Step 2 - Get organized

Now that you have some coupons, it's time to get organized. Nothing's worse than arriving at the store with a stack of coupons and having to go through the entire stack for each item you purchase.

Methods
When it comes to organizing your coupons, there are several different methods. Some like putting them in a little box or coupon holder with tabs, others use envelopes, while some chose not to clip them from the inserts at all and instead keep the full inserts until they need a coupon from them. I use the binder method which consists of a binder with baseball card collector sleeves (I'll go into detail in a moment). There are positives and negatives to each of these methods and really, it's a matter of personal preference.

When I first started couponing I used the box method. I had a small plastic index card box and created dividers for it. I would then clip my coupons and file them under the correct category (see categories below). After a short while I ran out of space and got tired of flipping through the coupon categories and the coupons in each category. So I switched to the binder method, which suits me much better!

The Binder
I found an old, 4 inch, zippered Five Star binder (from my college days) in a closet. I underlined the word zippered because it is preferred that the binder can be closed. It only takes dropping the binder once and all the coupons falling out to realize...a zipper is vital!! I then purchased 50 baseball card collector sleeves (which has since become 100). These can be found at WalMart (usually near the registers), the Dollar Store or on eBay.

Here's how my binder is organized:

- In the front I have a pencil pouch where I keep a small pair of scissors, a pencil, a small calculator, scrap paper and paperclips.

- Then I have a pocket divider in which I carry 2 envelopes - One labeled "IN" and one labeled "OUT". The "IN" envelope is where I put coupons from tear pads, that I find while doing my shopping and might want to use during a future trip.  The "OUT" envelope is where I put my coupons for the current shopping trip. I have this "OUT" envelope so that I don't have to dig out every coupon that I plan on using, at the store. I still carry my binder with me because there are many deals to be found at the store that I might not know about ahead of time. I also carry my current grocery shopping list here, which I will talk about in Step 3 - Preparing for a shopping trip.

- Next I have another pocket divider where I carry the current price list (just in case I need to double check an advertised price) and the commissary coupon policy. Carrying the coupon policy for whichever store you are shopping at is important, because you will run into the occasional misinformed cashier (and even manager). This happens less frequently, in my experience, at the commissary, but I have had to pull it out and show a cashier in the past. The full commissary policy can be found here. I chose to only print out the pages related to couponing, because it is very long.

- Next is where my categories begin. I have tabbed dividers followed by inserts. Inserts come in different sizes (9 per page, 6 per page, 4 per page, 3 per page etc.) and I would recommend getting a variety, since coupons come in different shapes and sizes. You can always fold coupons to make them fit, but it is nice to not have to fold all coupons. On the tabs I have my general categories. Each person has different categories, so chose for yourself what is easiest for you. One school of thought is to divide it up by "Health & Beauty", "Produce", "Canned Foods", etc. I find it easier to divide it by aisles. The last category in my binder is "Restaurant".

- At the end of the binder I keep a log of my savings. Here's a neat tip. When I first started couponing, I pulled up a years worth of transactions at the commissary using my online banking. I then added them all up and divided them by the number of transactions. The total $ amount showed what I was spending on an average grocery trip. Each time I go shopping now, I add the difference, in my past average and my current trip, to the log. This is what keeps me motivated.

The entire binder goes in a tote. When I get to the commissary, I place it open, in the child seat of the cart and flip through it as needed.

Now that you are organized let's give it a try! Check out Step 3 - Preparing for a shopping trip.



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