Staying Orgainzed

This is my coupon book. It is a basic expandable file about 4x8 inches.On the inside there are 12 different tabs to add your own sections. I have mine labeled baby, grocery, dairy, frozen, meat, house, personal, cleaning. I then have the names of the stores I go to most. MarketPlace, Wayne's, Walmart, and Frederic Grocery. I have mine set up this way because it works for me. If you have other things you buy, make the tabs work for you. Realize there are coupons out there for almost everything. Some people, like my mom, use a crate with dividers and paper clips, while others use baseball card sleeves and a 3 ring binder. I thought that would be too cumbersome and I wouldn't have enough coupons to fill it to make it worth while. Inside each tab I put the coupons relating to that category. Baby has all diaper, wipes and formula coupons. Grocery has any dry grocery or beverage coupons you would find in the middle aisles of the store. Dairy has anything in the dairy cases, cheese, gogurt, Pillsbury rolls. Frozen has everything from pizzas to waffles and veggies. House is everything household, well mostly just batteries. Personal is all the feminine items, soap, shampoo, and razors. Cleaning is just that, all cleaning products, dish soap, scrubbies, and cleaners.

When the Sunday paper comes out, I go through that to take all the coupons for products we normally use, even if it is for a different brand. I never cut the coupons if we won't use it, like soy milk or pet food. When I look at the store ads to see who has the best prices, I make my list according to that. With my coupon book it makes it easy to find the coupons and pair them with each store. The stack of coupons then goes in the tab for that store. I take my whole file with me. You never know when an item is on clearance or a big store markdown and you would have a coupon for that item. I also go to coupon websites and print the coupons for the items we use. I usually only do this when they match up with the ad because any coupon you print expires 30 days from date printed. Also coupons always come out again and sales always cycle themselves.

Closed view of my coupon book.

Open coupon book.