Tips: Organizing / Storing Your At Home Coupons / Inserts, Etc.

[KariAnn0613]

I wanted to add something else:

I also received a canvas tote for FREE at our State Fair. It is my offical coupon bag. I carry it everywhere along with my purse. I keep my binder in it so while I'm at the store it isn't this big huge inconvience, it's just another bag. When people give me inserts or I receive coupons in the mail or I find coupons while at the store, I just drop them in the bag. When I get a chance I clean out the lose coupons and file them away. Sometimes I will even just put my wallet in it so I don't have to bring my purse in as well. Hope this helps you out!

[what a deal]

I've been collecting multiple inserts for about a month and I have them sorted by date and company. I write the date on the top insert in each stack, put a rubber band around them, and put them in a grocery bag. I keep two of each insert (unclipped) seperate, write the date on the covers, and write notes on the front of one of them with a sharpie about what hot Qs are inside. Finally, I have a fairly complete weekly alphabetized list of all coupons in each dated insert, roughly one printed page for an insert. Very unsophisticated, I know.
I bring the master list and the two of each coupon inserts into the store, find what I want from the alphabatized list, make notes on the insert covers, clip what I need, and go back to the car if I have to for twenty + coupons, and it seems to work for now. (Just yesterday I used twenty $1 Qs for an item on sale for $0.99.) I could never clip them all, no patience.
Of course, I clip the coupons ahead of time for planned purchases, but the storage and search for the Qs is the same.
That is just for the "uncut" inserts, everybody clips and stores their favorite coupons!!

[cpaige]

Originally Posted by Cheeky I use a three ring binder with plastic baseball card covers. They are about two and half inches by 3inches and hold nine coupons per sheet. I label my inserts alphebetically by shopping row like Beverages, Canned, Cereal, Condiments, Cosmetics, Detergents, Dairy, Frozen, Snacks, Medicine, Paper, Pets, Misc. good luck-

This is what I just bought! And plan on doing!!! DBF helped me to pick it out too. Now I have to go through my small photo box and re-organize them all. I chose this method, b/c I'm the person that has to see what I have (I have the memory of a goldfish at times) . But, I do have one question. What is the reason that everyone separates the coupons? I.E RP from another (lol, that was the only one I could remember and I hope I got it right?

OH, and DBF is SO into this with me now. Everytime he wants to get something, he asks if I have a coupon for it and will eventually put up cabinets so I can work on my stockpile!! wooowhoooo

[morseb]

I found that it is easier for me to stack them on top of each other and then clip all at once. Then I file into two different binders one with food the other non food. In each binder it is broke down futher to things like: boxed food, baking, TP, shampoo. I found this to work better for me so that I can take it with when I shop this way if something is on sale and not listed Ican still use the coupons. I must say I am an over organized person so it works for me.

[eisor]

I am really enjoying my file crate method. I keep them in my car and clip out individual coupons as I need them.

My sister gets 100+ inserts a week and she was having difficulty finding a method she liked for storage. She finally decided on paper bags! She pulls out 20 inserts and puts them in file crates. Then, she stores the rest in paper bags that are labeled, folded over and stacked. She gets them out once she has traded the inserts or needs a coupon.

[needabargain]

you can file the RP and the Smart source different so that when there is a deal you can look up the coupon on the database and it would make it a little easier to find if you have the RP and SS seperated. HTH

[server18]

First I go thru and pull all the advertising out and the front and back page of each insert except of course one or two and throw away. I put all sheets inside one or two of an insert that way I don't have so many different inserts (kwim?). Then I put a sticky on the left side with the date and SS or RP. So it looks like I only have a few inserts but each one is couple inches thick. Of course while doing this I cut the coupons I want to put in my binder, and the rest stay intack until I need them for use or trading. This works great for me.

[wimama]

I am a newbie to serious couponing. I got serious about couponing a few months ago, back in August.

The last two weeks I tried cutting out all the coupons and it was pretty time consuming. I stapled all the like pages together and cut them all at once. But is still a lot to do.

I am thinking of a 3 part system:

1-Binder
2-Small accordion file for holding the coupons & list for all the deals at each store. Easier to manage with a 2 yo in tow.
3-File cabinet - File the inserts by date in our file cabinet.

I am using a binder but I think I am putting too many coupons in there. I think I need to cut back on the number of coupons I am cutting out. And just put coupons I know I will want to use in to binder. No I might use coupons in the binder. I stick all the store ad fliers in the front pocket of my binder.

Then, file all the inserts by date. Then I can search on the database and easily cut multiples as I need them. I plan on sorting the like pages and stapling them together. So when I need to cut them out quickly I can cut all the multiple coupons together.

And to keep all my store list and coupons for each store's weekly sales --- my little original accordion coupon organizer. I sort it by store and stick my list for that store in with the coupons. I also have a tab for filler coupons for use with the $ off a order of $$ or more coupons. And keep the front tab open. I put each coupon in there as I put the item in my cart.

These how I organize my coupons threads are great. I have learned a ton from them.

[Susan in WA]

Originally Posted by marrelam I don't clip until I need to. I keep two 3-ring binders that hold my inserts and I use the monthly separater tabs to sort them. One binder holds my Red Plum inserts and the other binder holds my Smart Source & P&G inserts. I then keep all like pages together from the same insert. I normally have 4 or 5 of the same inserts each week.

You have me intrigued. I have three questions for you.

1) How do you keep from punching a hole through a bar code? That looks like it would be a problem.

2.) After you do clip some, do you get a mess in the binder with fractions of pages?

3) Do you have a method to make it easier to find and discard the expired ones?


I'm sick of clipping! I tried filing my inserts at first but they got all messed up and confusing. Then I went to the binder method with trading cards. I have recently switched to 2 binders. But I'm very stocked up now and I'm finding this so time consuming. I'm considering a combination method. I do like being able to flip through and see the coupons in each catagory in my binder, but I'm clipping so many and really as you know we use only a fraction.

[maryccc]

I've tried every way to organize my coupons. I had inserts in a binder by date and that worked ok but I am now using the top 2 dwarers on my desk and they have divders and I cut my coupons and it is easier for me to sort through them this way. The top dwarer is for food and sorted into 4 different categories and the bottom is sorted into beauty, medicine, cleaning and paper. It seems to be working great for me.