Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Coupon Organizer

This isn't exactly sewing-related, but it was an idea that I found helpful so I thought I'd share! I don't know about you, but I've often tried to get in the habit of using coupons to save a little money here and there. Usually what would happen is, I'd set the coupon in a pile of paper somewhere and forget about it. Or I'd finally get an accordian style coupon organizer, only to file coupons away and forget about them. Or I'd remember to use them but had the hardest time trying to look through all the coupons and find the one I'd need while at the store.

Well, a few months ago I got on a coupon kick again, determined to put them to good use! So I went in search of some better way to organize them, something that would help me be able to see what I had more easily. I went looking through the organizing stuff at Target, but all they had for coupons was the usual accordian type organizers. In a last ditch effort I walked down the photo album aisle, and picked up a small plastic photo album, the kind you might stick vacation photos in. Suddenly it hit me, this is what I'd been looking for! I could stick coupons in each page, and easily be able to flip through them to find the one I needed. So that's what I did!






I've separated my coupons into different sections in the album, restaurant coupons, sewing coupons, grocery coupons, specific Target coupons (I shop there often and print coupons they have available online weekly) and other, miscellaneous coupons. As soon as I get a new coupon, I place it in the album, and I keep it in my purse so it's always with me.

This has worked so well for me! I love the ease of using it at the store, I can flip through and see what I have quickly without trying to search through a pile of coupons and dropping them everywhere. In February, I saved almost $60 using my new system, and in March I saved more than $85! Typically it has saved me about 25-30% per shopping trip. Yay for saving money!

As a bonus, I slipped some fun paper I had in the cover to make it a bit prettier. :-)