Here’s How I Keep My Coupons Neatly – Teach Yourself

I don’t know about you, but sorting coupons can be a job unto itself. It’s time consuming, it’s effort intensive, but we all hope it pays off in the end. I don’t know about you, but here is how I keep my coupons neatly so I can actually find them and use them when the time comes.

Rule number one: cut out every coupon you get. I do, and I have for years. I might not use the coupon but I will always be able to find someone else who can. I don’t have dogs, but I as I am buying cat food, I can easily hand over dog food coupons to grateful pet owners standing nearby. The other day I gave my $5 off $25 to the person in back of me in the checkout line because my order was only $15.

Having all your coupons in the same place is vital, but having a box of coupons without any order is useless. They need to be organized – and there are many choices. You can sort them depending on how your kitchen is laid out, or even according to how your favorite grocery store is set up. Depending on your lifestyle, you might even need an additional section for restaurant coupons and things like free massages or discounted carpet cleaning.

Select a holder that will fit easily into your bag. These are easy to buy at most home based stores, or you can make your own with a small plastic sleeve you can buy at any office supply store. Make some dividers to suit the categories you usually collect.

Next, sort them into a logical manner. Some of these organizers come with dividers you can customize according to how your brain your kitchen management skills work. An A-Z filing method is the worst! When push comes to shove, believe me, you won’t remember if you filed your frozen broccoli coupon under G for Green Giant or B for broccoli. Try a tab that simply says “vegetables”.

When you design your divider tabs, stay away from systems like A-Z alphabetizing. This is pretty meaningless unless you promise yourself you are sorting by type of product or brand name, and believe me, you’ll forget, and you’ll end up losing some great coupons.

Also, forget having a tab that says “misc”. Everything you buy has a name! Does your grocery store have an aisle called "misc"? Of course not. Can’t figure out where to file it? Figure out what aisle it’s in in the store, and file accordingly. Simple!

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