And it worked.....sort of. You can see that I labeled the sections, but things like "hygiene" were soon crowded with about 50 coupons. Sifting through all of these was annoying at home and next to impossible while shopping. I try to plan out what I'm going to buy before we leave, but I usually see at least one thing on sale and think, "Oh! I have a coupon for that!" Or my husband says, "Did I mention that I'm out of razors/deodorant/soap?"So, what's a girl to do??
I looked online and found several good ideas:
The Money Saving Mom had some good ones and
Out of the Over Flow really impressed me, especially because she used a binder. I LOVE binders.
But-I had gotten used to carrying all of my coupons with me all of the time. That way, if I was in the town I work in, I could check out their CVS/Wal-Mart/Kroger as they were usually less "raided" than mine. It also has worked out a couple of times that I had my store coupons with me in my purse (that's how I got my free panty at Victoria's Secret), so I didn't want to lose that.
I'm now in the 'wobbly toddler" phase of couponing. I've been at for about a year now. I remember them when I go to the store every time (it took a while to establish that habit), and I found moneysavingmom.com to help me use them even more effectively. But I, as I started clipping more and more (and USING more and more) I found myself sifting through piles of coupons at the store while trying to entertain my 10-month old, tell my husband what aisle the Excerden is in and talk to my mother on the cell phone. It was time to reevaluate my organizational system.
It took me a couple of weeks and a lot of thinking, but I finally came up with a plan:
What's that, you ask??$1.99 Photo albums!
How do they work?
I labeled each page with letter stickers I found for $0.99 (I had to get creative when I started running out of letters). I only used one side of each "page" (they have a slot for a picture on each side) because I thought that they would fall out as I flipped through.
I purchased two books--one that I'll keep with me all the time and the other that I'll only keep with me when I know we'll need it. The first one has all of my CVSesque coupons in it. The other has food, restaurants, and specialty stores (Best Buy, New York & Co., etc) that I would be making a special trip for anyway. I am thrilled with this new system. I have 18 slots per photo album, which is enough for me right now. I will reevaluate in a couple of months to see if I need to make any adjustments.
Right now I'm just happy to have something that fits in my purse that is easy to use...and it's pretty!!
13 comments:
Wow, that is interesting! I've never seen anyone do it like that before! Great idea! This is what I do!
I love this idea! My coupon organization is what your used to be, but it is difficult to use. It looks like I will be reorganizing. Thank you for sharing your idea!
I love that it's so portable. And so CUTE. :-) I'll have to consider this... Thanks!
Now, that is a neat idea!
I LOVE it!! Portable, cute, and lots of slots for different categories. I"ve been struggling to get my mass of coupons under control and I can't wait to try this one out!
That's a wonderful option for someone in the middle (like where I am). I've couponed for a while now, but don't keep all coupons, so this is a nice step up from using the smaller coupon holder you showed.
Great idea, thank you! P.S. Just wondering where you found the photo albums?
Great idea! Thanks for sharing!
Lyn,
I found them at Target. They come in the same pattern but different colors, too. If I had really wanted to, I could have gotten them for less, but I thought they were pretty, so I didn't mind paying a tiny bit extra. You'll notice that they coordinate, but don't match--that was not an accident ;)
Thanks for letting me know. I think they are very cute!
That is a cool idea! I currently do a method much like Crystals, but it is a pain to lug the plastic shoebox around. YOur idea would lead to me being able to plop the books in my purse
Love it!
Oh I wish I would have read your post about 2 weeks ago! I love your idea of photo albums!!!! Like you, I used the accordion file and loved the fact that it was always in my purse no matter where I was. But I also had the problem of spotting a deal and trying to find the elusive coupon. A couple of weeks ago I decided to convert to a binder with baseball card holders, but I hate that it doesn't go everywhere with me. I've missed a couple of great bargains because my accordion file wasn't in my purse. I wrote about my new system here:
http://ramblings-n-writings.blogspot.com/
2008/03/frugal-friday-organized-coupons.html
Love your idea. You can read about the way I store my coupons here http://creativetripletmom.blogspot.com/2008/01/project-365-in-2008-photo-of-day-16.html
I now have 2 of these books. One for food and one for health and beauty.
Thanks for visiting my blog. After getting your comment I decided to do another post with my new coupon book. So check out my blog entry for today. creativetripletmom@blogpost.com
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