How I Organize my Coupons, or "Let me Show You How Cool I am"

My system for organizing my coupons is based on two things. I don't want to spend tons of time on it, but I want to have the coupons I might use available if I happen to stop at Target on the way home. I also don't want to be the person with the whole top of the shopping cart filled with boxes of coupons/flyers/binders. It's important to me to have a system that is quick and easy to access and use. I've adapted it since I started, but this is that's working for me now.













This is all of my couponing stuff. The purple thing is just a plastic envelope. I put coupons I get in mail, my coupons from the paper, receipts I need to save, anything like that, in there. It keeps everything together and not scattered around my house.






I like to spend an hour or so every week (sometimes every other week) getting my coupons organized. I use the paper cutter to cut the coupons out in strips, like they are on the pages. Then I use the scissors to cut the individual coupons apart. The paper cutter is so much faster than the scissors. Some people only cut the coupons they are going to use, but I cut them all. After all of them are cut out, I sort out the ones I will never use and pass them along to friends. The coupons I think I might use, I put into my book.







This is my coupon book. It's really a photo album from Target. It has 25 pages with 4 pockets on each page. It's my second one. The first on I used had more pages, which I liked better. This one has a elastic closure that keeps it closed when I put it into my purse.














I used Avery Tabs to label the pages for the coupons. My old book had enough pages that I could have had 50 categories, but I've had to combine in this book. Since I use most of my coupons at the grocery store, the grocery categories are a little more specific than the other stuff.













I have Drinks, Breakfast, Fruits/Vegetables, Meat, Frozen, Dairy, Paper products, Baby, Pet, Cleaning, Hair Care, Make-up, Soap, etc. I tried to put them in the book in the order they are in the grocery store.








When I'm ready to sort, I have index cards that have the same labels as my tabs. I spread then out on the floor in the same order (they are numbered) and sort the coupons out on them. I've seen this made as a big mat that you can fold up, but I had index cards already. I keep the cards in the purple folder.










After the coupons are sorted, I put them into the pages. The one in the picture is Drinks. I like to divide them up a little further into the pockets. I put water in one, juice in one, coffee/tea in one, and whatever is left into the fourth one. I also pull them out and check for expired or close to expiring coupons then.








Like I said, I don't like to be sorting through coupons in the store. I try to get my trip planned out ahead of time, but sometime I'll see something on sale that I need or something that will be a great deal that I have a coupon for. I like to bring my book to the stores with me, just in case something jumps out at me. My book is organized so that I can quickly flip to the page where the coupon is and it's small enough to fit into my purse (I carry big purses, but it's about the size of a day planner). I also put pockets on the front and back cover. These are just the sticky CD holders that you can get with the office supplies. In my old book I did the same thing, but with envelopes and double sided tape. It's very convenient for holding the coupons you are going to use or any that you might grab in the store.


This is the blue book from the first picture. It's just a $1 notebook I got at Target. I used card stock to rig up the envelopes in the front. I tried using this at my main thing in the store, but it didn't work for me. It is very handy for making shopping lists and holding receipts, coupons, etc. I mainly use it to make my lists now.


Like I said, I like to be very organized when I go to the store. I hate to be sorting through coupons while my kid runs wild, or be blocking the aisle while other people are trying to shop too. Before I go to the store, I use southernsavers.com or hotcouponworld.com to print off the list of sales and the coupon matches. I also like to have the Publix ad. I make a list of the things I'm going to buy and how many according to what coupons I have. I also add anything I might need.

After I've made my list and pulled out the coupons I am going to use, I put them into my green accordian file. It's very small, a little larger than my check book. I put the coupons that I know I'm going to use in the second slot. I put the ones I might use in the next slot. These are usually coupons that are about to expire or are things I might buy, depending on how much they will be when I get to the store. There are a couple of extra slots I use to put coupons I pick up in the store or coupons that I haven't sorted out yet. I also put my list in there and drop the whole thing into my purse, or even better, my shopping bags so I don't forget them!


When I get to the store and start putting things in my cart, I move the coupons I'm using to the very front. By the time I get to the check out, all of the coupons I need are right in the front, and I can just pull them out and hand them to the cashier. This works very well for me as I never seem to have enough hands to hold the coupons I'm using and to look for one I need. I used to just use the envelopes in my book to do the same thing, but I like having a little more room and division.


This system works very well for me. The only problem I have is that sometime I just don't feel like sorting out the coupons. That would be a problem with any system I use, though. I did try to do the binder thing with baseball card pages, but that was just too big for me to carry around. I have the same issue with using a box and divinders. It's just too much. What do you use? If you have any questions or suggestions, I'd love to hear them!