Wednesday, May 13, 2009

COUPONS 101---PART 4

HOW TO ORGANIZE YOUR COUPONS

You will see that once you start to collect coupons, they will quickly turn into a pile of clutter if you don't have a good, organized system in place.  And, the only way I will use them is if I have them organized and easily accessible.  I have to admit, this is still a work-in-progress for me!!  I've researched and found several ways of organizing, but still don't feel that I've found the one that suits me best.  But, as of right now, I currently organize my coupons in seperate labeled envelopes, and they are all stored in a plastic box.  Here's a couple shots of my box:  (For some reason, my flash would not work, so I'm sorry these are a little dark!!)

P1010328P1010329This is a rather small box, but I chose this size, specifically, because it wasn't too large for me to carry into the stores with me, without me feeling too much like I was carrying a suitcase or something!!

I make broad categories for my coupons, ie:  DAIRY, CANDY, BAKING, CEREAL/BREAKFAST, BODY CARE, BABY, PAPER PRODUCTS, FROZEN FOODS, etc.  To make the labels, I cut up old cereal/cracker boxes and used the inside (brown side) to write on and cut them just long enough that I can see the categories above all my coupons.  Those have seemed to serve their purpose well.   Here's a closer (albeit, still dark!) picture of my labels:

P1010330

I also have envelopes for each store I frequent, because many times these stores will send coupons in the mail, or I'll have Catalinas from that store, or a rebate.  It's nice to keep that organized.

Now, as I said, I have BROAD categories for each envelope, but as time is going on, I'm realizing, I might need to make them more specific, because some of my envelopes are bursting a the seams, and here is a picture of all the coupons I still have yet to organize!!

P1010331

Here are some more options for organizing your coupons.  Some I like, and some I don't, but I wanted to show you some of the options that are out there:

coupon organizer

coupon07couponbookcouponbox

I think my favorite option would be a bigger version of the second picture.  I've seen larger black books that you can put the clear plastic photo pages into and/or clear baseball card-type pages into.  You can categorize each page, and that way, you have other pockets up front for your calculator, pens, gift cards, etc.  And, not only that, it looks to me like it might zip close, and what a treat that would be!

1 comment:

  1. [...] you remember back to my post HERE, I had a pretty good, (kind of OK—now looking back on it—not too great) way of [...]

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