On Compiling & Organizing Coupons

My first coupon inserts arrived via the Sunday paper on October 18, 2009. As discussed in the Welcome to Savvy Shopping Mama post, I excitedly clipped several of the coupons that interested me. When I was finished, I threw away the remaining coupons along with the rest of the newspaper. I repeated this process the following week.

In early November, Dean was reading an online tutorial on Coupon Mom where he came across a means for compiling coupons that we have found works much better:

• We invested in three 3-ring binders, one each for the different coupon sources we receive: SmartSource, RedPlum and Proctor & Gamble/General Mills (combined).
• Each week, we use a black permanent marker to label the various coupon inserts with the name of the insert as well as the date it was published: i.e 2/21 Red Plum
• The inserts are then 3-hole-punched and filed chronilogically in their respective binders.

This filing system has been great for various reasons:

• It Saves Time: I no longer spend my Sunday mornings flipping through the inserts tediously clipping coupons and trying to organize them in my coupon folder
• It Saves Coupons: I cannot tell you how many times I've come across great deals using the 18-Oct or 25-Oct coupons inserts. Unfortuantely, due to the fact that I only clipped the few coupons that were of interest to me, I no longer have most of those coupons, and have missed out on many opportunities to "buy" free items!
• It Organizes: Most shopping sites list coupons for deals using the insert name and date (2/21 Red Plum). When I am compiling my coupons, I merely pull out the applicable binder, flip to the corresponding date, and find the coupons. It's so easy!

I hope this helps, using this method has worked wonders for us!