Coupon Lesson 2...organization

Ok, so now you have all the coupons, what ever do you do with them? There are several ways that people organize coupons and no one way will work for everyone. I have tried a couple of different things and my coupon organization is a work in progress still. So here is what I have found....

1. A set of hanging file folders. Take your weekly inserts, use a sharpie and write the date, and then file into the hanging folders by date. All of the coupon match up sites (we will get to later) will list a mfg coupon as something like RP 1/13. Which means you should be able to find that coupon in the Jan 13 Red Plum insert. This works great for many people, only clip what you need and go on. Now the issue I have with this one is that (a). coupons are regional and sometimes I wont have that particular coupon in the RP. and (b). I can be kind of a *gasp* impulse shopper. I like having my coupons handy with me in case I need to buy something while I am out running errands.

2. A three ring binder using baseball card holders separated by category. This puts all your coupons in easy view and you organize the categories by your preferences. I have yet to try this method since it seems more time consuming to me, but many people swear by it.

3. A recipe card holder or some other box with dividers to organize by what every way you prefer. Alphabetical, by category, by grocery isle...whatever. Simple and sweet. I don't use this method since it can be bulky and since I am normally shopping with my busy 3 year old, I can totally see him knocking it over and coupons going Everywhere!!!

4. I use a form of this method. An expandable file. There are tons of cute "coupon holders" out there to buy with nifty little pretyped categories. Those are great, but I found that they are a bit to limiting to me and since I am forever stuffing them into my purse, they get ruined quickly. Actually I just simply picked up 2 expandable plastic/vinyl? check files this year from the T*rget dollar isle and I totally love them! They rubber band close, I choose my own categories, and the slots are nice and big. One is for my grocery coupons and one is for all our entertainment coupons. I may graduate to a third one for all the drugstore stuff...but right now I am sticking with 2.



Please nevermind the g**dwill tear off I have still in my grocery file. I really need to move it over to the other file :-)

So now you know how to store 'em....next up how to match them!

Happy Clipping!