Hello, Amy! I love reading your blog and just started living the frugal life. My husband was recently laid off from his job that he's had for over 15 years. So, needless to say we've had to make some cut-backs. I was wondering how you do your coupon organization. I get mine and throw them in a box. I can't seem to find the best way to organize them. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Kelly R.
I am terribly sorry to hear about your husband being laid off. There is so much of that happening and it's just not cool. I think now is a great time to work on this question because the new year is coming up and I'm sure there will be lots of "coupon organization" resolutions out there. I, too, have struggled with my coupon organization over the years. It depends a lot on how often you get to the stores and how many coupons you use. When I first started out I used the following coupon organizer that my parents bought me. This little guy is at least 10 years old.
Then over time I began collecting more coupons and my smaller coupon organizer was getting a little too stuffed so my mother in law found the following coupon organizer for me. It's a little larger with more room and holds more coupons. (It's a little dirty - the price you pay for having kiddos!)
I then found it easier to just take each week's coupon inserts and put them in manila folders labeling them for each week. When I do coupon match ups I would look at HotCouponWorld and look up the date and insert of the coupon I was looking for. I would quickly find the inserts and clip the coupons. This worked really well for me for the most part. However, when I was at the store I would find items that were on sale that I didn't know about, but didn't have my coupons with me because I had only clipped out the ones that I needed for the ad.
So, this new year I will start a new couponing process. I will do the binder with baseball card holder kinda business. I bought a 2 inch ring binder ($.50 at Goodwill), baseball card holders and dividers (all can be found at Wally World) over the summer, but never really started the coupon organization that way. It gets time consuming clipping all the coupons and placing them in the binder, but I believe that will save us more money despite the extra trouble.
There are several things to look at in deciding which method is better for you. Do you live in town and can get to the stores real quickly if needed? If so, the manila folder organization may be better for you. I live outside of town and can't quickly run into the stores when needed. Plus, I have three kiddos that I have to take with me so I definitely limit my trips.
Because this is how our trips go - My 3 year old says "Mommy, I've got to pee pee potty." I take her along with my 15 month old to the potty. I also take my 8 year old because I am paranoid and won't leave him alone in the store even if it's outside the door. While she's using the potty she has to talk about everything and point out the cracks in the wall or the floor while she's "concentrating" on using the bathroom - taking her sweet time. Meanwhile, my 15 month old is trying to climb under the stalls and won't sit still fussing because he is bored. All the while my 8 year old is complaining saying he is too old to be in the girl's bathroom. Oh, the joys of parenthood.
If you don't use a lot of coupons and only do it occasionally you might be better off with the small coupon organizer. You'll just have to figure out which way is best for you.
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