Couponing 201: Organization

Welcome to my series on how to save money at grocery stores and drugstores!  If this is your first visit, please view the previous entries in the series, found in the sidebar --------->

I had some requests for a post on coupon organization.  I know that it can quickly become overwhelming to coupon when you're sitting at a table covered in sales flyers, coupon inserts, and lists.  It's so easy to get frustrated and worn out by the constant checking and re-checking, then losing the coupons you clipped, then picking up the wrong flavor of cereal at the store that isn't on sale, etc... Many people begin couponing but burn out within a month or two because if you're not careful, you can quickly get swallowed up by all of the possible deals, the variable scenarios, the "what if's" and the "why not's".  So I'm happy to share with you the 5th secret to couponing success: coupon organization is your new BFF.

Now, before I get into the nuts and bolts of my own ever-evolving system, I'd like to point out that I was the girl who would color code my highlighting in my textbooks.  I took great pride in my neat notebooks and my legible class notes.  See, I'm by NO means a neat freak (I'm pretty messy) but I love systems-- If anything, I tend to over-categorize.  I'm happy to show you how I do it, but coupon orgnization is pretty personal, and the key is to find a system that works best for you.  Once I show you my system, I'll also talk about some other systems I've seen and give you links to check them out for yourself.

My coupon system is comprised of three parts: my insert binder, my store organizer, and my coupon organizer.

On Sunday afternoons, I sit down with the Sunday paper, a 3-hole puncher, and my insert binder.  I take a coupon insert and cut down the center spine to make it all into single pages (works better in a binder that way).  I 3-hole punch the insert, write the date on the front page, and then put the whole insert in the back of my binder.  I also put a Post-It flag on the front of the insert and label it with insert type and date, so I can quickly find specific inserts when I need them.

If I have more than one copy of the same insert, I repeat so that the inserts are all organized by date and by type.  

I then flip through all of the inserts for that week and clip only the coupons I know I'll use right away.  99.9% of the time, the coupons can be clipped so that the rest page can stay in my binder (as you can see in the picture below, on the left page).  I'll also rip out all the "junk" pages near the back of the insert that don't contain coupons.

The clipped coupon will then go into one of two places: either my store organizer (if I know it's going to be used at an upcoming sale) or into my coupon organizer (where I keep the good coupons that I clip because I know I can use them at *some* point, but not necessarily for any particular store or sale).  I keep my price list, extra Post It flags, coupon books, and Sharpie in the front pocket.

My store organizer is the old coupon organizer that I grew out of.  I have it labeled with Post_It flags so I can move around the categories if I want to.

It's a little hard to see, but I break down the categories by store & week.  Remember how I showed you how to see what the sales will be in upcoming weeks?  This knowledge really helps me to keep my coupons sorted by week.  So here you'll see "Rite Aid this week", "Rite Aid next week", etc.  I also keep store envelopes in the front of this organizer.  These envelopes hold +UPs, ECBs, RRs, Catalinas, store-only coupons-- anything that is store specific, but again, isn't needed for a particular date.

The third part of my "system" is my coupon organizer.  It was a present from my brother- it's The Coupon Wallet Organizer.  I like it, but not as much as I was expecting to-- since it's all fabric, it's not super sturdy, and I'm not confident that I could actually fill it all the way without it exploding if I squeezed it at the bottom.  It DOES have a lot of nice pockets, and loops to Velcro it on to my shopping cart (but I have to prop it up on top of my pocketbook for it to stay open without all the contents falling out) and a pen loop, and it came with a calculator, so I'm happy with it.

My coupon organizer currently has 17 categories and 8 subcategories, organized by the order of the aisles in my grocery store.  My categories are:

• Produce & Meat
• Drinks
• Pasta & Soup
• Sides & Rice
• Condiments, Spices, Dressing
• Breakfast: Cereal & Bread
• Baking
• Snack Foods
• Surface Cleansers & Air Fresheners
• Laundry
• Dish Washing
• Paper & Plastic Products
• Frozen
• Dairy Case & Eggs
• Medicine, Vitamins & First Aid (subcategories: Vitamins/Supplements, Medicine, Kids' Medicine)
• Hair, Skin & Oral Care, Beauty (subcategories: Skin, Dental, Hair, Shaving, Kids)
• Office- Batteries, Tape

I use the pretty, clear front pocket for rebates, coupons for free items, etc- stuff I don't want to get lost in all of the other coupons.

So that's it for my particular system- lots of places to put very specific coupons.  I tend to change it a bit every few weeks, but it's what works for me!  Seems like every couponer I know of has a slightly different system, though, and I love poking through various blogs and sites to see all the different ways that we accomplish basically the same thing.  Here are some other coupon systems:

• Vanessa at Vanessa's Values uses a file folder method. She keeps her inserts in a different place than I do, but I think our systems are pretty similar.
• The Money Saving Mom uses a coupon box method.  It wouldn't work for me- too much empty space for the coupons to float around- but it looks like it works well for her!
• Erin at 5 Dollar Dinners uses a coupon binder system.  I have to admit that the idea of each coupon in it's own place warms my heart a little, but I can't imagine lugging that whole binder around when I went to the store!  On the other hand, keeping all of your coupons with you at all times means you never miss out on a deal...

Hopefully by now you've seen that no matter how you organize your coupons, you need to organize them.  Do yourself a favor and start organizing now, and you won't be overwhelmed a month from now!