The Art of Organizing Your Coupons
It can be difficult to keep your grocery store coupons organized, but if you can’t actually find your coupons when it’s time to use them, then the time you have spent clipping them has been wasted. Organizing your coupons first is a good way to be prepared and ready to save money at the checkout counter.
The first thing you need to do is to make a shopping list. If you make a list, then you’ll be able to match the coupons with the items that you need. After that, search through your coupon organizer and take out the coupons that match your shopping list. Now, you’re ready to shop.
And how do you organize your coupons? Well, there are several different ways.
Keeping two separate organizers is a good idea. One organizer is to stay at home. This organizer contains those coupons that you know you’re eventually going to need and use. The other organizer is portable and ideally fits into your purse or pocket. It contains those coupons that you need on that specific shopping trip.
Using an old shoebox or a recipe box is an inexpensive way of crating an organizer that stays at home. You can also use index cards to separate the coupons in to the categories that work for you. You want to make it easy to find the coupons as you need them.
To make your coupon search user-friendly for you, create a categorizing system that makes sense to you. Arrange them alphabetically, by food group, or even by brand but make sure that it is a system that you, yourself, understand. You want to be able to find the coupons quickly.
Remember to go through your coupons on a weekly basis to weed out the ones that have expired. Check the expiration date again before you go shopping just in case you missed something.
Upon making out your shopping list, pull the coupons out of your large organizer that you will need for your grocery trip. Then, place those coupons in a portable organizer so that they can be transported to the store with you.
You can purchase small coupon organizers that even hold calculators and pens or you can simply use a folded up envelope. It’s a good idea to have something small, however that can easily fit into your purse or pocket.
If you don’t want to spend the money on a special coupon organizer, you can also use an envelope, which works just as well. If you put a rubber band around the envelope, it will keep the coupons from falling out without having to seal the envelope itself.
When you get to the store, you might also want to check the aisles for “pull out coupons” near the items that you are buying, just in case the store is offering a better deal that day than the one that your coupon is good for.
If you managed to stay organized when it comes to your coupons, not only will your shopping trip go easier, but you’ll also save money. And that’s the reason we use coupons in the first place.