Coupon Organization for the Moderate Coupon User

I wouldn't say that I am a die-hard couponer, nor am I the once-in-a-while clipper. I am somewhere in between "coupons are my life" and "I only use them when I remember." I have yet to master the art of saving 60-70% off my grocery bill, but I am trying. There are a few things I do differently from the coupon pros. I don't buy multiple newspapers for the coupons. I don't travel around the city from store to store each week just to use the coupons or to stockpile and I definitely don't like to haul a full-sized three-ring binder to the store. I have found a few useful alternatives for the massive coupon organization systems out there for moderates like myself.

The first problem I had with the larger binder systems is the overall size. It's not convenient to carry an awkwardly obtrusive binder when I have at least one, sometimes three children in attendance. I have a 2 year-old that sits in the shopping cart and quite frankly, there is not enough room for the two of them. The second issue I have with binder systems is that the inserts (usually baseball card-sized) really don't work well for the longer coupons. I prefer a larger slot that I can view 2-3 coupons in each. You can buy inserts that have larger, 4x6 photo-sized slots; however it still defeats the first problem of overall size.

There are also the larger box-type coupon organizers. These are unattractive for the fact that they're not very portable. After trying a few solutions that didn't work sufficiently, I stumbled across something that did; an audio CD wallet. It had the features I was looking for with larger pockets, compact design, and coupon visibility. Most CD wallets even zipper closed, adding security.

CD wallets are available in a variety of sizes and styles from nylon to leather. You can get a wallet that holds one CD slot per page or two vertical slots per page. All pages are double sided of course.

Another possible solution I've found, and one that I am using now, is a purse-sized photo album. It measures approx. 6"x8" and each page contains two horizontal 4"x 6" photo slots. It has 16 double-sided pages for a total of 64 slots for coupons. Perfect size (fits in most of my purses); perfect capacity for a moderate clipper like me and the cost was a whopping $2.69! The only thing I added were tabs for organizing categories. Voila, a no-bulk organization solution for your coupons.