Couponing 101- Coupon Collecting/ Organization

Couponing can be a very time consuming task. Below I will share with you some ways to cut down on the time you will spend couponing each week.

If you are new to couponing the firt thing you are going to want to do is start your coupon collection. You can obtain coupons from your local sunday newspaper, from online websites and here in New Rochelle we usually get an insert in our Wednesday mail with the local store circulars. A general rule of thumb in coupon collecting is you want to purchase 1 Sunday paper for every member in your house that way you have multiple coupons for the same item.

Once you begin collecting coupons your next step is storing and organizing them. There are many ways to do this but I use an easy 3 step process. I have an expanding file I use the organize my inserts. I have labeled the tabs Week1 SmartSource, Week1 Red Plum, Week1 P&G and Week1 Misc. I continue this pattern for weeks 3, 4, and 5 for the occasional 5 week month. Once I get the inserts I file them away. This makes it easy when you are using some of the websites that tell you where you can find the coupon by what insert and date they were in.

In my second step of filing I usually stay a week behind. For an example: tomorrow I will be getting new inserts from the Sunday paper. Instead of cutting and filing those I will be cutting and filing the ones from last Sunday. So, tomorrow I will go through the inserts from last week and cut out only the coupons I am most likely to use. When you have multiple inserts that are the same it is easiest to take the identical inserts and cut them all at once. I do this by lining up the pages and then paper clipping the sides. I then cut out the 3 coupons all at once. You must be careful they are lined up well or you can cut the barcode or expiration date. Once I have cut out all my most likely to be usedx coupons I file the rest of the insert back into the expanding file and put the cut coupons into my coupon binder.



To create a coupon binder you will need a 2"-3" 3-ring binder, dividers and a package of 9 pocket baseball card holders for 3-ring binders. To assemble your binder you are going to want to label your dividers with catagories. These might vary depending on your needs but this is what I have in my binder: baby, candy, canned, cereal, cleaning, dairy, drinks, frozen, hair care, meats, meds, mouth care, paper, personal care, skin care, snacks, soap, misc., baking and bread. You then file your cut coupons under the appropriate catagory. For must coupons you will have to fold them to fit in the pouch. I like to fold mine so I can see the item and amount off in the fron if possible and the expiration date on the back when I flip the page.

The third step to coupon filing comes when you are putting your deals together and are about to go to the store. You can use a small coupon organizer and label it for the stores you frequent. Then when you are done putting together your list of deals you just file your list and coupons under the store. When you get to the store just pull out your list and you are all set!