Organizing Your "Carry To Store" Coupons

[mama22qts]

I personally have been using the Refundcents coupon box pictured here:



But I think I'm outgrowing it and will be moving to a 4 to 5 inch binder pretty soon.

I have heard that Office Depot has some great binders for couponing, so I think I'll check there first. I know of someone who has a 5-inch binder that sounds great!

[MrsPinecone]

Binder with 9-pocket baseball card inserts, plus a few 8 x 11 page protectors for miscellaneous stuff at the back. The baseball inserts are $1.44 for a 10 pack at Walmart.

The actual organization is an ever-evolving process!

For example, page 1 is Breakfast items:
Kellogg's
General Mills
Post
Other Cereals
Pancakes & Syrup
Oatmeal
Snack Bars
Bagels & Muffins
Bread

Page 2: Baking

Page 3: Dry Goods & Spices

Etc.

[fairydustcrissy]

I use a zippered 3" binder that I picked up on clearance at CVS a while ago. I use baseball card inserts, and the binder has a zippered pocket & another pocket behind that. I love it. My coupons are ABC filed.

[queenofthehivemomof5]

2 big FAT filled to the brim CD binders (that hold 100 CD's) with baseball pages. These are just my "keeps" my trades (of which I am GREATLY behind on organizing) is kept in plastic shoe boxes

[isis]

I use the binder method too. I have a 2-inch zippered binder, that I have outgrown! I definately need a bigger binder. I use mostly 5-pocket photo page sleeves (4x6), but I do have a few baseball card inserts that I bought from the dollar tree a few months ago.
I have 20 main catagories, which are then divided into subcatagories.
Baby is my 1st catagory and I have a page for Bath/Body, another page for Diapers, another for Wipes and another for Misc Items.
I also have a few 8x11 clear page protectors for notes. In 1, I keep a copy of the UPromise grocery list and another has CVS and Catalina info.

[BzyBee]

I use a briefcase...no kidding. I made dividers down the middle and three spaces on each side to keep it neat. Food on the right, non food on the left. The lid holds all my fliers, small scissors, calculator, stapler and puller. I have room for my lists and small accordian file labeled for each store.

It holds a ton of coupons...I should post a pic sometime...



LOL...there it is...my big 'ol briefcase. DH estimated that when it is full it can hold 10-12,000 coupons. Top weight was 17 lbs...the kids weighed it in an attempt to be excused from carrying it...LOL

[sbp]

My attempt to stay organizing is:

A zippered binder for my keeps - 5 major sections broken down within (food, baby, pets, non-food, hba) with a zippered pencil case where I put the non-filed away. Gotta have them in the store, just in case you know.

5 Cardboard photo storage boxes filed a-z for my trade coupons that are on my haveslist. Generally there's a small shoebox of things that need to be filed but at least it's close by so I can find things fairly quickly for trades.

That's the organized part.

I also have a 4 drawer stacker unit to keep uncut inserts in. The laughable goal is to keep it empty. (although ds#2 tries to help me empty it, and tosses everything into one big pile, loose pages everywhere and no clue which insert they came from. And one day I was carrying it downstairs to work on them and the top drawer came off in my hands the rest went flying down the stairs. DH had the nerve to laugh!) I try to have one week per drawer and when any one drawer gets filled up, I have a mini meltdown and go into hyperspeed to get them all cut, added to haves and filed. Then my hyperspeed crashes and I can't look at another uncut insert for a day or two. Sometimes I just give up and give them away just so I don't have to deal with them. Right, Alphamom? LOL She loves it when she gets a goodie package from me!

I have at least 2 empty baby wipes containers also that I throw the loose extras in and I use that to put extras into trades or get them entered into the haveslist too.

[BzyBee]

Originally Posted by nozymom BzyBee...you are so organized... I currently use a tackle box (plastic from wal-mart) that I am out growing..this is an excellent system One question- Do you carry this with you in the store, or pull coupons you will be using on individual shopping trips?? Thanks for sharing your coupon system with us :Humble:

I do both...I pull coupons and put them in the gray accordian file (back left in breifcase) That file is organized by store for current coupons and also has sections for filing raincheck and crt (so that they are easy to match with pulled coupons). I also bring in the breifcase as many of the stores I frequent have closeouts or unadvertised sales. I could leave it in the car...but once I got to filing in a briefcase...there is no coupon modesty left in me so I just lug it along..LOL I pull out the gray accordian file and the briefcase sits right on top of the buggy, usually closed unless I need to look for addition coupons.

Overall, people do not seem to notice it when it is closed (or I am so intent on my shopping that I do not see their stares). A few times people have made comments, but not as often as you would think.

I did make some adaptations to the briefcase to make it just the way I wanted...I guess I could type it up if anyone is interested...maybe after my trip to CVS...

[texgirl]

I've got 2 RefundCents boxes; one for food and one for non-food. They are so full that it's hard to get coupons in and out. It used to not be so bad, but then Albertsons stopped having their sales, and I stopped using as many coupons. I'm thinking of switching over to 2 large deep zipper binders instead, but keep putting it off since I know how much work that is going to be.

[BzyBee]

Originally Posted by brendakc what a good idea!! now when you close and carry do the loose coupons within the index cards fall out inside or anything? i have tried so many ways..nothing seems to work for me except the kitchen table...so we eat in the living room...go figure! brenda

No, I don't lose anything and nothing shifts around. The dividers and index cards are nearly the same height as the sides...I cut them a little short as I wanted some space for the lid items as well. It is an expandable briefcase that I have permanantly expanded using small corner brackets and screws. The sides are 5 inches tall...4 in the base and one in the lid.

The dividers are made of stiff cardboard, wrapped in duct tape and slit so that they interlock. I did have to secure the dividers to the sides and bottom as the case is vertical when carried and so the coupons want to slide down to the bottom. The extra tape keeps the dividers steady in place and I haven't lost a coupon yet.

I bought a cheap case for $20 (didn't have a coupon) and if I ever need to replace it, I would get one with a better hinge. Because of the weight in the box, and lugging it in an out of carts, the hinge no longer holds all the time...hence the chip clip in the photo. If I have a cart that holds the case even instead of tipping back a bit...I can use the clip on the hinge to keep it from closing on my fingers. I expect you could find a case at the Salvation Army or Good Will as well.