Getting Organized

She looks so happy being organized :)

After breezing through the first ten or so virtual classes I deduced that my first step is to get organized. In an effort to save my sanity and ease my way into this process I’m going to keep it simple and shop one store when couponing. And to my delight, it ain’t Wal-mart. I’ll get into the where and why later as not to confuse the issue at hand…. Organization.

I’ve read about several different methods for organizing your coupons and the one I like best is the binder method (vs. shoe box, recipe holder, bins). I need a few things:

• A three ring binder

• Baseball card binder sleeves (I value my life enough to not empty out the ones currently housing my husband’s collection so I plan on checking Hobby Lobby and if I can’t find some there I’ll check a sports/comic book shop) You could also use photo holders

• A zippered binder pouch large enough to hold a pencil/pen or two and a small calculator (or you can use the one on your phone, if it is handy)

• A few plastic page protectors

The page protectors will be used to hold a copy of my chosen store’s coupon policy, possibly a price list of regular items I buy, and an empty one in the front to hold the coupons I will need at checkout.

The card sleeves will hold the coupons. There are several ways to organize these: by product type (Dairy, frozen, household, etc) or by store layout (What’s on aisle 1, aisle 2, etc.) I think I’m going to start with the second one but this may change.

Here is a great link on how to get organized and a little more detail on couponing itself:

http://www.weusecoupons.com/upload/articles/4595-lauras-couponing-refunding-hints-tips-plus-coupon-binder-how.html

Her binder is a little overwhelming. She goes to several stores and clips GAZILLIONS of coupons. She suggests a binder with a strap or rigging up your own… I’m not that hardcore. I also didn’t read much into the part at the bottom about rebating…. Baby Steps. I think this is key in not getting overwhelmed and giving up.

So my goal for the next few days is to gather my supplies and get my binder together. I’ll post pics when I’m done. Then I plan on starting a Price Book. She explains what this is and how it works in the article. I will only log prices on the things I buy most often or that I’d like to stockpile.

Hope this helps get you motivated to get organized. If you need a little more of a visual I’m sure there are youtube videos - sorry I didn’t have time to find some good ones to post here.

Coming soon…. Where to find coupons

Happy Organizing!!!