Coupon Organization- a hybrid system

Coupon Organization- a hybrid system

There are many methods used for organizing coupons.  With only one paper's worth of coupons, most any will work.  But when you collect several copies of a paper things get harder. The two most mentioned are the binder method- involving cutting all coupons as you get them and filing them in pockets in a large binder by category.     Or filing whole inserts and using a coupon database to find and cut only what you need right before a shopping trip. Both have their pros and cons.

The binder method has lots of "front end" labor, meaning you do lots of work at home, in the comfort of your home cutting and filing coupons.  You then take the whole binder to the store with you and everything you need is right there ready to go. Draw back is each coupon pack has about 60 coupons so on a typical week you are sorting 100-200 coupons into your system from the papers alone.  I found it hard to find spaces to put them and to find the expired ones to make those blank spaces.  The binder was large, heavy and hard to flip through in a shopping cart, not too enticing to lug around in each store. Lastly if it fell out on the floor upside down and the coupons fell out, it meant HOURS of work sorting.

The whole insert method means you either cut the coupons at home as you need them, or take the whole business with you to the store and cut as you go with a printed coupon database or mobile access to a web version. With this method coupons are not ready to go, few databases are exact matches to all the papers in an area so you may miss some deals or waste time looking for coupons you never got.  Also you still need a place for peelies and store coupons. But if you tend to get bogged down cutting and sorting coupons every week, this is a way to have access to all your coupons in an organized way with almost no work unless you actually use them.

  The main problem in couponing with several papers a week with either system is the weight.  In order to get the best deals you need to have ALL of the coupons with you ALL the time.  That quickly gets too heavy to want to carry around and couponing becomes not worth the trouble.  

   I have a hybrid system which works only because I found the correct storage equipment.   Whole inserts are stored in five tabbed plastic file folders by month along with All You Magazine in the back.   I normally take at least the current and last month files in the store with me, just in case I see an unadvertised deal.  The rest are kept in the car.  Cut coupons I know I want to use, store coupons, peelies, etc. are stored in two check files.  Non-food coupons  are kept in a small dollar store check file with 13 tabs including each pharmacy. Food coupons are kept  in a large check file with a handle, found only in-store at Staples, with about 25 or so tabs where I include grocery stores tabs as well. "Coupon files" are worthless in my opinion as they are too small so you have to fold the coupons to fit them in.

With this system I can spend as little as a couple of minutes each week sticking that weeks coupon inserts in the file. That way even if I get lazy and don't feel like deal shopping at all, I don't have stacks of insets piling up. If I come upon an amazing deal I can always find the week it was published and cut out what I need.  I only actually use a few coupons per inset, this way I don't waste any time cutting out all those I never use.
I cull the coupon folders when most all have expired, which is when they are about 5 months old. Using a downloadable database site, I sort the coupons by date, inset and expiration. Cut any remaining ones I might actually use and discard the rest.