Organizing Your Coupons
Posted on Wednesday, May 25th, 2011 at 8:12 am
The first thing you need to know when you get started with couponing? Couponers tend to be an organized bunch. We have to be! In order to be efficient we need some sort of a system! Once you’ve gotten all your coupons, read on to find out about ways to keep your coupons in order and your sanity in tact.
Containing Your Coupons
You have so many options when it comes to choosing the way you want to contain your coupons. Keep in mind that some containers are better than others for the way you coupon. You don’t need a big container if you don’t coupon too frequently. Pick something that will work best for you!
- Envelopes: Envelopes might be the easiest and cheapest way to organize your coupons. Just grab a couple envelopes and label them according to the categories you choose. When you go shopping, you can either bring all of your envelopes, or transfer the coupons you will be using to their own envelope and take just that.
- Index/Recipe Box: These are small and great for someone who doesn’t have a ton of coupons! You can find these for about $10.00 and some come with dividers.
- Expanding File Folders: These are great for people with more coupons. These will also cost around $10.00. They come in several sizes so you are sure to find one that works perfectly for you.
- Binders with Baseball or Photo Sheets: Binders are also a great option for people with a bunch of coupons. A lot of couponers find that using baseball card sheets or photo holder sheets work well do display their coupons and keep them organized.
Choosing Categories
Now that you’ve picked what you’re going to be storing your coupons in, you have to pick what categories you want to divid them up into. Again, you have a couple options, and it all really depends on just how organized you want (or need) to be. Choose whatever categorization is going to help you best while shopping. Or choose a couple! You can choose to organize just alphabetically, or you can organize alphabetically and by expiration date.
- Alphabetical: Simple! Alphabetize by product or brand.
- Product: You can lump your coupons into product groups such as “frozen foods” or “cleaning supplies.” You can be as broad (“breakfast food”) or as specific (“cereal”) as you want.
- Expiration Date: This is a simple way to keep track of when you need to use your coupons by!
- Store Layout: This method is a bit more complicated, but I’ve heard it works for some people. Organize your coupons to match the aisles in the store you shop at. This way you can follow along in your coupons while you’re shopping.
Do you have any tips on organizing your coupons for the rest of us? Share what works for you!
