This is a guest post from Tiffany at One Deal at a Time!
Does your coupon binder look like mine right now? I hope not, but at some point they do need some TLC! My kids went back to school today so that will give me a little time to get it taken care of! I know some of you have kids home until Wednesday or even later, so you might have to wait until then, OR get them to help you!
** FIRST – I want to tell you something you already know… when you have a clean, organized binder or storage method and coupons cut out, life is soooo much better! When you need to go to the store and have no coupons to take with you ready, it is frustrating as you know that you are just wasting money. Start off the New Year by giving yourself the gift of saving money by being able to find those coupons!
Sadly, we have not gotten a lot of coupons in the past few weeks. This will make it easier to get everything sorted out though.
If you have inserts just piled around start by getting them all together by insert. OR this also applies if you get really behind in cutting them out.
Always start by cutting the most recent inserts out first. These can be the most import ones to get cut out for a few reasons.
- Have the furthest expiration date
- You are not yet sick of cutting and will cut out more
- None are expired
- Coupon matchups are currently out for them
I store my coupons 2 different ways. Each week I cut out 3 of my inserts (every coupon) and I organize them in my binder. You can see how I organize my binder HERE and how to make one. The other 6 or so inserts I store in a file box as whole inserts.
I label in big huge numbers the date that the insert came out. You can find the date by looking on the spine of the insert like in the picture above. Then I store them in the file box until I need a coupon and cut them out as I need them.
I started doing it this was because my binder was getting too big when I cut out about 10 inserts a week. Plus it was taking me too long and I was putting off doing it. If I can have at least 3 of each coupon with me in my binder I am really happy with that. If it is a HUGE sale and I have planned ahead I can cut out the additional coupons I will need and add them to my binder OR I might have to actually try and come back to take advantage of a deal if I don’t have enough coupons on me.
If you get too far behind get some help, or just start over! No worries just jump on in where ever you can! Last night I paid this little girl $5 to pull all the inserts out of the papers and sort them for me. It took her 2 hours, it would have taken me an hour, but sooooo worth $5!
