don’t worry about every coupon being alphabetically filed under each letter. C’s going under C and that’s where the filing ends.

Upside: Each coupon is clipped and conveniently stored and organized in a box.

Downside: This method has its drawbacks. Sometimes the coupons slip into the wrong category, get pushed to the bottom of the box or heaven forbid you drop it and they fly everywhere. It’s also hard to lug around a big box of coupons.

COUPON INSERT METHOD

(These are also not mine)

Materials:

Accordion File

This way is different from the other two. I would use this method if you don’t have time to clip and organize each and every coupon that you receive in the newspaper.

What you would need to do is purchase an accordion file. Then keep the inserts from the Sunday newspaper together and then write the date on the font of the insert. File these inserts by date. This way when you look at a coupon match up you can go right to the insert and just clip the coupons that you are going to use.

Upside: You don’t have to clip every coupon and organize them.

Downside: You may miss out on deals because the insert is sitting at home.