Organizing Your Coupons

The mostly foolproof method for organizing your coupons.

The Binder Method

Use a three-ring zipper type notebook that has inside pockets to hold fliers. Use the nine-pocket baseball card pages for the coupons and one three-pocket page for the rebates you'll be doing for the month. Also uses a zipper pencil pouch to hold scissors, pen, notepad, and calculator. Have a business card page with store cards and Valupage scancodes in it. Use self_stick divider tabs to separate the categories. Coupons are trimmed very closely and there are very few coupons that have to be folded to fit in the pockets. The longer coupons are kept in the bottom row of pockets so the zipper won't catch on them. One or two pages are used per category, just depends on how many coupons you have. Try to keep like coupons together in the pockets.

Set up the pages in the order that the store you mostly shop at is laid out. Start on the same side every time and do the frozen aisle last.

The Day Planner Method

I started off with the large zipped binder method. I liked it at first, but as I started to aquire more coupons, forms, etc etc, it started to get heavy and bulky. Not to mention I have a 10 month old daughter that I also need to keep my hands on!
I decided I needed something smaller.
The day planners that are on the market are perfect. But, they are small, so its hard to get a lot into them and still be able to zip them shut.
I bought one at first, and after hours of transferring all my coupons, it was clear there was no way I would be able to zip it up! This is why I need to use two.

First off, I bought a day planner from Walmart. The ones I use are called Plan Ahead and cost me $7.97 each. These have the mesh zippered outside pocket, which are perfect to put your store cards in!
I removed everything out of one of the day planners. The other day planner I left a calculator, small scissors, and a pen. I also put paper clips in the small zippered pocket.
I then bought a few packages of Beautone Photo Pages. Each package cost $1.44 at Walmart.
These photo pages are meant for 4"by 6" photos, so there is a lot of room. I had to cut them to fit them into my day planner.
I then hole punched the extra holes I needed to have so the photo page would fit into my day planner.
I am sure some will find it easier to use the trading card size plastic holders that they use to hold their coupons. I just prefer the larger ones as it makes it easier to put the coupons in, and take them out as well.
I labeled the top of the left hand corner with sticky labels, then wrote on each one the catergory for which coupons it would hold.
I was lucky enough that the Day Planner that I bought already came with the strap attached, which is very convienant to carry them.
Also, if you use the large 4" by 6" pockets, you can slip a peice of colored paper into the middle of the pocket and use it as a two coupon type holder rather than one, because then you will have a double sided pocket. It all depends on how many coupons you have.

I find it much easier to flip through my day planner when I am searching for a certain coupon. I like the large 4" by 6" pocket as it makes it easy to slip things in and out of them without tearing the coupon or the pocket.
I still keep my large binder at home, which holds all the forms etc, that I don't need to bring to stores with me.
I also leave any extra coupons I know I will never use at home in a small cardboard box.
No need to drag coupons I won't use along to the stores with me. Sometimes when I do a small trade I will just grab a handful of coupons out of my cardboard box and stuff the envie with them. If I am not going to use them, someone else might as well!
Also, in both of my coupon planners, I have the first pocket hold my immediate deals ( I usually plan ahead of time before I go shopping) and any free coupons I have so I have easy access.
Hope this has helped some. If you need to ask any questions, feel free to, I will try my best to answer them.

Jennifer