There are several ways on how to organize coupons. I will cover how to organize coupons categories and by date. In addition I will show you a bunch of great tips and tricks how to save money with coupons when they are properly organized.
How To Organize Coupons In A Binder
The most common way to store coupons is either in a binder.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO ORGANIZE COUPONS IN A BINDER:
A binder
Tabbed dividers
Baseballcard holders and/or Sheet protectors (see below)
If you choose your binder this is the one article where you don’t want to skimp. You are going to use this organizer almost every day either for storing your coupons or for taking them out into the store. Hence, you should choose a very durable binder because if you use something too cheap it will come apart easily and you have to get a new one regularly – and it’s a pain to always reorganize your coupons.
You will use the dividers to easily find what you are looking for either by expiration date or the category whatever you like the best.
How to organize coupons categories
You can either use “product types” as category (like food, tools, makeup etc.) or you can choose the stores you regularly visit for categories. You can even combine both methods and have a “product type” category for each store or a “store” category for every product type.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO ORGANIZE COUPONS BY CATEGORY:
Baseballcard holders
Sheet protectors
Scissors
What you do is you clip all the coupons you might need up front, sort them by category and put them in the corresponding baseball card holder. Sometimes you might have really large coupons therefore you need sheet protectors as well. In addition you will have to flip through all your pages regularly and sort out the coupons that already expired.
This method takes up much more time during organization but it will be very quick and easy once you are in the store because you just have to flip to the category you need right then and there to see if any of the coupons comes in handy.
How To Organize Coupons by date
If you organize your coupons by date it is even more important that you get a durable binder because with this method your binder is getting extremely bulky very quick.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO ORGANIZE COUPONS BY DATE:
Sheet protectors
Scissors
Some sort of poket to hold your scissors and left over coupons you might want to use later on. (optional – see below)
Break your inserts appart at the seem, group like pages together and just put them in your sheet protectors. If you have a page of coupons on one side of the page and just kind of a “junk page” on the backside you can use a second page of the same type to put it in the same sheet protector and save some space.
This method is a lot faster on the organizing part especially when it comes to purging expired coupons. But it will take you much longer once you’re in the store to flip through all your pages and find the coupons that you might want to use.
To cut down the time you need to spend in the store I highly recommend to do the clipping up front and leave your binder at home (especially because it’s heavy). Just go through your list find the coupons for everything you want to purchase, clip them and put them in your purse or in a baseballcard holder and you are good to go. If you do that you do need neither the scissors nor the extra pocket in your binder.
How To Organize Coupons Without Binder
If you don’t like binders, if you think they are too bulky or take up to much space, or you just don’t want to carry them around the store then there are several other organizing methods.
ORGANIZE COUPONS IN A FILING SYSTEM
The filing system actually works in the same way as organizing coupons into a binder. You can either order by date or by category. The only difference is that you always go through your shopping list right up front your shopping trip, find your coupons and clip them to take them with you. Again use baseballcard holders for your coupons so you see everything at a glance and find what you need in a second.
ORGANIZE COUPONS IN ENVELOPES
Get a bunch of envelopes, color coded if you like. Buy some sort of purse (or get it for free by using couponing ). Label the envelopes either by date (you will have to relable them every once in a while) or by category, clip the coupons and put them into the matching envelope. At last put the envelopes into your special purse. Now you’re all set.
Couponing Tips
If you organize your coupons by category don’t try and take a category list you find online. Everyone has different needs and different habits on how to shop. Build your own category list and change it whenever you feel the need to do so.
Because the expiration date is usually shown only very tiny, always write the expiration date on your coupons.
If you have more then one insert of the same type break them appart at the seem, group like pages together and staple them. If you’re clipping coupons then cut them at once after stapling to save time.
You can put a list of regular prices of commonly bought things into your binder for reference so you can check if you get a great deal.
Store all the coupon policies in your binder so have them handy when there is any kind of miscommunication.
Put a calculator in your binder to calculate the prices and to see if the cashier is charging you the right price.
Don’t put all your coupons into your binder, just coupons from stores you regularly visit. Put alle the other coupons into a filing system ordered by expiration date. This will save you a lot of time organizing and if you go somewhere special you instantly know where you will find the right coupons and if they are expired without flipping through your whole binder.
If you don’t want to clip coupons at all go ahead and look for a coupon clipping service they will do it for you.
Now that you know how to organize coupons just grab a newspaper to find some inserts or go to a store to get some coupons and get started.
