the Collins

Organization of Coupons

I am so glad that so many of you have told me that you like my posts about coupons and deals. I love to talk coupons so it excites me when someone wants to talk about it too. A lot of you have asked about organizing coupons. While there are many ways to organize, I will share what has worked for me. I tried to use as many items I could find in my house to use before I spent some money on things to help me save money. The only thing I had to purchase was an expandable file folder.

I keep supplies such as scissors, a calculator, extra paper, and rebate forms. I also organize my newspaper inserts. We don't get the paper, so when I started checking some blogs, all of them had RP (red plum), SS (smart source), and P&G (proctor & gample) next to the coupon (I will explain this in another post). So, I called the paper to see how much it would cost for a Sunday subscrition. It ended up being more expensive that buying a paper, so I keep a bag of quarters in my car and get a paper on the way home from church. So, inserts are important when it comes to couponing.
I label each divider with the month and either SS or RP, they come weekly in your paper. The P&G I keep in the front because they come less frequently.

I started printing out a list from a blog that listed every coupon in the insert. I found out quickly that the inserts are regional, so the list did not match up with what my insert had in it. So, I go through but don't clip and see what coupons I would use. Then I write them down and tape them to the insert with the date on it. So, when I see that I can find a Chex Mix coupon in 10/25 SS, I know where to look. Then I mark it off when I clip and use the coupon. If you can get multiple inserts, that will sweeten the deals. A friend at my office gives me her inserts every week.

Now we go to the organization of coupons not found in the inserts. I used a box that I organized my wedding guests in and envelopes from Brent's stationary that he never used to write thank you notes from the wedding ( a newlywed can dream). I cut off the flap but left a tab that I could wite all my categories on. These are just categories of groceries and drugstore items I use the most. Some categories are baby, frozen food, Scout (pet), breakfast/cereal, etc. This way when I look at deals, I can go to the category to see if I have a coupon for it. So, where do you find these coupons, you ask? Well, mostly from the internet. This is a great way to find coupons. There are many sites along with the product sites where you can print coupons. I also find coupons in magazines, grocery store catalogs, etc. To the right of my coupons, I keep the ads from all the stores around town like Walgreens, Kroger, Publix, Staples, etc. I also keep stuff like target coupon books, gymboree deals, Walgreens monthly coupon booklets, etc. I hope this helps a little with how to organize coupons. Some people use binders and baseball card holders to keep coupons...that's alot of clipping. I will be back with how I find coupons, how to use coupons efficiently, and how to read coupon jargon.