Monday Organize & Clean it – Coupons

I love to save money and I love to tell everyone about it. The best way to save money at the grocery store is by using coupons. A lot of people that e-mail or talk to me are not sure what to do and their first words are “isn’t that complicated?” .

Yes it does take some time, and it can be a little overwhelming in the beginning, but once you get the hang of it, it’s just routine and you wouldn’t want to miss it. The First Step is.. get you some coupons…

Okay so, you took my advise and are buying your Sunday paper every week, now you ask… how do I organize them, do you cut the coupons do you save all coupons, do you just save what you want and toss the rest, what is the most effective way to save time and money?

Here is how I handle my coupons, this may or may not work for you, but for me a busy mom of 3, with a husband, 2 dogs and a full time office job, that’s the best for us.
I hate being unorganized, so when my Sunday papers hang around on my desk or kitchen table like in the picture above… I’m not a happy camper and can get quit overwhelmed if I would leave 2-3 weeks like that….

I don’t have time and patience to sit at the kitchen table and cut every single coupon, sort them and then file them into my coupon binder. So I leave all my coupon inserts intact, the way they come in the Sunday paper, that’s how I keep them.

I do sort each insert by Smart Source, Red Plum and any other coupon inserts there are. Each coupon insert has on the side ( the spine) the date printed when they were published.

I take my insert stack and put each of them into a Magazine holder, sorted by date and Smart Source or redplum insert.

Take a look

They are all neatly sitting on my shelf, waiting for their big moment, when they can save me big bucks or even make an item free. I don’t pay much attention to them till a sale comes along and I need to go to my magazine holders and pull out the exact week, that has the coupon to go with the sale; then I cut the 6, 8 or 10 however many I have and file the rest of the insert booklet back into it’s spot… done.. ready to go get the bargain…

The nice thing is, every week when I post the Target add, the Publix add or any other sale website, they all list the coupons that go with the sale and the also list what Sunday paper the coupon was in, so all I have to do is pull that week and get it.

How simple was that.. You, too can start saving on your groceries with this simple system. You can tweak it to your needs and make it your own. I have 5 magazine holders and they are holding about 6-8 month worth of coupons booklets. So it isn’t taking up a huge amount of room, and it doesn’t look cluttered either, easy access means you will use it.

Now granted I don’t have the coupons all clipped and cut and ready to go when I hear there is a SUPER AWESOME DEAL at Target or Walmart and you need to RUN right now to get it.. or I don’t just walk the store to find deals, so this system works for me to get what my family needs on a daily basis, if you are a BIG deal hunter and have lots of time to spend at the store to find the deal, it may be better for you to cut every coupon and file it away, but till then.. let them rest in a Magazine holder and have them hang out with all their friends till it’s their time to shine 🙂

The few coupons that I get from like the store, or on products, that  you print online or are just floating around, I do keep in a binder, but you can check out this post here, to make your own coupon binder with items you already have at home.