Hello! Today I'm sharing how I organize my coupons and the free couponing sites I use to save big bucks on my groceries, toiletries, cleaning supplies, etc. First of all, I have a coupon clutch to organize all my coupons.
Essentially, the Coupon Clutch is a cloth cover for your coupon binder with handles and pockets. Couponclutch.com has everything you need to organize your coupons. From them, I purchased my 3" binder cover and an array of plastic sheets with different sized pockets for my coupons. I suggest the Deluxe Coupon Organizer Binder System that comes with
-8 Tabbed Divider Pages
-3 Plastic Binder Pockets
-10 Nine Pocket Pages
-10 Eight Pocket Pages
-10 Six Pocket Pages
-10 Three Pocket Pages
-5 Page Instruction Booklet
In addition to the Deluxe System, I bought an extra 8 pack of tabbed dividers and extra plastic coupon pages. Once my Coupon Clutch arrived, I used my label maker and re-labeled some of the tabbed dividers. They come with categories already printed on them, and I wanted to change some so I just placed my label over the existing category tab. I have several categories and subcategories that I use to organize my coupons.
Coupon Categories & Subcategories:
1. Grocery
-Dairy, Produce, & Refrigerated
-Drinks, Snacks, & Desserts
-Deli, Meat, & Frozen Foods
-Canned Goods, Condiments, & Spices
-Cereal, Pasta, & Boxed Foods
2. Toiletries, etc.
-Personal Care & Beauty
-Pharmacy
3. Cleaning Supplies, etc.
-Cleaning Supplies & Pest Control
-Paper Products & Bags
-Batteries
4. Store Specific Coupons
-Walgreens
-Walmart
-Kmart
-Kroger
-Craft Store Coupons
-Other Store Specific Coupons
5. Other
-Baby Items
-Miscellaneous
-Restaurant Coupons
-Photo Coupons
-Pet Supplies
6. Target Coupons (Target gets its own category because of the sheer number of Target coupons I get and use)
- Target Baby
-Target Food
-Target Beauty & Pharmacy
-Target Cleaning & Paper Products
-Target Other
I find that these categories cover the gamut and I'm able to organize all my coupons so that they're easier to find when I'm out at the store.
Prior to going to the store, I make a plan of which stores I will go to, what items I will buy, the coupon discount, and how much the item will be after the discount (if I have that information available to me). I use a spiral notebook and draw columns and write in that information. I just tuck my spiral notebook into my coupon clutch when I go to the store.
In order to make a plan of how my shopping trip will go, I use a couponing site that gives me all the information I need. Couponmom.com is my favorite site for this purpose. Just select the store you want and your state, and a list of coupon deals comes up. Coupon Mom lists include:
-Date coupon came out
-Which coupon insert it came out of
-Item name, size, description
-If there is a printable coupon for the item, a link will appear in the list
-Coupon amount
-Quantity you need to purchase to get the deal
-The store's sale price
-Price after coupon savings
-Percent saved
Remember the key to really saving money with coupons is combining the coupons with the store's sale. In addition, some stores let you stack coupons. Target is a great example of a store that allows you to stack coupons. Say I have a manufacturer's coupon for $1.00 off razor blades. Then, I printed a Target store coupon for $2.00 off the same razor blades. Plus, Target has the razor blades on sale for $10.00 and they are regularly $13.99. In addition, the Target Cartwheel app has a coupon for 10% off. Adding all the discounts together, the $13.99 razor blades can be purchased for $6.00.
Be sure to check each store's coupon policy to see if they allow stacked coupons or not. I printed the coupon policies for each of the stores I go to and placed them in my coupon clutch. That way, if there's any question about policy when I go to checkout, I have the answer right there. Also, I find that not all store employees are knowledgable about their store's coupon policy and if I have it in writing, I can easily show the employee what the policy says.
There are a lot of couponing sites that will allow you to print coupons to use in the store. Some are manufacturer's coupons and some are store-specific, so be sure to check the fine print. I use the following sites the most:
When I get to the store with my coupon binder, I only remove the coupon from its slot once I have the item in my cart. I keep a small envelope in my coupon clutch to slide my coupons into that I'll be using in that store.
How do you organize your coupons? Do you have a system that works for you? Feel free to share!
No comments:
Post a Comment