Coupon tips: binders!

I run a coupon tip facebook group. Just a small (34 members as of this posting) group of mostly local friends and friends-of-friends who are trying to get into couponing or are already into it and just want tips on improving. I sporadically update when I have time in between my job, kids, house, and life. I wanted to do a post on coupon binders, and thought I'd post it here where I can insert photos and such easier. And who knows, maybe it will help out some random reader :) (do i have any of those? lol).

Coupon binders are a great way to stay organized when shopping. I usually know a head of time what I plan to buy based on the sales, but every once in a while I will see something marked down or on sale that was not advertised. A few weeks of missing those deals was enough for me--I picked up a nice zippered binder at staples to keep all my couponing stuff on hand!

The zippered sides and handy carrying handle made this a convenient choice. I picked up some folders with tabs to keep whole inserts in (this can make your binder cluttered if you try and keep too many! I tried to keep them all at first, but then settled on the 2 most recent to cut down on size), some tabbed page separators, and some baseball card inserts (I later got some 3 pocket ones that were the perfect size for all my printables!!). Here's a few visuals:

baseball inserts are a great way to store your coupons!

these handy pocket folders were great for storing whole inserts!

I would clip the coupons I knew I was going to use (or pretty sure I would use) and organize them either by type (health and beauty, baby, pets, food, ect) or by store to keep them all together for sales (ie if i was planning a target trip, id put them all together for easy access). My life has been so crazy lately that I havent had the time I used to spend browsing through inserts and printing coupons, so I havent used this binder in a little while. I grabbed a cheap-o plain binder from walmart with a few pages of 3-pocket baseball card holders for quick trips. I keep it in my car and bring it inside when I have new things to add or am planning a special trip. Here's a quick peak, mostly to show the advantage of the 3-pocket sleeves:

I keep coupons for the same products in the same sleeve (ie the $3 off coupon on the bottom is paired with 2 more of the same, as well as 3 of the $3 off manu coupons from p&g--when you stack them, the bounce dyer sheets are 9 cents each so i keep them together so i remember to use them both!)

Please feel free to comment if you have any questions or would like more info!!