Sunday, December 11, 2011

21 Days to an Organized Desk - Coupons

Thanks for following along with my goal of 21 Days to an Organized Desk.

First item to tackle are the coupons. You probably already know I'm an avid couponer. I'm definitely not an Extreme Couponer, but coupons are part of my shopping routine.

With our busy, crazy life, I don't have time to clip and file every single coupon from each Sunday's paper. I used to, but years ago realized a better system for my limited number of hours to utilize coupons. I file my Sunday inserts in a plastic file box. Each Sunday gets its own file folder.

I make my shopping lists (for sale items to stock up on) from browsing blogs that highlight the sale items with matching coupons. These lists will tell you from which Sunday paper to find the coupon. Two of my favorites are Passionate Penny Pincher and Faithful Provisions since they both highlight stores in my area. It definitely helps to follow a blog that covers the stores and sales in your region. If you're new to couponing, the lingo might be a little foreign. Take the time to check out online tutorials to help you learn quickly.

So then, what about coupons that come in snail mail? Or printed online? or Store Catalinas? or Walgreens Register Rewards and CVS Extra Bucks? No doubt, these present more of an organizing challenge for me. If they can only be used at a particular store, I will keep them in an envelope designated for that store. These envelopes reside in my purse, so I always have them with me when I'm out shopping. If they are for items that could be purchased anywhere, I keep them in a separate envelope. I don't print every single coupon available, only ones I think I might use. And if I'm regularly (i.e. weekly) purging my expired coupons, I have a pretty good idea of what coupons I have in case I see a new deal for that item.

How do you organize your coupons?

3 comments:

  1. I need to organize my coupons, they're just in one huge pile.

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  2. I gave up on coupons because I couldn't organize them well. I spent hours and hours, and still ended up tossing most of them. Need to try again.

    Maybe I will try the filebox idea.

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  3. I like your filebox idea for coupons. I use to keep mine in a notebook, but it kinda got out of hand.

    Thanks for visiting my blog!

    ReplyDelete