Organizing Your Coupons

Once you start collecting more and more coupons you will gradually start to get more more cluttered and confused unless you find a suitable way to organize them. There are several methods couponers like to use, I will show you my personal favorites that work for me:

1. Binder & Binder Inserts: This is my main source for organizing my coupons. I have a big photo album binder I use to sort all my coupons out organized by dividers. Everyone divides there books up differently, I list mine under; Other (for things that don't seem to fit anymore really), Paper (all paper products, toilet paper, paper towel, kleenex, etc), Food (any and all food items), Cleaning (basically all cleaning supplies), Health and Beauty (Makeup, soaps, shampoos, etc). I don't use to many dividers but thats how I like it and I don't like to categorize things overly as them it makes it more difficult having to file all the coupons away every time. For inserts hockey card inserts are the way to go! They hold most coupons perfectly. The second type of insert I use is photo inserts; there bigger and allow you to file away multiple coupons.

2. Mini Accordion folder: I use this sometimes when I am going shopping and I am not sure if I will need extra coupons or I might or might not buy or see something on sale. I have the same categories in this so I just throw a few extra coupons in it and I have them just in case. I also keep all my receipts tucked in the back, as well as I have a place to put all the in-store coupons I find along the way until I can put them in the binder.

3. Paperclips: Once I organize a stack I like to paperclip it together, it allows you to have them organized at the store and not falling all over the place. When I locate the item I am buying I place the paper clipped stack on top and double check I have all the right coupons.

4. Envelopes: I used envelopes mainly when I first started using coupons as it make things much easier for me initially. I would write on the envelope what I was buying, how much, what price and how much I had in coupons, then I would put the coupons in the envelope. Its a very good way to make things simpler and all the information is right in front of you if you need it.

5. Bag: I recently bought a bag at Goodwill to keep my stuff in so if I need to drag it to the store it wont look so bulky. I generally just take the pages out of the binder and put them in the bag with a calculator, pen, and my other things, I like to have this stuff to refer to if need be.