Get Organized
COUPON STORAGE: There are many ways of storing your coupons. The key is finding what is most convenient for you. The most significant factor in determining what might be your best solution is coupon volume. Do you normally have only 10-20 coupons on hand? Do you religiously keep every coupon you see? Do you stockpile coupons for future shopping trips? Below are some coupon storage solutions that will help you get organized and make using coupons a painless process.
· Traditional Wallet Sized Organizer: For the beginner or small volume couponer. These are the most common coupon storage solutions. You can pick one up in almost any office supply section of any store. Typically they offer some stationary dividers that allow you to sort your coupons in to categories. Some have predefined categories, others leave it up to you to make your own categories. I would recommend this for the beginning couponer or someone who does not plan to have more than 30-40 coupons on hand at any time. I know 30-40 sounds like a lot, but once you really get into couponing, you will realize that you can easily have over 300 coupons on hand at any given time.
· Small Photo Album: For the beginner or small volume couponer. I got this idea from my mother. It is what she uses to organize her coupons. The album holds a single 4×6 size photo per page. You can pick this up at any Wal-mart or probably even the dollar stores. Instead of photos, she slides her coupons into it. You can create your own labels to stick on the pages to designate the category of coupons each page holds. Very inexpensive solution to get you started.
· 3 Ring Binder: For the established and high volume couponer. This is the organization system I use. I started with a small 1/2″ binder with a few plastic pages where I could slide coupons in and out. I quickly outgrew that size and moved on to a 1″ binder with many more pages. The advantage this has over the traditional coupon organizer is that you can see every coupon you have. No more hang nails, rough skin or paper cuts from flipping through coupons! Plus, the binder has pockets inside the front and back cover. I slide any store ads I want to keep in the front pocket. As I shop and use coupons from the binder, I slide those coupons into the back pocket. That way when I get to the register, I simply pull out all the coupons in the back pocket and I am ready to go. I have also found using the binder has been the best solution for easy organization, seeing expiration dates, comparing ads to coupons and being able to expand my organization system as my coupon collection grows. If you would like a binder, there are details on the Purchase Binder page of this website. I create them as they are ordered and make the cover customized for each person.
· Rubbermaid Container: For the established and high volume couponer. If you prefer to have your coupons in an organization system where you can flip through them, such as with a traditional organizer, but have way too many coupons to fit in one, the Rubbermaid container is for you. Use cardboard to create your own dividers, labeled with the coupon categories.
************************************************************************************
COUPON EXPIRATION DATES: Don’t miss out on a great deal because a coupon expired. Find a way in your coupon collection to designate when coupons expire. Make these your priority when searching for the best deals. Now that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use coupons that expire in the future. For example, if you have a coupon for 50 cents off that expires this month, and a coupon for a $1 off that expires next month, I would definitely use the $1 off coupon first. Or, if it is a product you could use two of, use both coupons. Don’t sacrifice savings for expirations dates. Here are some suggestions for designating when coupons expire.
· Tags: Place a sticky tag (such as ones made by 3M) to each coupon that is going to expire in the current month. You may also want to write on the tag what specific day it expires. If you do this though, use pencil so you can erase and re-use the tags.
· Paper Clips: Pull all the coupons from your organizer that expire in the current month and clip them together. If you have a large volume of coupons, you might want to paper clip similar products together, such as health & beauty, frozen foods, dairy, snacks, etc.
************************************************************************************
STORE SALE DATES: It is critical to know each store’s sale ad cycle. If you don’t know when a sale ends, you could miss out on valuable savings. Typically you will find that traditional grocery stores run sales mid-week to mid-week. Whereas big box stores, like Wal-Mart or Target, run sales from weekend to weekend.
· Aldi Foods: Wednesday thru Tuesday (special promotions may be available that last longer)
· Dahl’s Foods: Tuesday thru Monday
· Dollar General: Sunday thru Sunday (special promotions may be available that last longer)
· Family Dollar: Sunday thru Sunday (special promotions may be available that last longer)
· Fareway: Wednesday thru Tuesday
· Hy-Vee: Wednesday thru Monday (watch for special 1 or 2 day sales)
· Kmart: Sunday thru Saturday
· Target: Sunday thru Saturday
· Wal-mart: Sunday thru Saturday
· Walgreens: Sunday thru Saturday
No comments:
Post a Comment