Coupon Organization: A Peek in my Binder

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As I promised yesterday, I am posting details about my coupon file system for the world to see.  As I was deciding what method would work the best for me, it really helped to see how other people did it.  For even more ideas, check out my friend's recent post on Centsational Saver where she details various different organizational ideas. Please don't be overwhelmed with my system.  It has taken about 9 months to get in place with baby steps.  I take about an hour a week clipping/filing coupons and inserts and such.  It actually takes less time than I thought plus I am more organized and save more money.  I can easily find my coupons.  I can easily find what I need for rebates.  It maximizes my time. When I first started using coupons, I put them in just a plain envelope and stuck that envelope in my purse.  Within a few weeks, I found that method to be a bit cumbersome - too many coupons to sort through.  I was missing deals and not using coupons because I couldn't find them in the pile. I "graduated" to a small coupon organizer with tabs to sort by category.

I used one similar to this on on amazon. The small organizer worked for a few months.  It helped me work through what categories worked for me.  I started with the categories I heard other people use.  Quickly I learned that I just needed to find categories that worked for me.  If you mostly shop at one store, organizing by store layout can be useful.  If you shop multiple stores, organizing by type of product could be more helpful.  I, however, never found the alphabetical method helpful for me at all.  Find what works for you. At the end of summer, I realized I needed to streamline even more.  I was getting a lot of coupons from the internet and from free samples.  My small organizer was overflowing.  I decided to try the "binder with baseball card holder" method.

Here is my bag.  It's big enough to hold my 1" 3-ring binder, 2 reusable shopping bags (for store discounts), and current store circulars.  Here's the inside of the bag:

When I get my coupons, I clip the ones I will use.  The rest I leave in the insert (unless I am planning a coupon trade then I clip all coupons).  I file the insert - with the day's date at the top - in my portable file box:

I keep rebate info, store receipts, and special coupons in the file box.  I can easily move the file box from my car to the house.  When it is in the car, I know I can run out and clip a coupon if I find a fantastic deal I hadn't heard about. The coupons I WILL use get filed in my binder.  I sort them according to my categories (which are, again, a work in progress - the ones I had been using aren't working very well so I'm adapting).

If I am in a huge rush, I don't sort - I simply put the clipped coupons in the front of my binder.  In the front pouch, I keep scissors, calculator (I need a new one since Buggy ate half the keys), random printed coupons that haven't been clipped, and plain envelopes.  I'll talk about the envelopes later.  On the right, I have one large page protector.  This is where I put unfiled coupons or coupons I plan to use on a