A Tour of My Coupon (and More!) Organizer
January 30, 2008 18 Comments
Frustrated with failed attempts to arrange my coupons in an easily accessible and visible system, I set out on the quest to find the perfect coupon organizer. I googled, lurked on blogs, and scoured search engines…but I still couldn’t find an organizational system I was happy with. Somewhere in my hunt, I read of using baseball card holders to store coupons. I tried it, but…my three-ring binder wasn’t so handy at making sure the coupons didn’t fall out as I traveled to the grocery store. And thus began the formation of “Keren’s Coupon Organizer.” (creative title, huh? I’m happily taking suggestions…) So, let’s take a tour of my less-than-perfect coupon organizer:
In the true spirit of couponing, I was even able to obtain all my supplies at no cost to me! I was able to get a Trapper Keeper at CVS, in which both my coupons and home organization information is kept. I like the Trapper Keeper over a simple three-ring binder because (1) it can be zipped up to prevent spills and (2) it has several storage pockets in which I can store scissors and other supplies.
I was also get page-dividers at CVS, and used them to divide my organizer into desired sections. The particular dividers I chose have pockets, which allows me to store items I’ll sort later.
Knowing that coupons would take up the majority of the notebook, I put the coupon section at the end of my Trapper Keeper. There, I subdivided my main coupons into 3 categories: (1) Grocery, (2) Household & Toiletries, and (3) Medicine & Pharmacy. (I used Avery Write On Tabs–also free from CVS!–to do this.) In this section I used plastic baseball card holder sheets to store the coupons, and sort them alphabetically within the sections. I leave some spaces blank, and when I get a bunch of coupons and have not more empty slots, I stick a new plastic sheet in between pages (so it’s not always precisely alphabetical.)
After the general coupon section, I store my CVS coupons. I use a combination of the baseball card storage sheets and 4×6 photo album (pictured) plastic sheets.
Following the CVS section, I have a space for “Specific Store Coupons,” where I use a combination of the above mentioned plastic sheets, as well…
and full page plastic protector sheets.
So there you have it-that’s what works for me! I’m interested in hearing about more ideas, though!
After I put my organizer together, I did stumble upon this coupon organizer: Mrs. A’s Coupon Organizer. (To learn about a special discount on Mrs. A’s Organizer, go here.) Though I probably would not purchase the whole system, I would love to eventually get some of their patented coupon holder insert pages, which I think would allow me to organize coupons more efficiently. But until we reopen our “extra’s” budget, I’m very satisfied with my current system!
Feel free to click on the picture below for more “Works for Me Wednesday” ideas!
Beauty in Every Place 
I use an according type file-thingy….One day maybe I’ll switch over to this way. I’ve always been so impressed by the 3 ring binder systems!
I tried that system out briefly, but didn’t like the fact that I couldn’t see the coupons. However, I may end up switching back (I think it might take less time!) depending on how I’m able to keep up once our baby arrives! 🙂
Wow your organization puts me to shame, but makes me want to try this. I love coupons. I even get them in the mail from family members. Great tip! Thanks.
oh wow… im not a couponer because i never could figure out a system to use that would be organized…but this looks GREAT! i’ve never thought to use baseball pockets (something we have a lot of, leftover from my hubby’s teen years). thanks for the awesome tip with pics! (i love WFMW posts…esp when they have pics!!)
Wow — that’s almost exactly what my coupon binder is like!! Only I used one of my husband’s zip-up binders instead of buying one. By turning in some ink cartridges at Office Depot, I got $3 off coupons to buy the plastic sleeves with. I got the photo sleeves because they are a little bigger.
That is really neat–I’d love to see yours! We got our plastic sleeves at Wal-Mart with a gift card from some “baby returns.” 🙂
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i use a very similar system! trapper keeper with baseball card pages! i love it!
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I noticed visitors coming to our site from danandkeren’s blog. Keren has come up with a great organizer system.
Couponing is hard work, not just in the clipping, but in the store. Proper and full organization can greatly reduce the time it takes to coupon, reduce the frustration of manipulating a stack of coupons over and over, and increase the savings. One major key is having all of your coupons visible at once for a store section. Keren is right. Mrs. A’s Coupon Organizer does this thru our patented coupon holder pockets. Nice thing about them is that it’s easy to put coupons in and get them out. Our pockets don’t fit in a standard binder (we’re 9″x9″x2″). Some day we’ll make some so that folks can build their own binder yet have pockets which are easier to use than baseball card holders.
We’ve been running a special of 33% off. However, if you follow this link, we’ll take another 15% off; http://mrsascouponorganizer.com/mrsas.html
Sincerely,
Paul Stout
General Manager
Mrs. A’s Corporation
http://laurawilliamsmusings.blogspot.com/2007/07/lauras-couponing-and-refunding-hints.html
Great idea but I have way too many coupons to fit into any binder. I currently have my coupons in a 9″ x 8″ file box. I sort my by category, then alphabetically within category and any duplicates have earliest expiration dates first. Happy couponing!
I have a binder, and it is heavy and time consuming, but since I love couponing so much; it’s like a hobby to me. Has anyone tried the Mrs. A’s couponing systems with those plastic sheets. I wonder if they house more coupons in an organized manner than my baseball card holders. I wish that my baseball pages were double sided, because it would trim my binder weight in half. However, I like my binder system.
I don’t have a sorting mat, and our table is too small to sort them all out. How I sort my coupons before they go into the binder is that I use a small coupon expandable organizer (that have 13 slots or so) and I leave the first and the last one empty. In the middle I put general categories combined. I cut my coupons and put them all into the first slot. That little thing I carry with me, and when I have a free couple of minutes I organize them by general category. The last slot I keep open so that I can put expired coupons, which I send to the army every now and then.
I do find that it is a lot of work, but it pays off at the cash register.
I read somewhere on internet that someone used a mat, wrote categories with magic marker so could use to collect before putting into categories in box. Has anyone seen that? How large should it be?
Hey I am hoping to find a lot of decent hug coupons , Have some links ???
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I use a Trapper Keeper as well, and have made my insert pages using document protectors and card stock. That part is a little complicated to explain, but it works well for me. It ends up being a page with 4 or 5 pockets with coupons on the front and back. I bought some of Mrs. A’s insert pages, and don’t really care for them as the pockets are too narrow for internet prints, and when I turn a page, the top two rows slide out. But they may be okay for smaller coupons. I have two more categories, an organic section and one for the month’s expiring coupons. Great article!
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