A Tour of My Coupon (and More!) Organizer
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!
Filed under: WFMW, homemaking, household tips | Tagged: Coupons, Homemaking Binder, household tips, Works For Me Wednesday
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.”
[...] to have a baby any day now, so it may be a while before she posts She did recently write about her coupon organization and amazing $20/week grocery budget. She really needs to write a [...]
i use a very similar system! trapper keeper with baseball card pages! i love it!
[...] A Tour of A Coupon (and More!) Organizer [...]
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