organizing your coupons...

so you've clipped out all your coupons. what now? well, you have to be organized or you won't save any money and the coupons won't get used! today i'm going to share a few ideas on how to organize all those coupons!
here's what i use right now. i have several manilla folders labeled with my stores (walgreens, walmart, target, kroger, heb and so on) and i have clipped them all together with a giant binder clip. when i go thru my papers and blogs, i make a list for the items i want from each store and i collect my coupons for those items and paper clip them in the appropriate folder. i can just pick up the whole stack and run to the stores knowing exactly what i have coupons for! if you are a scrapbooker, you could decorate the folders and make them really creative!

this is what i think i'm going to start using. a pretty accordian file! that way i can close it all up and nothing will slide out. i would use it the same way as the manilla folders.

here's what most people use for coupons. i find this way hard to use because i don't have the ones i want ready to go. i think it takes more time in the store when you use this method.

i've also used this method after i've clipped them all out:i have the tabs all labeled with the different items such as: dairy, drinks, cans, mixes, bread, frozen, and so on. i started out clipping out every coupon, but once you start reading all the blogs, you need to know which insert certain coupons came out of. once they are all cut out, you have no way of knowing. so, this is the method i have started using for my inserts...i have a plastic crate with hanging file folders that fit right inside. i label the folders for each type of insert: red plum, smart sources, etc. then i write the date on the front of the insert so i know what day they came out and stack my multiple copies inside each folder. (yes, i buy more than one newspaper and get extras from my family so i have multiple copies of each coupon) then when a coupon is listed on a blog, i know exactly which insert to look in for that coupon. this idea came from www.theobsessiveshopper.net! she also says to throw out inserts that are over 5 months old because all the coupons will be expired. that's much easier than looking thru 100's of little clipped coupons!

i learned TONS from the "system" on the obsessive shopper's site! she has videos that make it so easy to understand! here's one more method that is really popular. the binder method. use baseball card sheets to store all your clipped coupons. use dividers for catagories such as dairy, bread, frozen, cans and so on. then on each sheet, label what type of product it is. for example, under condiments, label sheets ketchup, mayo, mustard, salad dressing, etc. then you know if you need ketchup, you can flip to condiments and see all the ketchup coupons you have on one clear page!

no matter how you organize them, coupons do need to be organized. once you get a system down, you will be amazed at how much money you can save! feel free to post any ideas you have!