Coupon Binders are best for "heavy" coupon users. Those that have multiple coupons for each item say 10 or more of the same coupon. If you plan to coupon on a smaller scale, it may not be worth your time and effort to use the Coupon Binder system. The upsides to the Coupon Binder are organization! When you are in the store, you can carry your binder with you and skip to each Category and Page.
It's easier to catch Sale Items or Specials that you may not have planned on, or that were not on your "list. Like the Coupon Binder, you have two options here as well. You can purchase a pre-assembled Coupon Box, or you can assemble your own Coupon Box. Again, since I've been couponing for a long time, I've used both methods. I've thrown out my home-made coupon box and now have a purchased one, which I like much, much better! It costs you a little money not much , but it saves you time, looks better, and it can be taken into the store with you, because it was made to fit into the front of the grocery carts and has a lid.
Amazon offers the one below with dividers, labels and a carry handle. To assemble a Coupon Box yourself, you can use a cardboard box, or a Plastic Container. For the dividers, you can use anything stiff, depending on the size of your box, such as index cards, or cut-to-size card stock. For the tabs, I would suggest Note Tabs like the ones shown below. The do-it-yourself box is a good system for home use, but not to take into the store with you.
If you use this system, you would only pull out the coupons that you intend to use for each shopping trip. When I use to use this system, I would mark one reusable envelope for each store that I frequented, i.
You can always put a lid on the coupon box and take it with you to leave in your vehicle, just in case you pick up something at the store that you didn't initially plan on, and need to run out to grab another coupon s.
It had a large three ring binder on one side, and on the other it had a smaller three ring binder. It zipped all the way around and had pockets and a handle that made it really easy to keep things inside without falling out.
And I could hang on to it while wrestling little ones. It was a Case-It binder. There are many many different versions, single three rings or doubles. And they come in all kinds of dimensions, for the casual couponer to the extreme couponer.
Best part about that binder, is that after all of these years — I still have the same binder! Its full to the max, and is about inches thick.
Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. Personal Finance. A good coupon organizer will help you sail through your shopping trips -- and save a few bucks in the process. A three-ring binder lets you carry more coupons, organize them more creatively and see them at a glance.
Photo courtesy Mommy's Idea Book. Put a Label On It. Join the Club. Speak the Language. Know Before You Go. Sources CouponPro. For Free. Cite This! Try Our Crossword Puzzle! What Is the Missing Number? Try Our Sudoku Puzzles! Then, carry your binder with you on all your shopping trips and flip to the right page to retrieve coupons as needed. The other option for organizing clipped coupons is to place them in a coupon wallet or coupon box.
Basically, all of these types of coupon organizer systems are portable filing cabinets for your coupons where, instead of retrieving coupons by flipping pages in a binder you thumb through the tabs and fing the coupons where you filed them. Here's one of the best explanations of how to organize coupons using a coupon box or wallet I've found.
I've embedded the video of Carrie Isaac's explanation below because sometimes "seeing" how someone does it makes a lot more sense than me explaining it in writing. Although Carrie uses a box for her organizational system, unless you do a lot of couponing a simpler wallet will most likely work for you, if you choose this method.
To the right is a small expandable file coupon wallet, which is perfect for someone who does not clip many coupons, and therefore does not need to have lots of categories. It is small and light weight, so it is easily portable and not too unwieldy. You've got to regularly add new coupons and cull old expired coupons from your organizational system, or it will quickly become useless and outdated. Therefore, the fifth step in the Organize Coupons Challenge is to get in the habit of adding new coupons to your organizational system about once a week.
In addition, since many coupons expire at the end of the month get in the habit around the beginning of the month of combing through your coupons to remove all the expired ones. Remember, you can do these steps while watching TV or listening to music, or if your kids are old enough you can enlist their help in these tasks and make couponing a family affair!
Please note that you can donate your expired coupons to military families living overseas , if you're interested. I've got more detailed instructions at the link. In addition, coupons generally follow cycles, similar to sales cycles, so even if you didn't get a chance to use a particular coupon before it expired don't feel bad or make a special trip just to use it. Instead, be patient and a similar coupon will most likely come back around again. If you've got a lot of gift cards you can take a couple minutes this week and organize these as well.
The advantages of this include not forgetting that you even have them to spend, not losing them, and using the entire balance off of them instead of letting money get basically wasted.
I've written an article on how to organize gift cards that can give you some simple tried and true ideas. But these items are only helpful if you can actually find what you need when you want to pull something from your stockpile, it is still fresh, not expired when you want to use it, and it takes up an appropriate amount of space in your home and is not instead clutter.
First, you should declutter excess from your stockpile , such as all the items you don't actually have room for, can't use within a reasonable period, or that have gotten too old or expired to use. You can read the linked Declutter mission for more tips. Next, once you've gotten rid of the excess you should organize what you've got left. I've written an article with my best stockpile organization and storage tips , along with lots of reader photos showing practical real life ways they've organized their own stockpiles.
Take time this week to get your own stockpile in order so your couponing efforts don't go to waste. I would love to know how this week's Organize Coupons Challenge is going. You can tell me your progress or give me more ideas for how you've organized this area of your life below in the comments.
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