How I Organize and Store Coupons

I’ve mentioned before that I am not into extreme couponing. I have often found it takes a lot of work to reap a little bit of savings. However, I still use coupons and have developed a system to make them work for me. You can read more about that here.

Over the last few years I’ve tried to come up with a way to organize and store coupons that will help me to utilize them and not let them go to waste. I’ve tried everything from large binders to small binders and realized that since I don’t clip and use many coupons, the binders would not work for me.

I discovered  what works best for me is to have my coupons with me all the time. I have made many a shopping trip with just the coupons I planned to use only to realize that there was a great sale on an item that I had a coupon for at home. I decided that if I have my coupons with me all the time, I could better take advantage of sales.

So, I bought this beautiful coupon organizer from Thirty-One. If you like it, you can order it from my friend Karissa by clicking here.

When I opened it up, I was a little disappointed that it only had five sections. After going through my coupons, though, I realized that having fewer sections would help me out in the long run. Before, I had too many sections and found it daunting to keep up with them.

These are the categories I use to organize my coupons:

• Refrigerated
• Frozen
• Dry Goods
• Health/Personal
• Cleaning/Paper Goods

I tend to have just a few coupons because most coupons I find are for processed foods or items we don’t use at all. I am trying to cook in a more healthy way, so coupons for processed foods do me no good. I do, however, have a lot of coupons for cleaning and paper goods. I find that if I combine a sale with my coupons, I can usually save a lot on these items.

So, there you have it! Simple yet useful. Having a small organizer is what works best for me. It also fits well in my large purse with my other organizing tools.

Remember my tagline is pursuing peace, not perfection. My system is definitely not perfect, but it works for me.

How do you organize and store your coupons?