How to organize your coupons!

So now that you have collected  bunch of coupons you need to find a way to organize them.   The best method I have found is using a binder and baseball card holders.  You can find the baseball card holders at walmart near the magazines.

 

There are 2 ways to organize your coupons: by category or by expiration date.  I perfer to organize mine by category that way I can easily find what I need while shopping in the store.  I then organize the coupons in that certain category by expiration date. That way when its time to clean out my binder I can easily remove all my expireds.

 

Organize by Category: More time up front, Less time shopping

• Organizing by category requires a few hours of time each week to clip and organize all your coupons.  I usually spend and hour-90 minutes on a Sunday evening getting up to date on all my coupons.


• This method makes preparing to shop quick and easy because your coupons are already clipped and organized!  Plus, when you find a clearance item in the store, it only takes 20 seconds to flip to the right category and find the coupon you need.


• Use Baseball Card Holders to hold the clipped coupons (Find at Target, Walmart, eBay, etc).  Should be around $5 for 30 pages.  You’ll need around 60 pages.

Organize by Date: Less Time Up Front, More Time Getting Ready to Shop

If you don’t have the time to clip all your coupons every Sunday,  you may want to try organizing by date.  When using this method, you don’t clip any of my coupons until you use them. Couponers still throw away at least 3/4 of their coupons, so this method saves you from clipping many of the coupons you won’t use anyway.

• Organizing by date will require you get sheet protectors to put each insert into it’s own page- for easy access.


• You’ll also print the Coupon List from Pinching Your Pennies (which gives you an alphabetical list of all the coupons)- so that if you run into a clearanced item- you can find what week the coupon is from and flip right to it


• Another tip if you are going to try out this method, is to write the date (that the coupon came out) on each set- so that if it comes out of the sheet protector you can find it’s home again.

How to get started!!

1. Tear the inserts apart, careful not to ruin barcodes
2. We get multiple copies of each insert, so we lay the entire insert out on the table, Soon we have 10 copies of the 1st page in a pile, 10 of the 2nd page in a pile, ect.
3. Next, we staple all 10 of the 1st page together, and on down the pages…
4. Then, if you’re organizing  by date, write the date on each stapled set and put each stapled set into a clear plastic sheet protector.   If you’re organizing by category, start clipping each stapled set and put the coupons into it’s corresponding category!