Today I would like to talk a little bit about binders and their importance to couponing. At first, coupon binders may not seem that important. Some people may feel embarrassed taking them to the store or just the extra hassle of having to take it with you when you go shopping may be a turn off. I have to say though that unless you come up with another organizational system that works well for you, a coupon binder is very important. The point here is that if you do couponing for more than a week or two you will have to get some sort of organizational system going because otherwise you will end up misplacing coupons you really need.
When i first started couponing I used a regular 3 ring binder that did not zip. This only lasted for about a month. Other than my dog chewing on the corners it did not last because I had too many coupons for it. I also needed extra pockets to put stuff in while I was shopping. So, I went to Walmart and found a nice big pink zip up binder that has tons of pockets and zippers everywhere. I love my new binder not only because it holds so much more but also because it fits perfectly in the cart while I am shopping. The front of the binder has a few pockets I can use to hold pens and scissors and coupon policies from the stores I shop at. After unzipping the binder it opens up to where I keep all my coupons. I arrange my coupons in categories like dairy,frozen,can goods, refrigerated products, cleaning products etc. To actually hold the coupons I use baseball card sleeves that I bought at Toys R Us.
3 basic coupon binder necessities:
~3 ring binder preferably one that zips
~baseball card holder sleeves - found mine at Toys R Us
~A package of dividers made for 3 ring binders..label each one with your preferred categories such as can foods, frozen etc
once you have these necessities taken care of you can arrange your binder and add to your binder to make it work for you.One of the things I added to my binder was a clear pencil pounce that I use while Shopping. I put all the coupons in there that I know I will be using on that particular shopping trip. While I am in the store if I need to pull a coupon from the binder that I will be using for the shopping trip I immediately add it in with the other coupons in the pouch so that it is not forgotten about when I am checking out. I have added a few photos of my binder so that you may get a good idea of how everything looks and works. Thanks for reading!
