Coupon Organization

So once you start collecting coupons, where do you keep them?

At first I just shoved all my coups into my purse, hoping I would remember them when I was out shopping. By then they would be crumpled in the corner of my bag.

So I caved and went out and bought one of those simple cheap organizers you can get just about anywhere, and that worked for a little while. I wasn't really able to label the sections very well and there weren't as many sections as I would have liked. So I sometimes misplaced coupons because they were miscatagorized.

After some careful searching around the web I decided to try the binder method, which is as simple as a three ring binder with baseball card organizer sleeves. The sleeves each have 9 openings and are almost always perfect for my coupons. They work beautifully with printable coupons and almost all of the sizes found in the newspaper.

This has allowed me to add as many pages as I need to accomodate the different catagories of coups I have. It also makes it extremely easy to find the coupon I am looking for since everything is easily seen. It's also cheap! You can buy packs of those sheets at amazon for just a few dollars, throw them into your own binder and away you go! If you look around you will find there are all sorts of fancy ways to organize your coups but this very inexpensive method has worked for me.

I also really like having all of my coupons with me all the time when I am shopping, that way if I see an unexpected deal or clearance item I will already have everything I need.

Sorting your coupons can be another challenge-- sort by brand, type of item, store, etc?

At first I separated all my Target and Publix coups out into different sections and separate from all my manufacturers coups. But then I realized it would be better to keep all of the coups for the same item together- for example, if I have a Publix coup, a Target coup, and a manufacturers coup for Ziploc bags, I will keep them in the same sleeve because I would want to stack a couple of those together depending on who has the best price.

I keep my catagories as much like the actual grocery lanes as possible,
on separate pages I have coups for:

*"health food items" (anything they keep separate from the rest of the store)

*produce(or other items found in the prduce dept, like tofu)

*dairy(or refrigerated items kept in that section, like eggs)

*cereal & breakfast bars(other items found here are maple syrup, honey, oats)

*spices and condiments(olives & pickles too!)

*pet care(household items like light bulbs are often in the same area)

*paper goods

*cleaners & detergents

*personal care & toiletries(I have a separate page for cosmetics)

*frozen foods(I just keep it all together since we don't buy to much of this but you might want to sort yours out)

*beverages & alcohol((if you buy a lot of juice you might want to sort those coupons out since some are found on the aisle and some are refridgerated)

*packaged grocery(crackers, chips, pasta etc. We don't buy too much of this so I keep it all together)

How do you keep your coupons?