Coupon organizer and tips?

[bamamom]

I'm changing my coupon orgainizer to the index box method. I was just wondering for those of you that have made your own organizers, what different catergories do you have? I'm really wanting to try and coupon better than I have in the past. Looking at returning to SAHM in the near future and will becoming a serious coupon girl Welcome all suggestions and tips as far as anything related to couponing

 

[ShiPooOwner]

Coupons can save you a ton of money!

Here are my categories:
organizer #1
beverages
canned goods
breads and cereals
dairy products
meat and fish
frozen foods
paper and plastic
snacks
pasta, potatoes, and rice
dressings, sauces, and seasonings
fresh produce
pets
cleaning and laundry

organizer #2
dental care
deodorant and soap
feminine products
make up
hair care
skin care
eye care
baby care
pain relievers and vitamin supplements
candles and air fresheners
restaurants
rebates

Just my personal preference, but I use plastic accordian style organizers that open wide and are very sturdy. One is blue and the other is red. I bought them on clearance at CVS for about .80 each if I remember correctly.

I look through the ads on Sunday and pull out the ones I want to shop at that week. I use various websites such as afullcup, slickdeals.net, hotcouponworld, etc. to learn about good shopping scenarios, coupon match ups with products, etc. I make a list for each store I plan to shop at, pull out the coupons and attach them to the list (if there's a lot, I put them in an envelope with my list). If the item is on sale, has a store coupon, and a mfg. coupon it can be a shopping bonanza. I try to avoid buying anything if it's not on sale. I have a good stockpile to draw from to avoid having to buy anything last minute. In fact, sometimes I have so much that I donate a lot of products to our church's food shelves, our community's food shelves, and send CARE packages to the troops overseas.

I also belong to and organize a coupon train here on DIS and I sometimes buy coupons from Coupon Clippers if there's something I really want multiples of like when they had the Discover coupon a few months ago. I let friends, coworkers and relatives know if they don't want their coupon inserts from the Sunday paper, they can save them for me. Many people just throw them out with their paper.

HTH a little.

 

[ncbyrne]

I organize my coupon file box according to the aisles in my favorite grocery store and the products found in each aisle.

 

[floridascgirl]

I found a system that works for me by doing a Google search for coupon organization...also, on southernsavers.com (sent here by someone on this Forum).

 

[puffkin]

I am a big couponer....heavily into CVS/Rite Aid. This is what I do:

Food coupons I only cut out what I know I will eat. I have a box with the following categories:

Dry Goods
Canned Goods
Frozen Food
Cereal
Beverages
Snacks
Dairy
Pet

For all cleaning, cosmetic, medicine, paper goods, etc I clip everything. I then file those into coupon accordian envelopes alphabetically. It takes me much less time this way.

 

[chrismiss56]

bumping

 

[brianswife]

I use the binder method. I have a binder with dividers and some baseball card holder sleeves in it. That way I can see what I have and if I come across a sale or markdown or clearance at the store I can flip to that section and see if I have a coupon to match up with. If I have more than one coupon, I stick the longer dated ones in the back, so I use the ones up first that expire the soonest. It works for me. I tried the accordian method and I didn't do as well.

But, if you check out my office and lab at work, everything I have and do are sorted into binders. So, I guess it's my organizational "style" LOL Good Luck!

 

[couponclary]

I use the binder/baseball card sleeve method too. I was an accordion file user for years, but when I started "extreme" couponing last spring, I had to upgrade to be able to keep up with my coupons and maximize my deals! It did cost about $30 to get a durable binder, dividers & sleeves, but it was money well spent! I set mine up like Collin on Hip2Save dot com (she did a Follow Me Monday video on it) and I haven't looked back!