When you start using coupons, you need a place to organize them. Some people chose to envelopes or plastic accordion files. Those are fine and dandy if you don’t have many coupons.
If you often have a large supply of coupons, it’s easy for your smaller organization system to get clogged.
The solution for this is a coupon binder. They do take time to set up and organize but it is certainly time well spent.
Here are some tips on creating a coupon binder:
Supplies Needed
Here are the supplies you will likely need for your coupon binder. You may not need all of them, but get the basics for sure (those marked with a *).
- Large 3 Ring Binder (Zippered is best.)*
- Trading Card Sheets (9 pockets on each sheet.)*
- Page Protectors
- Calculator
- Pen, Pencil
- Scissors
- Zippered Bag (With holes in it so you can put it in your binder.)
- Page Dividers*
Determine Categories
Now you need to decide on the categories you will have in your coupon binder.
Some examples of categories:
- Food
- Pets
- Baby/Kids
- Beauty
- Health
- HouseholdIf you want to be even more organized, you might want to be more specific and do something like this:
- Pets: Food
- Pets: Supplies
- Baby: Diapers & Wipes
- Baby: Food
- Baby: Supplies
- Beauty: Makeup
- Beauty: Hair Care
- Beauty: Shaving
… and so on.
Once you have figured your categories out, write them down on your divider tabs and put them in your binder. Then add 2 or 3 of the trading card sheets to each category (you can add more later if you need to).
Finally, add your coupons into the proper category.
Other Ideas
Consider adding some page protectors to the back of your binder that hold the following:
- Store Coupon Policies
- Over-Sized Coupons
- Mail-in Rebate Forms
- Bonus Point Coupons
Put your calculator, pen and scissors into the zippered bag and put that at the back (or front) of your binder as well.
That’s really all there is to it. After using your coupon binder for awhile, you may wish to organize it differently than you originally set it up. That’s okay. Do what works best for you!
Remember to go through your coupons at least once a month and get rid of the ones that are expired.
Do you use a coupon binder? How is it organized?
Anyone looking for baseball card protectors for their binders I found them at Walmart in the toy section. They are where the baseball pokemon and other types of cards are. I believe I paid approx $7 for 35 sheet and 9 pocket on each side of each sheet. I like them better than the buisiness card holder inserts which have much smaller pockets. However I find them very slippery and the coupons shift around any tips on that or is this the main reason for the zip up binder.
The dollar store (dollarama) has the baseball card sheets too!
Hi
Danielle, my cheap/frugal way of getting the baseball trading card sheets was I purchased battered up binders at the second hand store. Most had sheets in them. So I paid very little for them. My zippered binder also came from there. I lucked out and found a brand new zippered binder for $2
Cheers and happy couponing
Danielle, I found some at Dollarama but haven’t compared the price to WalMart
Thanks, Jessica!
You can go to any trading card game store and get them as well.
I looked at Wal-mart but not the check out! Thank you so much!!
Danielle – I found them at Walmart near the cash register (near the express checkout area).
I have been collecting and using coupons casually for a few years now. However recently I have started to accumulate a larger collection of coupons. I used to you the envelope method, and have recently up graded to the accordian file method. However I am finding this is not working for me and I want to create a binder with the baseball card inserts, however I am having trouble finding them. (The money sleeves you can buy for currency collectors are too expensive) If anyone can point me in the right direction that would be great!!! Thanks
I have recently started couponing, and would like to share my “strategy” with each of you. I use a large three ring binder, and baseball card sheets. It is organized alphabetically, and in order of expiry date. I also keep a note book, scissors, a calculator, highlighters, pens, markers, a table of contents, and a coupon policy list for my favourite stores. If you are looking for some good couponing websites: Save.ca , WebSaver.ca , BrandSaver.ca , GoCoupons.ca .
I just started to be a couponer and I use a mini picture album to carry around my coupons in my purse. I made labels and stuck them inside. It works for me and I hope it will work for others!
I organize my binder alphabetically. However, since it takes so long to clip the inserts each week I am going to try to mix it up a bit in the next few weeks. I will be posting information and a video soon.
Thanks for the message!
hi leah, thanks for the message
i live near toronto
Hi Cassie,
Thanks for coming around my way and leaving a sweet note
I dont know what part of Canada your in but I live quite close to the border in Washington St. USA so maybe I can give you a bit of a heads up about what’s happening here.
I love my coupon binder, can’t live without it. My conversion to it was detailed here at http://lavidacheapo.blogspot.com/search/label/coupon%20organization. I hope it helps someone:)