Now that you know where to get Canadian coupons, you’re going to have to figure out some sort of organizing system so they don’t end up expiring before you use them. There are many different ways to organize coupons, but you may have to try out a couple of systems before you find one that works for you.
In this post, I’ll be listing a bunch of ways you can organize coupons to help you narrow down what may work for you!
Coupon Organizing Method #1 – The Wallet Size Expanding Folder
This is my current method of coupon organization. I picked up a wallet sized coupon folder from a local dollar store and one from Michaels found in the dollar bins. The folder from the dollar store already included pre-categorized sections like, baking goods, beverages, cleaning products and condiments. The folder from Michaels was left blank so you could easily customize it to suit your needs. Or I was thinking this folder would be good to label with store names so you could place all the coupons you intend on using at a particular store in the appropriate section!
Coupon Organizing Method #2 – Use Envelopes
Organize all your coupons using envelopes. Make an envelope for each category. (such as Meat, Dairy Products, Cleaning Products, Paper Products, etc.) Cut all the coupons you plan on using and store them in the corresponding envelopes so they can be easily found. You may want to keep all your envelopes in a plastic tub, photobox or something similar.
Coupon Organizing Method #3 – The Coupon Box
Photo from MoneySavingMom.com
Use index cards to create all the categories you’ll need. With this method, your coupons will be really easy to find, but you may find it a bit bulky if you want to bring it into the stores you shop at. Here’s an example from Homespun Heart using a cute recipe box, including the categories she uses.
Coupon Organization Method #4 – The Coupon Binder
The coupon binder is a hugely popular coupon organization method. It’s fairly simple to create your own using a three-ring binder, page dividers, baseball card holders, and perhaps a zippered pocket to hold scissors, random coupons, or a calculator. I’ve also heard of people using photo albums instead of a binder! Here are a couple of tutorials to help you get idea on how to create a coupon binder system that may work for you:
- How to Create a coupon binder (video)
- A Coupon Binder (video)
How to Sort & Organize your Coupons:
Now that you have some ideas on what to put your coupons in, you may want some ideas on how to sort your coupons.
- Organize by product: Rather than create categories, you could group all your similar product coupons together. For example, all shampoo coupons together and all makeup coupons together.
- Organize by expiry month: Create a section for each month of the year and place the coupons according to the month they expire.
- Organize alphabetically: Put your Irish Spring coupons in the “I” section and your Crest coupons in the “C” section.
- Organize by category: Probably the most popular way of sorting coupons. Place all coupons in broad categories such as Meat, Paper products, and Snacks.
I hope this post gave you some ideas on help you find a coupon organization system that will work for you!
If you’re a coupon user with a system already in place, what do you do to organize your coupons?
I’ve been wrestling with how to organize my coupons for a while now, and since I’m back to work in a few weeks, wanted to Just. Get. It. Done. Already.
So I have the little plastic wallet, organized by “Food”, “Baby”, “House” and “Toiletries” (Although the labels are so small it really looks like I have a category for Toilet coupons). Within each category they’re organized by expiry date.
I also keep a master list on a spreadsheet – folded up in the wallet – with extra blank spots so I can keep it updated by hand when I get new coupons and use old ones. Every once in a while I update the spreadsheet file and print out a fresh one.
I hate riffling through my coupons to see if I have anything worth using while I’m at the store, or worse, in line to pay.
I’m pretty new to using coupons seriously, and my system is pretty new too (obviously), so we’ll see if it works.
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I have one of those plastic expandable files. I like it because it fits in my purse, but I need to move on to something else because I have way to many coupons now. I am going to try the binder method next. Another draw back to the accordian file: it is really easy to spill your coupons. Yesterday I was at Safeway and looking for a coupon in one of the fron sections, and the weight of all the coupons in the back made it open all the way and hundreds of coupons hit the floor!
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Need to go the binder route too. Where do you get the plastic card holder sheets? Looked a few places and couldn’t find them.
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Simply Frugal Reply:
April 14th, 2011 at 4:49 pm
Linda, have you tried the dollar stores? I know many people have luck there!
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alison Reply:
July 16th, 2012 at 3:36 pm
many people are using cheque holder sheets instead of card size , that way you never have to fold your coupons.
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I use the binder method. I categorized the food products in what I would find in each row of the grocery store I go to. For the others items I store in product categories: Teeth stuff, hair stuff, meds, etc
I also use the wallet size accordian file to keep in my purse for entertainment, restaurant and give away coupons.
wallet size accordian file can be found in the binder section of wal-mart
baseball card holder sheets can be found in walmart but I forget which section.
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Jackie Reply:
April 15th, 2011 at 6:39 am
I started using the mini photo albums, gradually taping more books to one another. One set was for Food, the other book was for non-food. I liked this cause they were still small enough to fit into my purse/easy to carry, and I could just flip through and see what I had. Now I am using a binder with photo album sheets. I like it better than the baseball card sheets because I can fit all sizes of coupons including tear pad and “gocoupons”. I organize by types of products….paper (napkins & TP), hygene, toiletries, meds, dairy, snacks, cereal, canned, frozen, meats, fresh, make-up, fast food, baby. To keep an eye on which coupons are to expire first, Layer “same” coupons on top of one another (takes up less space) with them organized by expiry date.
In the front of my book, I have one back to back photo sheet with copies of store coupon policies (LD, Wallmart & Superstore), calculator, & scissors, and a empty spot to hold any new coupons that I find on my shopping trip.
On the front hard cover of my binder I have a few sheets of paper clipped on with a large sturdy black clip. this will help me take notes, write grocery lists, and clip on coupons that I will take out of the binder and use at the till.
photo album & baseball card sheets are commonly found in thrift shops too!
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I use a recipe keeper binder that my sister got me for Christmas. I never ended up putting recipes in it and use if for coupons instead. I organize by expiry month. I haven’t found any baseball card holders yet but i did have business card holders that work great for smaller coupons!
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I have started using small ziplock bags for each category in one big bag… After the recent ziplock extravaganza…. this was a cheap and easy way to keep it sort of organized?
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I use the inexpensive brag book-type photo albums and I’ve recently upgrated from the 4×6 size to the 5×7 and LOVE it, I sorted by category and included a section at the front for FREE stuff. Works well for me and I’ve made 4 or 5 similar ones for family members.
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I noticed in the one video “How to Create a Coupon Binder” she mention a price book/price list. I was wondering is there a printed price page for Canadian products?
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