Couponing 101 – Part 3: Organization

Welcome to Part 3: Organization! Glad you’ve made it this far! So now you’re asking, “I have the tools, I have the coupons, now what do I do?” Well, I’ll tell you. ORGANIZE!! I know that’s a bad word for some people, but we’re saving a crazy amount of money here right?? It will all be worth it, I promise! There are a few different organization techniques that I’ve seen and one that seems to work for me. We’ll go through a bunch so you can see what works best for you!

We have all these coupons and our binder to fill, but how do we organize all of it? The technique that works for me is alphabetical. I have a tab for every letter. Aveeno goes under A, Beech Nut goes under B, Colgate goes under C, etc. Not I don’t go as crazy as alphabetizing within the first letter, that would drive me insane! However, organization under the first letter makes it very easy to find something. If I see a sale for Ziploc bags, I go to Z to see if there is a coupon there! Easy Peesy! I’ve also seen coupons organized by category. Here are some category examples thanks to A Thrifty Mom.

Dairy - milk, Ice cream, yogurt, sour cream, cottage cheese, butter, cheese, other dairy

Breakfast- Kellogg’s cereal, Post cereal. GM cereal, other cereal, granola bars, Quaker products, breakfast mix, frozen breakfast, other breakfast

Beverages- soda, fruit juice, veggie juice, powdered, other

Canned- fruit, veggies, soup Campbell’s, soup other, broth, chili, sauce, other

Condiments- mayo, pickles, olives, salad toppings, salad dressings, ketchup, mustard, peanut butter, jelly, other

Grains- Dry pasta, mac& cheese, Hamburger helper, rice, side dishes, potatoes, baking- Brownies, cake, muffin, frosting, sugar, oil, flour, other

Snacks- fruit snacks, nuts, popcorn, gum, candy, chocolate, crackers, cookies, chips, other

Frozen- bread, rolls, pizza, dessert, pasta, veggies, dinners, meat, Asian, other

Food misc.- diet, health, Mexican, Asian, meat, other

Baby- diapers, soap, food, other

Medication- laxatives, aspirin, Tylenol, cough drops, muscle pain, cold meds, tums and pepto, first aide supplies, other

Paper – tissue, t.p., napkins, paper plates, cups, Ziploc bags, glad bags, other

Soap- hand soap, body wash, Dove product’s, Olay products, Shampoo with 2 full sheets,

Personal care- deodorant, feminine, razors, shave gel,

Toothpaste- Colgate, crest, kids, mouthwash, toothbrush,

Make up- cover girl, olay, Revlon, maybelline, other, skin care, lotion, chap stick,

Dish soap- liquid, powdered, laundry soap and products,

Home- other cleaners, carpet, floor, window, Clorox, Lysol, bathroom, glade, air wick, oust, febreze,

Pets- food, care, other

Batteries

As I stated before, the coupons I won’t use go into a shoebox for trades, and then there is the “to be clipped” box. Now if you leave things sitting for too long, your pile will get out of control! I learned this the hard way. By the time I got to some Internet printed coupons, they had already expired. Boo… waste of paper. When it comes to printables, clip as you go. As far as inserts, I clip them all on Sunday afternoon and insert them into my binder, but some people prefer to leave the inserts in a file until they are ready to use them. Personally I like to clip them and have them in my binder in case of an unadvertised sale or clearance where I can just run back to the car and get my binder. I also have my letter sized accordion binder for my daily trips. I have this organized by store. It has 12 tabs and the stores I have in there are Publix, CVS, Walgreens, Wal-Mart, Harvey’s, Kmart, JCPenney’s, Victoria Secret *blush*, Staples, Target, Misc, and Receipts. These are the places I frequent most or usually have round the clock coupons for. In my Misc tab, I keep restaurant coupons, freebie coupons, free movie tickets, random coupons found at stores until I can put in the binder, etc. I keep my receipts in there until I get home so they don’t get lost in my purse. As a side note, you should ALWAYS keep your receipts. Not only are they good for when you need to make a return or complete a rebate, but if you itemize your taxes, WOOHOO what a deduction! I think I’ve spent more on tax this year than actual items. If I’m able to deduct them on my taxes, even better. It’s like I’m saving even more!

Now that we’ve got our toolbox, found our coupons and are a pro at organization, what’s next? Find out in Couponing 101 – Part 4: You can’t take my coupon why?!