Coupon Crazy!

Does this scene look familiar? Ok, I admit it. There are quite a few times (like now) where my coupons get out of control. Especially after a huge week like Super Doubles at Harris Teeter where I bought extra papers and was rummaging through them all week. Do you find yourself getting overwhelmed at how to organize your coupons, or coming across that awesome coupon for that item you wanted, just to find out it already expired? If so, no worries, I am here to help!

Stayed tuned for Show Me Saturday: Coupon Organization! I have used several different methods of organizing over the past year and a half of couponing and want to share my tips and tricks for coupon success! I will also have taken care of that coupon crazy mess you see in the picture!

--Savvyteacher

Get your Sunday Newspaper!

Many of our new readers are new to couponing or interested in starting. If that is you, remember to get your Sunday paper tomorrow and clip your coupons! This is the first step in your coupon journey.

If you haven't already decided how you will organize your coupons, I suggest putting them into two piles as you cut. Food items, and non food items. If you are still deciding how to organize you can use envelopes in the meantime. The two ways I have used over my year of couponing is the expandable file organizers and the binder system.

Stay tuned for more posts on coupon organization and look forward to a video blog clip of how to organize your coupons!

Happy Clipping!
--Savvyteacher

The "Binder"

I believe I am coming over to the "dark side" of the coupon world. I am going to try out what intense couponers call the "binder". Its a binder with plastic sleeves full of their coupons, organized of course, in order to see more coupons and have them at better access. Thriftynestor was my first introduction the the "binder" and I pretty much thought she was crazy and didn't really believe her that people actually did this, but I did see my first other binder person at Harris Teeter triple coupon weekend. With the amount of coupons I have and how grocery shopping goes, I decided it might be easier to organize them this way and at least give it a shot. I'm only doing grocery coupons, as the other types of coupons are just find as they are since I usually plan my trips to Walgreens and CVS and pull them out ahead of time. I have begun the process....and will keep all updated on my journey to how it works out. For now, it is time consuming but hopefully worth it in the long run!

Chaos Becomes Organization

This is what my kitchen table looked like last night. I was considering going to bed and decided I would have nightmares about coupons eating me so I stayed up to organize them.

I browsed several different blogs and googled the phrase "organize coupons." I am sad to say that I didn't note where I got all my good ideas, but most of them confirmed that I would stick with my accordian file I keep in my car. However, after reading, I changed the tabs in it and I think the new tabs will be much more useful!

The new tabs are:

dairy aisle, snacks, breakfast, canned, freezer, pantry foods, baking needs, laundry,medicine, oral hygiene, makeup/toiletries, household, and cleaning products

I have another smaller accordian that I use for coupons and deals to restaurants and retail shops I go to.
Check out my kitchen table now!