My Coupon Binder Organization Method

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• Beginners question... Do you cut/save all coupons OR just he products you KNOW you will purchase?

• One question, I understand the filing system, but coupons expire so quickly, how is it that you have so many usable coupons? Thanks for letting me know.

• great video! I use a bonder as well. I think it works great for the coupons you intend to use and also for just going through them when doing regular grocery shopping. I"ll open to the page that matchs the isle I'm shopping in so I don't miss any sale or markdown that wasn't advertised.

• Not sure if anyone posted this/knows this, but I have a friend who sends EXPIRED coupons to the military... they can use them for SIX MONTHS after the expiration date on their base stores. Also, you can order the inserts (like Redplum, P&G) that come in the newspaper for 30 to 40 cents each. Here where I live the daily paper is $1.50, and $2.00 for Sunday.
  LOVE the video, as I'm just getting started, and wanted to be organised. I also belong to a 'coupon sharing' group locally, and it's given me a lot to go on.

• Hi, Stephanie. This may have already been asked/addressed, but there was too much to sift through. I hope you can email me personally, but anyway, my question is, what brand is your binder and where did you buy it? I love the extra pockets.

• Hey Stephanie,
  I have been trying so hard to read everything on your site so it can help me get started couponing. I have never done this before but I have watched the television show extreme couponing and thought it was amazing if my family could get a stock pile of grocery and non grocery needs. I am disabled and so is my husband, we live on a fixed income and have hardly any money left over for anything even groceries. I get 139.00 per month in assistance to help us for a family of 3 and I need help. please help me get started so I can help my family. Thank you so much.

• Hi I watched the video of your binder. It looks great but how many coupons can you get in one card slot? Also, what do you do when another item is introduced and you don't have an open slot already available? It looks like it would take a long time to put all the coupons in there weekly...is that true? thx Karen

• It just depends on the coupon, but I can usually fit 8 coupons (4 of 1 facing front and 4 of another facing the back). If I need more spots, I just add another baseball card page. It doesn't take too long if it's maintained.

• Hi,
  I was able to get a great deal of information out of your binder organizing, but if you only have one coupon for each item, alphabetically, that binder can get really heavy. Those pages in just a quantity of 50-100 can be heavy.

  By the sounds of it you already have your coupons ready when you walked in the grocery market, but the investment is quite a bit in the beginning as those pages are somewhat expensive. When my son and I were collecting the baseball cards, and yes, they are thicker than coupons the price was much less (1980's), but if you have five of the same coupon (such as Kellogg's Frosted Flakes, etc.) it is the same thickness as a card) thereby there really is no difference.

  Not all coupons are the same size and do not work alphabetically. I would forget where they would be if of a different size. "Redplum.com is a very good source and a good example. (These used to be packaged in the local newspapers. Now, with the economy the website has gotten smarter and everyone, not only newspaper subscribers, get the coupons. But there again, they are not all the same size and some come longer and wider than those typical "baseball card" pockets.

  On the other side of couponing, not aggressive I organize differently. I have a book, similar to photo albums, big and small, arranged in categories such as cereal, laundry detergent and that is alphabetically organized. If another category comes into play it is place at the end of my binder. Special sales at "specialty stores" are there also. I take a look at the sale papers when distribution comes out right away in the mail. Might take maybe (2) two hours a week, I look through the ads of the sales and circle what I "need" not what I want, but what I need. (The common items, bread, milk, and cereal, come to mind just about every week). I have found "impulse shopping", buying the item just because you have a coupon can cause excess spending and in these days is not sensible, therefore not saving. (A great deal of items have dates on them now, even canned fruit, and if the items are just placed in the pantry, stuck way in the back and never used it is a waste and not a savings at all). I circle all the items of interest. Then I look again through my categories, in my coupon "picture" books, and get the ones that match up the sale advertisement ads that I circled.

  Once done with shopping for the week, I use the rest of the week until another set of sale advertisement ads comes around and cut all the coupons out of these "redplum.com" booklets and place into those category pockets for the next shopping sale advertisements to come out in the mail. I find this very easy to do with small books, at even a lunch hour, instead of having such a huge book with everything in it.

  I can see keeping the Wal-Mart separated differently then my method above. I organize Wal-Mart by aisle descriptions. This way I zip up and down the aisles, especially in the Fall/Winter season, and pick up what I want. On my budget if I am over my savings around $30-$50, I used "half" the savings to buy myself something. I deserve the savings and if a holiday comes up during the month, two (2) weeks before the holiday the savings goes into extras for Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas gifts.

  Drugstores are all set up so differently. Certain items relating to the human body I do not purchase at the grocery market. I prefer only drugstores in those cases. That is why laundry detergent stays being purchased at the grocery market and body washes, lotions, shampoo and soap, etc. is purchased from me at the drugstores. Laundry detergent washes the clothes that go on my body, only.

  I have never been under the budget savings and that two hours a week spent on organizing my coupons is well worth my time.

  Clara D.
  San Tan Valley, AZ

• I am hard of hearing.. NOt able to understand you about ur coupon binder.. could u email me how ur binder works?? Thanks

• How much is everyone saving by couponing at the end of a week or a monthly,realistically?

• You are my hero! Your binder is a thing of beauty.