Coupon Tip Tuesday

Collect and organize your coupons in a way that makes sense to you, pull out the ones you plan on using, but NEVER leave the rest of them at home! You might find a hot deal!

I have seen lots of different methods of coupon organizing, a lot of them are the same, but there are just some tweaks here and there that make each different.

For instance: Some people simply stick to the old recipe box with index card dividers.

Some buy plastic couponizers (the fan out envelopes) and use that.

Some people (me!) have a binder with baseball card sheets and dividers.

Some people have a binder with photo album sheets (you don't have to fold the coupons that way!)

Some don't clip at all, but label the inserts with the publication date, watch for the matchups and then clip the coupons they want as the deals come along.

There are tons of ways to do it.

I personally have a binder with 12 dividers labeled for each month. There are baseball card collecting sheets between each divider and I also have specific pages labeled: Meijer, Kroger, Walgreens, Kmart, Wal-Mart and Other. I only organize my coupons by expiration date. If it has an 8.31.09 expiration date, I put it under the August divider. I don't go so far as to organize by Health & Beauty, Household Cleaners, Grocery, etc...I don't have that many coupons!

When I make out my grocery list, using the coupon matchups I find on the blogs I read, and Hot Coupon World, I take the coupons from the Month Dividers, and I put them in the Store Page, so that I have exactly the coupons I want to use at Meijer laid out all nicely in front of me. That way I don't forget anything.

I clip most of the coupons I receive from my mom and my mother in law's friend. I RARELY ever remember to buy a paper and we don't have a subscription. I don't sweat it though, because I do buy a lot of coupons from ebay or from Dede and that usually is right around the cost of buying 2 Sunday papers, and I get exactly the coupons I want. I love the clipping services!

I wish my camera was working, I'd post a picture of my binder, I'll see if I can't get it going tonight. It may help to see a picture of someone's to get an idea of what you'd like or what you wouldn't like. Organizing the coupons in your own way is important to a successful grocery shopping trip. When I'm disorganized, I find myself forgetting things, missing things, etc...the binder keeps it all there for me to see. I love it!