Not Yo' Mama's Guide to Couponing: Organizing and Storing Coupons

Welcome back to NYMGC!  What a terrible acronym, no?  I just felt compelled to use it, this being a blog and all.  Anyway, this is the second post in a series on how to get started using coupons.  On Wednesday, I posted about gathering your very own stash of coupons.  Today, as promised, I'm going to talk about coupon organization.

If you ask me, this is the aspect of couponing that is the biggest turn-off.  Sure it's easy to find coupons, but who wants to cut all those out, and categorize and file them?  Also, I am so glad there are those individuals out there who are willing to tote around an enormous binder or file of coupons in the store, and don't feel the least bit embarrassed, but  I'm just not there yet.  That being said, I'm a firm believer in coupons, so I set about finding a way to store and use coupons that was both functional and comfortable for me.  There are innumerable ways to organize coupons, so I'll share the most common ones here, and you can watch my...

Evolution of Couponing!

Phase no. 1:

When I first started using coupons, I got one of these suckers:

I found it in the dollar section at Target.  It was cheap, simple, and best of all, it fit into my purse for minimal nerd damage.  This phase didn't last long, however, as my coupon collection quickly outgrew the holding capacity.  Yeah, I know, what was that about nerd damage?  Anyway, I decided it was too difficult to not only try and fit so many coupons into a teeny accordion file, it was also nigh impossible to relocate them with only 8 categories.  With that I was ready to move on to...

Phase no. 2:

By the time my coupon stash had outgrown its little accordion home, I was ready to move on to the binder system.  

Just about every coupon blogger I'd read about was using one of these, and it appealed greatly to my perfectionist self.  A tiny pocket for each coupon!  The things that attracted me to this system were the ability to see each coupon, which made them easier to find, and the fact that you had practically limitless options in terms of categories.  To set it up, I just found a zippered binder at Target, and picked up a couple sets of baseball card holders (also at Target...apparently the couponer's oasis?).  I actually never got around to getting dividers and just grouped coupon categories by page.  

I liked this system pretty well, but I have to admit, it was a lot of upkeep.  I had to clip out each coupon, file it away, and then later on go back through and cull out any expired coupons.  It took a lot of work to get it up to date, and needless to say, there were rather frequent stretches where I just didn't want to bother with it because I was behind or didn't want to spend the time.  One day I came clean with myself and decided if I was ever going to keep up with the coupon inflow, this system just wasn't realistic for me.  So I graduated to...

Phase no. 3:

This is actually my current system, and so far, I'm loving it.  It's very simple!  It begins with a plastic storage bin:

You'll notice that inside the bin, there are manila folders with dates on them.  Inside each dated manila folder are that day's coupon inserts.  Voilà!  That's it!  That's the whole system!  No clipping, no categorizing.

You're probably wondering how that could ever be functional.  I was skeptical myself for a long time.  Here's the thing: people used to clip coupons because they had to.  Back in our mothers' day, there was no internet, and there were no blogs or online databases.  The only way to use coupons was to clip out the ones you thought you'd use, file them away, and then peruse the weekly ad to try and match up sales with coupons.  While that method is still valid and has its place, I prefer to cash in on other's work.  Sounds low, but it is a huge time-saver.  With so many blogs and databases posting coupon match-ups, there's really no need to try and figure them out yourself, unless you like the challenge and have the time.

Being a college student, neither of those applies to me, so for now I'm content with just using the information already made available.  All I have to do in this current system is locate a coupon I want to use (easy-peasy with all the coupon blogs and databases), then find the coupon in my bin--they're always listed online with the name of the insert and the date.  That means I only clip the coupons I end up using, and there's no chance for them to get disorganized or forgotten.  Having tried the above methods, I can tell you that this system has eliminated any stress in couponing for me.  It's very minimal both in time and effort, and it stays contained.

So now you know where to find coupons, and where to put them.  If you haven't already, start right away!  The more coupons you've saved up, the more deals you're able to take part in.  On Monday, I'll teach you how to put together your first coupon deal!