How I Coupon, Part 1: The Binder

I can remember as a child watching my mom clip coupons at our coffee table, I also remember helping on occasion. I didn’t understand the magic that came from those tiny pieces of paper for many years. Now it’s my turn to clip and have my children beneath my feet watching and fighting over the expired coupons I discard. The circle of life.

I don’t remember the method my mom used for couponing. If I were to guess she does what many casual couponers do, she clips the coupons she thinks she will use and sorts them by category in a small accordion style envelope system.

That is what I have done many times.

I have actually tried many methods to couponing. All of them have failed me for one reason or another, or I have failed them.

I have tried the clip, sort, envelope file system. I spend many minutes in each aisle searching thru each category. It is rather time consuming, and can be very difficult to have both hands full of coupons, especially since many times my kids travel along with me to the store. I also was finding that I needed more specific categories for items, healthy and beauty alone covers such a large assortment of coupons.

I have tried the clipless coupon system. This worked wonders as a time saver, but it also kept me from using coupons. In this system you file away each coupon insert that comes in your Sunday paper and then only clip a coupon when you need it. For me, I never knew what I had, and I failed at going back and clipping anything. When I gave up this method that I knew wasn’t working, I threw away nearly 25 inserts from previous weeks that were filled with expired coupons. Many for items I knew I had purchased! Talk about frustration.

The method I currently have in place is one that I have tried before, and also found to have problems with, but it was due to my casual couponing, and not because of the system itself. Now that I am focused on becoming a VERY dedicated coupon user it is proving to work well. It is a time consuming system to put into place, but once you have it set up, it works well, and doesn’t take nearly as long to keep up as one would suspect.

I use the binder system for my coupons and I love it!

Let me take you on a brief tour of my binder and show you how amazing it really is. Maybe inspire you in your couponing endeavors!

First of all, I purchased a sturdy three ring binder that has a zipper all the way around to keep anything from falling out. This one I found at Walmart a couple of years ago for about $10. Now that it’s back to school time, this could be a great time to find your own, or in a few weeks when things are marked down to clearance prices!

I do love my binder and all of it’s pockets, I know that some binder users have binders with a handle and strap, and that would be very handy. If I ever find one with just the right pockets and this feature, I will probably switch out binders, but for now mine works great.

In my outside pocket I keep important things like my scissors, my calculator, pens, highlighters, sticky tabs, and paperclips.

Inside my binder is where all the filing and sorting begins. I researched many coupon binders to find some great ideas from many other binder users. Just Google “coupon binder” and you’ll find many systems to steal ideas from, or also binders you can also purchase with all of the parts and pieces in place.

Along the front of my binder is where I keep all sorts of goodies. I have an entire pocket dedicated to Bed, Bath, and Beyond coupons. Did you realize you can use expired coupons there, and also up to five in one transaction? NEVER throw them away! Unless you have a ton like me and no hopes of ever using them. Since mine file so neatly here, I just keep them all.

I also have a pocket for all of the coupon mailers we receive. Costco, Valu mail, and a couple of others that come to our house. I can’t say we use many of these, but it’s a neat and easy way to keep them all in one place and I just trade them out when a new one arrives in our mail.

And last but not least a pocket for the weekly ads. I save the ones for my local grocery stores, big box stores, and pharmacies. They neatly tuck inside and I can reference them in one place at a moments notice.

On the opposite side of my binder, on the three ring system, is where all of my organization takes place. I start with a zippered pencil pocket for storing all of my receipts. This is probably my husband’s favorite feature of my binder system!

After that I have a set of 8 pocket tabs labeled for each major store in my area. In these pockets I file my weekly shopping list for each store, coupon match ups, and any specific store coupons. When available, I’ve also printed off copies of each stores coupon policy to refer to as needed, so they are located in their designated pocket.

Behind each specific store, I keep coupons I know I will use that week at that store. It helps to have as much of a shopping trip pre-planned as possible and that is even more important when using coupons. I haven’t yet purchased, but plan to get two pocket pages (the kind used for photo books) to store these coupons. One pocket for coupons I plan to use, one pocket for coupons that I took, but end up not using for one reason or another.

Following my individual store tabs is where I sort and keep most of my coupons. Just like a traditional accordion file system, I have sorted coupons by categories. Here is my list, but you may find a way that works better for you. Some people choose to sort coupons alphabetically by brand name as another idea.

1. Breads & Grains, Cereal & Breakfast

2. Canned Goods

3. Meat

4. Frozen Foods

5. Dairy Products

6. Condiments, Sauces & Dressings

7. Snack Foods & Beverages

8. Packaged Foods

9. Household Items

10. Misc

Within each category I use 9 pocket sleeves (for baseball card collectors) to sort coupons. I clip, fold and store. When folding a coupon be sure to try and leave the photo, $ off, and expiration date visible. This will make it much easier to find what you are looking for, determine if it’s a good coupon, and toss expired coupons.

I also try and organize each 9 pocket sleeve in to more specific categories per page. For instance, within my canned goods tab, I have an entire sleeve dedicated to canned fruits, one for soups, one for vegetables, and one for misc canned items. This helps when I am standing in a store aisle and see that a certain item is on advertised sale. I can match up my coupon to the sale and score big.

You may notice that I didn’t list any health and beauty items in the 10 categories I had written above. That’s because I have another entire 5 tab section dedicated to them. Healthy and Beauty is a huge coupon market, and where the majority of my coupon usage comes from. The categories I choose to use are:

1. Kids

2. Medications

3. Hair & Body Care

4. For Him

5. For Her

Again, within each category I sort things more specifically… a page for razors, oral care, shampoo/conditioners, etc… the list could go on an on.

On each set of tabs you can also see there is a lined section for notes. I am planning to use this area for my price lists. If I purchase something regularly, I’m thinking I’ll jot down the prices I pay along with the date and track prices looking for the best deals.

Behind all of my coupons are one last set of pockets. They aren’t all designated as of yet, but I’m sure will be as time passes. One pocket holds my mail in rebates, another my weekly meal plan, and printed coupons (until they are assigned to a store pocket where I will use them) In the very back of my binder is where I store my weekly coupon list print out for reference.

As you can see this has taken a lot of work to get organized. However, most of the work was in the set up and now I just have to do some grooming each week as I weed expired coupons and replace with new ones. It’s a system I’m very excited about and love to use!

This is definitely not the system for a coupon beginner, but I’ve progressed past the beginner stage and am working toward status of Coupon Queen. I’ll share more of my couponing tips as I continue to work on my system and find new and exciting things that work well for me.

Click here to read How I Coupon, Part 2: The Coupons.