Being organized

One thing that is very important when couponing is being organized. Having a box full of coupons and trying to find one will drive you crazy! There are many ways to organize your coupons. Here are a few ways:

a binder (which has the baseball card sheets in it)...you can find full instructions on how to make one of these on AFC. I used the binder 5yrs ago and loved it! I just went back to it. To me personally its the best method!

a small accordian file, you can get these at tons of stores. The dollar tree's sell the paper style ones, walmart sells some that are the length of a business envelope and made of sturdy plastic. I've used both of these as well. The paper ones dont hold many coupons before they rip. The plastic style one worked great but yeah I got way to many coupons so had to upgrade.

You could store all your coupons in envelopes that are marked by catagories. Just remember dont leave your coupons at the store!

I for one anytime I go to the store I take my entire binder with me. I dont leave home without it. Why? Because what happens if something is on clearance and I know I have a coupon for it but oh dang left the binder at home. Well sure you could go back tomorrow but who's to say that item will still be there? Dont risk it at least take it and leave it in the car so you can run to the car to get it!

On Sundays I go get 1-3 papers from the gas station down the road. I sit and cut out all coupons, sort and file them in the binder. Doing this right away I find is best. This insures me that they are all in there for when I go shopping the following day.

Get the local paper for when your stores sale ads come out. If the grocery stores flyers come out on wednesdays get it then, if they come out sundays remember to get that paper when your getting the big ones for the inserts! This way you can visually look at the flyer and coupons. Plus you can take that flyer with you to the stores as well.

All in all its about being organized. If you can get tons of inserts from the sunday papers you dont have to cut them all and have them all filed in your binder or whatever you choose to use. The ones you plan to use you will want organized one way or another. When you go shopping make sure you have a writen list of what you are getting, what coupons to use and the final price after the coupon. Make sure to have all the coupons you plan to use pulled and set somewhere for easy access.

If theres items in a flyer that I think I may be interested in I write them down as items to look at. I pull those coupons out as well and paperclip them together. That way if it comes down to it I can pull that coupon if its a great deal.