Ok, this may seem like a hassle, but believe me, it is worth it. I have 3 small children, so any organizing tip is worth gold for me. I figure if I'm going to the trouble to clip coupons, I might as well know where they are.
To organize and file my coupons, I bought a 3 ring binder and clear plastic baseball card holder pages. I made page dividers with those plastic page protectors and put cute scrapbook paper in the pockets to make it mine. In all, I have 25 categories so I can find my coupons fast. You might have more or less, depending on your own needs.
Also, in the front of the binder, I have a zippered pouch so I can store a small calculator, pen, special coupons, etc., and a small notebook I'll tell you about some other time.
I've learned to take my binder with me whenever I shop. For instance, yesterday I found band-aids clearanced down to $1.44. A good deal. But I was able to flip over to my "health" tab and find a $1 off coupon, making them practically free.
Did I mention how easy it is for me to plan my grocery list now, too? Pop open the binder and the weekly ads and match coupons to sales. Presto!
Just as an aside, I hesitated to post this last week when I was thinking about it because I thought it would be better to write about things with experience to back up my words. And so as a testimony, the kids and I went shopping yesterday and my binder method saved us a total of $42 in coupons, before sale prices. I hope you can benefit from this method too. I wish I had done it years ago.
5 comments:
Soooo....have you joined the CVS game yet?! They REALLY give you the bang for your coupon! And if you live near a Giant, they DOUBLE (and sometimes triple) coupons up to $1.00.
That is always fun!
CVS. I am sorry to say there are no CVS stores in Colorado. Sniff. I hear about their great deals all the time and how you can walk out of there with 3 shopping bags worth of goodies and you pay $0.24 and you have ECV's in your pocket! But we do have a Walgreens that I visit on an almost weekly basis. (One time I got toothpaste and 4 bags of cough drops and I paid $0.54 for all of it.) I might have to do a Walgreens post. In fact, I just sent out my form for my first rebate/gift card yesterday.
That sounds like something similar to what I've started doing. I do The Grocery Game so I don't have to do the work of matching the sales myself. I like your organization method. It's amazing how much combining coupons with sales really adds up to a lot of savings!
I'm a little late here...searching for ways to organize coupons. I'm beginning this endevour toward saving money on groceries! Can you tell me your 25 categories???
Sure! But now I'm up to 27~ The categories are: Baby, Baking, Beverages, Bread, Canned, Cereal, Cleaners, Candles & air fresheners, Condiments, Dairy, Dishes (i.e. washing) , Frozen foods, Health & Beauty, Hygiene, Laundry, Makeup, Meat, Medication, Paper products & plastic bags, Pasta & rice, Peanut Butter & Jam, Salad, Shampoo and Conditioner, Shaving, Snacks and Candy, Toothpaste & toothbrushes, Miscellaneous
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