How do you organize?

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While I was at Wal-Mart yesterday, I was approached in the checkout line by a woman who asked to see my coupon binder.  In the last three months, I'm getting this question more and more by people in either Publix or CVS who either see me in the aisles or see how much I save in the checkout line.



I'm not sure how many of you out there use a coupon binder but I promise that it is not as dorky as it sounds.

Basically, here is what you do:

1. Find a binder that's about an 1" wide.  You could go larger but I think after awhile you would be discouraged to lug that thing around.

2. Purchase some Baseball Card Holders. These work lovely and can hold several coupons at one time.



3. Organize them in the A-Z method.  The reason why I do this is so that I can take this notebook to any store and find things immediately. If you try to do it by store (say Publix), I think you'll end up stressing yourself out when you choose to shop at another store (say Food Lion).  If you end up with empty pages just store them at the end until you need them in the future.

4. Carry it with you in the store.  This sounds silly but if you don't bring it with you then you can't save money.  If you're a little shy about carrying a binder with you then grab a reusable grocery bag and use it to carry your binder with you. Now your saving the environment and money at the same time.



Lastly, I do get ask the question about time.  Not going to lie - building this book will take some time depending on how many coupons you start with but you can do this while you watch your favorite TV program.  After you build the book, you'll clean it out and add to it as you go.  Also, you will realize what coupons you do use and what coupons you don't need which will save you time from printing them from the Internet or cutting them out of the newspaper.

I do not go shopping now without this binder because I know I'll save money with it. How do you organize your coupons?