I purchased a 3-ring binder that has a pocket in the front (Any 3-ring binder will work. It does not have the be a zippered one). I use the pocket to hold my store envelopes. Before I head to the stores, I put all of the coupons that I need for a specific store (like all the ones I plan to use at CVS) in its corresponding envelope. That way, when I'm in the store, I don't have to search for each coupon for each sale. I save a lot of time by doing this one little thing. I have envelopes for CVS, Walgreens, and Kroger. You can add others for the stores that you shop at most often.
I store all of my coupons in 9-pocket baseball card holders. I do have to
fold some of the coupons to make them fit, but it is worth that small bit of time. Since I switched from my accordian style coupon holder to this, I save a significant amount of time in the store. I simply flip a page and scan the coupons on that page instead of having to pull out a whole category to dig through them. As you can tell, I'm all about doing my couponing efficiently.
I divide my coupon book into many categories: Refrigerated, baking/spices,
frozen, condiments, meats, cans/jars, rice/pasta, snack foods, drinks, Body,
face, teeth, deodorant, razors, baby, household, and personal (think feminine products. I know that this is a lot of categories. After much trial and error, I find that it works best for me to have them divided this specifically. You can always start with what you think will work best and tweak it to fit your style. I use plastic tabs that stick to the pages for dividing.
In the back of my binder are 2 pencil pouches. In one, I keep gift cards and
store coupons. Stores like Lowe's, Penney's, Lane Bryant, various restaurants, etc. send their coupons on hard plastic or cardboard-like stuff, and they don't really fit into the pockets very well. That is why I put them in the pouch. The other pouch is for regular coupons that are oversized or made from cardboard.
I weed through my coupons weekly. This isn't as hard as it sounds. I simply
sit on the sofa while watching a TV show and flip through the book quickly.
Since you can see each coupon, it is a fairly easy job. Yes, there are some
that you will have to fold in such a way that makes seeing the expiration date
hard, and you'll have to pull those out. If you miss some, it's no big deal.
You'll notice it eventually. It is not unusual for me to find a stray one from
a month ago (or more!).
I hope that was helpful. If you have questions just leave a comment.
If this sounds like too much work, YES I will make them for you. I do have to charge for them because of the materials and all of the time that it takes to put the books together. I can guarantee you that this is worth every penny!! Just email me at kim.marie@att.net or leave a comment.
