Coupon Organizer

Everywhere you look it seems we all are trying to tighten our wallets & purse strings to make our money work harder for us. One way that I do this is through using coupons. If you really look at things closely you can save a bundle using coupons, especially if you take advantage of the double and triple coupon offers. Now I know what you might be thinking..."ok, coupons are good but it's so much hassle." I couldn't agree with you more. One thing I found hard about using them is going through the piles of them to see what I have and when they expire. It's such a pain when I'm at the grocery store to fumble through the piles just to find the coupon I know I have in there for a certain item. Here's how I solved that issue over a year ago and haven't looked back since...

With a mission in mind, I wanted to see if I could "build myself a better coupon organizer," so I headed off to Walmart. I wasn't sure what I wanted or how I was going to do it, but as I looked up and down a few isles, it hit me! So here is what I came up with to make my coupons work for me and not against me...

I took a regular 3 ring binder that I had at home and printed out a front cover and side binder to dress the notebook up some. I used a binder that has the clear cover on it that allows you to slip paper under so this was perfect for the spine & title covers. I personalized mine with my name and a few scriptures that I liked.

I had some inexpensive tab dividers at home already but I did pick up another pack to have on hand in case I needed it. For less than a $1.00 I thought I would splurge on it. *grin*
On each divider I wrote out the sections for the categories I thought would be most useful for me. For example, "Produce & Deli," "Canned & Prepared Goods." "Pet Supplies," "Health & Beauty," "Dairy & Refrigerated," "Meat," "Beverages & Snacks."

While at Walmart I went to the section where they sell photo albums and I found the 5x7 - 2 pocket replacement pages that hold up to 40 pictures per package of 10 sheets. I though this would work nicely for my coupons. Best yet they were only $1.00 per package! You just gotta love those clearance shelves. So in each section of my binder I have placed the clear pages. Now I can easily put the coupon in the slots and they are easy to view at a glance, not to mention easy to know the expiration date so I can use it or pull it out if it is expired already.

This is so much easier for me to use than the old organizers that are out on the market. The binder itself has a pocket on the front and back inside covers which is where I put the envelope that my coupons I am using at the time of my shopping trip go. This keeps them together & readily available when I get to the check out counter. The pockets as well as it's ability to hold regular size notebook paper will be great to use for holding my shopping lists,as well as the sale ads.

I also have a zipper type pencil pouch in the front of my binder that clips into the binder itself. This holds my pens, pencils, calculator, notepad, travel size hand sanitizer (this helps with those drippy meat packages you might encounter-- eewww!) and just about anything else that you might need for shopping.

Granted it's not the most fancy of organizers & it is bigger than the purse size coupon holders, but for me I don't care about size. As long as it helps me stay organized and save money, it's fine with me.