How to Organize Your Coupons

I am coupon savvy shopper. As a matter of fact, I am obsessed with coupons. I am quite sure that if my budget were not so tight, I would STILL be coupon crazy.

For me, it is a game, a challenge, and a quest! I absolutely love the feeling of watching that cash register total go down. My favorite little CVS employee once remarked that I liked to "get back at the Man." Those of you not born in the 1960's may not know what that means, but it is just an expression of getting back at the powers that be. I think he may be right! After corporate downsizing, foreclosure, and other things beset us, this is one thing I can actually Win! If someone in front of me at CVS gets more Extracare Bucks back than I do, I am very irate! I like to win!

If you use coupons like I do, you won't leave your home without them. I don't shop in a store without my coupons. You don't know when you go in for a loaf of bread if you might walk past a buggy of clearance items for which you have a coupon!

How do you organize your coupons to be able to get the most for your money any time you make a purchase?

I have tried so many methods to organize my coupons that my family makes fun of me! Every time I change, it involves hours of reorganizing. The only good thing is that all this reorganizing kept my mind aware of what coupons I do have and keeps the expired coupons cleaned out.

Here are some ideas gleaned from my journey to organize my coupons, and advice on the way I finally ended up satisfied with my system.

The original coupon organizer is a little folder you probably have seen before. These have little divisions for Frozen foods, Paper goods, etc...They usually say, "COUPONS" on the front. These might work for a person with just a few coupons, but they don't work well for me. I really like filing my coupons by product name: Kool-aid in the "K" section.

They are nice if you are one of the people who pull all the coupons you are going to use and leave the rest at home. I take my entire file with me every time I enter a store, so this was just not working out for me.

You have categories that are too broad, and it seems like some are overflowing and hard to manage.

I have tried the collector's cards book that are recommended on some coupon shopper's sites. I used a Pocahontas Card book I bought at a thrift store! It actually had Pokemon cards in it! I promptly sold them on Ebay!

This method didn't work well at all for me, although the experts all tout this method. I had trouble getting the coupons in and out. The little openings are small. It also required a lot of upkeep when you clip your coupons. Trying to slide them in and allow enough empty spaces for each alphabet letter or category.

Nope....Even though my Pocahontas Folder got a lot of comments!

Next, I tried a small plastic accordian folder from the school supplies department at Target to organize my coupons. It had around 8 sections, which I labeled by ABC, DEF, etc... the bottom sections are open, so coupons would slide under sometimes. Also, you had a big mess of A's, B's, and C's that made it difficult to pick out what you needed. When you needed to look for a coupon, you had to pull them out and sort through them on a counter or something.

I had the bright idea to try the book and plastic page idea to organize my coupons again, using a photo alblum. This option really could work, I think, if you had a moderate amount of coupons or a lot of pages. I ended up using several photo books, five to be exact! The were different sizes that I found at home and purchased at the thrift store...The system had a few glitches, but with some cash to throw at this idea, I think it would work. The best way would be to use a notebook with the ability to add plastic photo sheets. I liked the 4" by 6" size that held one or two per page. I have so many coupons that I was carrying around 5 random photo alblums to the store. This was inconvenient and was causing me to get negative attention by employees. They didn't know what I was doing, and they seemed suspicious. So I scrapped this method. I do think it has potential.

My next project in my journey to organize my coupons was to take a shoebox and make a coupon file. I used pieces of cardboard and markers to make dividers. I got a section for each alphabet letter, but the problem was that it was not very portable. The lid wouldn't fit on, and if it spilled, oh boy! It's portability was the only drawback of this system.

You can organize your coupons with a simple folder.

The best method I have used is a large, cardboard accordian folder that I bought for a dollar at the Goodwill Thrift Store. It has little hooks like you would hang on a file drawer.

It only had a limited number of sections, too, but I have taken care of that problem. I used folders down inside the section for each letter. I made my own folders with a stapler and printer paper! Within A-B-C section, there is a folder for A, and one for B, etc...You can pull the folder out and it is easier to look through the coupons for a particular one you want.

It is deep enough that the coupons don't fall out, and it is easy to carry. It stands up in the buggy seat, and it is easy to use. I am just so happy with it.

You could use manilla folders, or make your own like I did. I will wait till I find a good deal on manilla folders! Of course!