Coupon Savvy, Not Coupon Crazy (continued Part 2)

To continue from the first post on my part series on being Coupon Savvy, Not Coupon Crazy. Today I wanted to discuss coupon organizing in more depth with some great tips and recommendations to help you with getting all those coupons under control.grocery

I really struggled in the beginning with how to organize all my coupons, it took me awhile but after much research and reading other great suggestions from experienced couponers, I have finally been able to get my coupons organized.

Let me first say there are numerous ways to organizing your coupons. There's organizing based on expiration dates, based on aisles in the grocery stores, and so on. . .

At first I would buy my Sunday paper and then spend most of Sunday clipping all my coupons out of the paper, picking and choosing which coupons I thought I would or could use, and I have to say wasting a lot of time and hours and money that way. Not to say that this method may not work better for some, but I'd like to suggest a way that is less time consuming and will help get you the best deals, and you can easily find the coupons you need, when you need them.

Six Easy Tips To Coupon Organization:

1. Hold on to ALL of your coupons. Do NOT clip all of your coupons out at once and toss out the ones you think you will never use. You will be surprised at how often you may find you'll use coupons you never thought of using before. 
2. Match your like coupons together. For example if you buy at least 2 Sunday papers, take both of your SS inserts and match the pages up together, and staple all the like pages together. This will make it easy to find when you need a certain coupon and do not have to go searching through pages of coupons to find each and every coupon.
3. File based on insert & date of Sunday paper. All of your coupon sources will list the coupon with name of the insert (RP, SS, PG,ect..) and the date of the Sunday paper it was found in. I keep mine in file folders with the insert name and date, which makes it very easy for me to go and pull.
4. File IP coupons in a binder. I personally use the Coupon Clutch to file and organize my printable coupons. I file all the manufacture printable coupons based on tabbed dividers that were part of the Coupon Clutch organization. 
5. File Store/Competitors Coupons in separate files. You can also file these in the Coupon Clutch, as well. I have added extra plastic 3-hole folders/files, that I use, to file my store coupons and keep them organized this way. My Target store coupons are filed in their own section of my binder, and my Publix store coupons are filed in another file of their own. 
6. Use a small coupon binder for every day shopping. A small coupon organizer, that you can find in most stores in the office supply section, for organizing your coupons you will using for shopping that day. I have found this tremendously helpful, especially if I don't end up using all my coupons at the store because they may be out of the product, I can then later easily retrieve the coupon(s) that I did not use at the particular store. It also makes it easy to file multiple stores, and will keep your coupons in one spot and less likely to lose. 



Small Coupon Organizer

1. This is also a great way to store your Register Rewards (RR) & Extra Care Bucks (ECB).
2. Another great place to temporarily place blinkies, tearpads, and other random coupons you may find on your shopping excursions (always be on the look out!).

There are definite pros and cons to this particular system, but I have found it to be the most effective in terms of both time and money. Some serious couponers like to be able to carry all their coupons with them at all times. And I use to do this but have since pulled away from this.... which leads me into part three of Coupon Savvy, Not Coupon Crazy.

Coupon Savvy, Not Coupon Crazy (Part 1)

A three part series on using coupons wisely and effectively:

It's important to use coupons wisely, and not just run out and buy things just because there's a sale and you have a coupon for it.

Having said that there are the few and rare times to "purchase" items that are good Money Makers (MM), or provide overage. Because in these scenarios you are gaining and not losing anything. I love overages because they help bring my overall total down, and are especially excellent for more expensive items or Need List items. Even if it isn't something you need or would use, overage items will help you get the items you DO need.

MMs are similar to overage, you normally have MMs at the drugstores (CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid), or from Mail In Rebates (MIR). MMs at drugstores are items that you will receive an instore cash back after you purchase the item (CVS: Extra Care Bucks (ecb); Walgreens: Register Rewards (RR)). A mm will usually take place with the right combination of coupons and discounts. For example:

At CVS, let's say body wash is on sale for $3.99. After you pay $3.99, you will then receive an ECB for $3.00. Here's how this could be a mm. There's a manufacturer coupon (Q) for -$3/1 for the body wash. When you go to purchase the body you give them the coupon for $3 off the body wash, you only pay $.99 Out Of Pocket (oop), the store then gives you $3.00 back to spend on nearly anything in the store (there are usually a few limitations). In the end you turn $.99 into an extra $2.01, you can then use on items you need within that store, CVS in this example.

It's also important to not just use a coupon to use it. Unless it's an item you need, or there's an amazing sale, or it's a high value coupon and about to expire, don't feel obligated to use every coupon out there.

Also, it's important to not go through and toss out coupons you think you'll never use, which leads me into tomorrows discussion. . .