Frugal Tips for College Kids Part 1.5

Where to Store Your Coupons

This is a quick follow-up to yesterday’s post.  So you’re thinking about starting to save coupons now, but where do you put them so you will remember them?  I have a few ideas to solve the coupon organization dilemma.

• Keep It Simple
  • If you don’t have many coupons, you could just paperclip them to your grocery list.  Simple.  That way you don’t forget them!  Or, keep them in an envelope paperclipped to the list. 
  • It’s a good idea to organize your coupons in some way, even if you don’t have a lot.  I tend to separate mine by category (i.e. food, hair and body care, cleaning products, etc.)  and then by date, with those expiring showing first.  If you’re using an envelope or something similar, your coupons can easily be separated by post-its or index cards.
• More Organized
  • If you start to accumulate more and more coupons, it might be time to invest in a new organizing method.  A lot of couponers use small plastic accordion folders (the check-sized kind) and divide up their coupons with that. 
  • Others, instead of clipping their coupons right away, prefer to store Sunday Paper inserts by date in binders or larger accordion folders, and clip them as needed when an item they need goes on sale.  Printed coupons and others go in a “miscellaneous” slot with this method.
• Extreme Organization
  • Many extreme couponers will go for something like this: Coupon Magic Organizer Binder.  Each coupon has its own slot.  Mega organized.  I’m not to this point yet!

What do I do?  Currently, I have a box that would normally be used for jewelry or keepsakes.  I divide my coupons by storing them in a flexible plastic casing my birth control pills come in.  It worked fine until I started trading coupons, and my collection grew, and grew, and grew…

So I’m going to move on to the plastic accordion folder method.  I’m not ready to take the time to organize my coupons in a binder, so I feel that would be the best next step for me.

Once again, any other tips or ideas from my readers is greatly appreciated!  What do you use for coupons?