Coupon Organizing Question

[Kayjay]

Thanks all for the GREAT tips!! Looks like I'm gonna try a binder.. just need to get it all organized! Does everyone bring their binder/organizer to the store when shopping?.. or prepare coupons before going shopping and put in wallet? Just wondering....
It's just finding the time to get organized..... with my 2 little guys I am finding it very hard to keep everything up!

I bring my binder in with me. It sits nicely in the kid seat. I also have them all with me if I happen to see something on sale and know I have a coupon for it (saves from leaving everything and going back to the vehicle)
I also got my binder on clearance at Wal-Mart.

[joseff]

I use a smallish accordian thing, bought one at a dollar store years ago and it finally gave up the ghost, so purchased a new plastic one for about $6.
It has 13 sections so I organize by month. The first slot is this months expiries and my save.ca ones so I don't loose them. I use a 5x7 piece of paper, folded in halfish, with the Month in BIG BOLD LETTERS in each slot as well, so I just have to move up everything in the paper.
Just prior to the end of the month, I go through the first slot to see if I need to spend money today or not, then on the 1st, I toss the expired ones and move everything up a slot. As I do this, I also go through each month again just to refresh my memory.
I also dont drive so I need something smaller that I can carry with me. I also don't clip EVERY coupon I find, just the ones that I always wanted to try a brand, or stuff that I buy anyways.

[Scottishgal]

Another little trick I started was to highlight the different months of expiry in a different color ! Helps when sorting and tossing

Thats a really good idea. Never thought to do that when I highlight the expiry date. Thanks very much.

[coupon girl]

i have a coupon (photo album )paid nothing for it mom gave to me- in my purse i have an envelope with the month we are on ex oct expiries - so i can try to use them up before months end- the good coupons that is- i take my binder in store with me sometimes - had to wheel my mom around walmart last night - so i have a small coupon holder paid a .25 for it at zellers last year- i put what i was going to use in it- i try to keep on top of couponing - its never ending

[DianneS]

I have been using a coupon binder with hockey card pages. It is working quite well for me. I take it with when I shop in case I run into unexpected clearance items that I have coupons for. What I have started doing, though, is to make stacks up whenever I have enough coupons to make a good dent in, or cover, the price of something (at London Drugs). I put a post-it on the front of each stack that shows what & how much the stack is for and when it expires. When the flyers came out last week, I went though my stacks, found the ones I wanted to use, and put them all in a Zip-loc to take to London Drugs along with my shopping list. It's easy when I get to the till. I just put the stack out beside each item. The cashier seems to like the fact that they are all organized and totalled....on Tuesday night she put the coupons through really quickly. I saved $88 that evening and was OOP $14 for tax and $30 for what the coupons didn't cover.

Of course, since I'm a newbie, it seems to take me a fair bit of time to actually navigate the store and organize my cart but hopefully it will get better. I don't have small kids to take with, that must be tough to juggle. I also haven't price matched very much yet....just a couple of items.

[Kayley]

I had this problem as well and I used a small coupon organizer thing for awhile but it broke because it was so full..no joke!
then I switched to temporary plastic baggies that were labelled in a box which I also had to dig through and it sucked!

Now I use a zippered binder I already have and it is much easier so I would suggest this route. When I looked for the baseball size cards at Zellers they were 10 dollars for a small amount of pages, so I decided to go with the 4x6 photo sheets that I picked up from the Great Canadian Dollar Store. They were 2.50 for 10 and I find they work well especially if you have bunches of larger coupons like from stores. If you put them in properly they rarely slip out.

The absolute best thing I've figured out is actually the simplest...PAPERCLIPS! No joke. They have saved me. I clip the same coupons together, I clip coupons I can stack together, etc. This way in each slot you can do similar products if you only have a couple coupons or it's something you don't use as much, etc. This way I can quickly pull out the stacks I have for LD and throw them in a small organizer that is portable. I saw some good ones at the Dollar store that looked to be vinyl material for 2.00 this week. The Dollar Store also has cheap paperclips..lol! (Lol-I'm an advocate apparently for Dollar stores and haven't been before!)

Also, if you are still looking to see pictures of others coupon binders, I have seen some on here through peoples' profiles on their photo albums. Someone had posted, perhaps in another subforum, pictures of their binder to give you an idea. I would do a quick search of "coupon binder" in the forum and I think you could probably find some ideas of those who have posted the pictures!

[Kayley]

Oh also, I definitely organize by section with dividers and then put similar things on a page, ex. shampoo/conditioner on one page, hair styling on next, hair dye on next, or wherever makes most sense. I find binders are good because the pages come out if you decide you don't like where you put it.

[2jacobusgirls]

at walmar or staples ask for baseball card plastic pages and then you can fit them into a binder since there pages

[barbs]