my coupon binder

I enjoy clipping coupons each week from the Sunday paper. I love to see what deals I can match with the current sales at local grocery chains. It thrills me when I see a coupon, know that it matches a sale, and then know the discounted price I will be getting or the possibility of getting it for totally FREE! However, in my quest for saving money, my organizational skills have suffered. Until now. I read on another blog over here that I could make a Coupon Binder. What a novel idea! I had been using a small diving system to collect my coupons, but could never find the one I needed unless I unloaded all the coupons from that section. This new system allows me to easily find the coupon I'm hunting. The coupons are divided into sections I usually shop by, so finding them is a breeze!

I started my project with a 3 ring binder, a package of 9-pocket baseball card pages, a package of dividers, and lots of coupons!!

I put the dividers in the binder and then placed the baseball card pages between each of the dividers. The number of baseball card pages you put in each section depends on your coupon stash. My dividers were labeled like this: Boxed/Canned/Jarred Foods, Frozen Foods/Meats, Dairy Items, Baking Items, Snacks, Paper Goods/Cleaning Supplies, Hygiene, and Baby. These are the categories that best fit my life right now. Adjust these to fit the needs of your family.

These are the results after a typical Sunday afternoon of clipping coupons. I make my stacks based on the categories in my binder. Then I place the coupons in the binder!

Here are a couple of sheets filled with coupons. After taking note of the coupons I have, I scour the sales papers for good deals. Finally I plan my menu based on all this info. This does take quite a bit of time, but I'm trying to lessen this process by being more organized and doing it often, so that I can up my experience. Now tomorrow is grocery shopping day. Wish me luck!