Organize Your Coupons, step by step

Psst- Today’s our leaving-Portland travel day (sad face) so we will likely be spotty and slow on comments/etc after 1pm EST. We are sorry for the interruption, but so glad to have gotten the chance to explore Portland. We owe you folks a big post about all the stuff we did/picked up/ate! We purchased some local art, crashed an amaaaaazing house, ate bacon on a donut, and John scored not one but two new t-shirts (neither of which are soda related, but both of which are food-related).

Lately I have been asked a bunch of times about how I organize/store our non-food coupons (since the grocery store ones are simply stuck into one of those clear envelopes and stashed in my purse on store runs – more on that here). You know, like the ones from Michael’s, JoAnn, Old Navy and Bed Bath & Beyond and restaurants all the other not-grocery-store related places? And every time I was asked I sort of admitted that I did not have the best system but that I tried to slip them into the compartment on the passenger side door of our car so at least they were with us all the time (since we only have one car and are rarely at a store without the car since nothing is truly that walkable from our house). The real issue was that I would forget what was in there (things would expire all the time, and it was sort of one giant mess o’ papers) and the other annoying thing was that I was consistently having to run back out to the car while in places like Bed Bath & Beyond and Michael’s (because I consistently forgot to grab the coupon before going in). The kicker? Sometimes I would run all the way back out with Beansie in tow, only to find that my coupon was expired already. Boo.

So I needed a system. And then while trolling the notebook section of Target, one found me.

It was this cute thing that I thought was a notebook and then I opened it and a light bulb went off. And it might be my best organizational coup in the last five years. Yes, it is kinda life-changing if you are an organizational wannabe like me (I never have my ish together, but I have dreams of conquering that one day…).

First of all it is slim and light. Like a small notebook without all the pages (it simply has a thin notepad on one side and an accordion fold-out pocket system on the other side). So I thought to myself: “self- you could put all your non-grocery coupons into the accordion side and use the pad to write down exactly what is in there, crossing off things as they expire (so you can see all the valid coupons that you have at a glance) – and you can keep it in your purse since that is consistently with you and then you will not have to run to the car.” Yesssss. And then I high fived myself in the notebook aisle and Clara thought we were clapping so she clapped along.

So I picked up it and I did all the things I told myself I would do in my head (labeled the tabs on each accordion section and used the notebook to write down what I have) and I have used this method for about a month (gotta trouble-shoot things before exclaiming to the internet at large that they are life-changing) and I am telling you it is the bee’s knees. I can even circle things that are about to expire to remind myself to use them or lose them.

I think it was like $6 or something, and I am still on the first sheet of paper on the pad (I had visions of running out of paper since coupons rotate in and out, but it is remarkable how one JoAnn coupon expires or gets used simply as I slip a new one in there so it has not been too bad with the whole crossing out thing. Of course when the page gets all crazy and scratched out over time I will simply tear it off and start over on page two, but it seems like this pad could easily last me a year or two and then I could simply replace it without replacing the whole shebang – so that is pleasant. Oh and it is recycled paper and made by a company called Greenroom if that helps anyone track it down at Tar-jay.

As for what I labeled each section, what made sense for me was: craft, food, clothes, Bed Bath & Beyond, and misc (simply because I typically have a fair amount of coupons in each of those categories). And for food I do not mean grocery coupons, I mean restaurant coupons like printed out Groupons and little fliers that I get in those Valpack mailers for places like a nearby Mexican restaurant or a local BBQ joint. As for my grocery store coupons, you can read more on those here, but they slip into a clear envelope that stays at home unless we are going grocery shopping (we do not typically do that at the spur of the moment like dropping in on other stores or eating out, so I simply shove that envelope in my purse when we know we are headed to Kroger).

So that is my system to answer all of you inquisitive-coupon-loving folks out there. I hope it is helpful to anyone else who is wrestling with non-grocery-store coupons that tend to pile up everywhere. It is remarkable how having a place for something (and not shoving them all into the side door of the car) can make them a lot easier to in fact use. I think I am better at remembering that I have them, so I am even saving money on top of feeling like the Queen Of Organization (not in all categories, haha, but in non-grocery-coupons I have got it down… for now). Oh and I figured other folks out there might have other methods or tricks that they have changed their organization strategy – so spill it. I need to know how else to up my organizational ante. Seriously, assist a scatterbrained momma out.