5 Ways to Make Coupon Organizing Easier

Organizing Your Coupons!

Organizing your coupons is one of the biggest challenges for coupon users (especially extreme couponers with large coupon collections), making sure that your coupons are always organized is an important task.

If your coupons aren’t organized, you won’t be able to find certain coupons when you need them, which can result in lost savings.

Unfortunately, unless you have a good system, coupon organizing can be a challenge.

Following are 5 ways to make coupon organizing easier.

1. Clip & file your coupons right away

When you get new coupons (mail-out coupons, magazine coupons, printable coupons, tear pad coupons), make sure that you clip (if necessary) and file them right away.

If you can’t clip and file your coupons immediately, for whatever reason, put them aside in a small basket. File them the next time you have a few minutes to spare.

Whatever you do, don’t let your coupon pile grow longer than one week. If you wait longer than that to organize your coupons, the process will likely seem daunting.

2. Don’t clip every single coupon

If you’re positive that you won’t use a particular coupon, there’s no sense in wasting your time by clipping it.

I do suggest keeping all coupons (so you can still use them if a great sale comes along, or you can trade those coupons with others), but you don’t have to actually clip them and you don’t have to keep them with your “regular” coupons (the ones you do plan to use).

3. Use a coupon binder

Although it may seem kind of crazy at first (it’s not often you see someone shopping with a gigantic binder!), but organizing your coupons in a coupon binder is a fantastic way to keep them organized.

It does take a bit of time to set up, but coming from someone who’s been using a coupon binder for years now, I promise you that it is time very well spent.

4. Use a file box for coupon inserts

Clipping coupons from coupon inserts is one of my least favourite things to do. You usually have to rip out all of the pages to get to the coupons, and the coupons are never all the same size.

An easy way to organize coupon inserts is to use a file box. Organize this box with by insert name and date, with divider tabs.

For example:

• Redplum: October 3, 2012
• Redplum: November 5, 2012
• SmartSource: October 15, 2012
• SmartSource: October 29, 2012

When we do our weekly coupon match-ups, if you’re matching a sale item to a coupon from a coupon insert, we will tell you which insert had that coupon. Then, you can simply go to your file box and search for the name and date of that insert to get the coupon(s) that you need.

This is so much easier then clipping all of the coupons in the insert, but not actually using them all.

5. Remove expired coupons regularly

To keep your coupons organized all the time, make sure you are always removing expired coupons from your stash. I recommend going through your coupons at least once per month and discarding all coupons that are no longer valid.

Save yourself the embarrassment of trying to use an expired coupon at the store by always checking for, and getting rid of, expired coupons.

Once you find a coupon organization system that works for you, stay on top if it. The longer you wait to organize your coupons, the more challenging it will be to find what you want, when you need it.

To avoid frustration, missing out on great deals and the time consuming task of organizing hundreds of coupons at one time, make sure your system is easy. The more challenging it is for you to organize your coupons, the more likely you are to put off doing it.

How do you organize your coupons?