Friday, September 10, 2010

Couponing - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Coupons....an essential part of saving but they sure can be a  pain. Yup I admitted it....I'm addicted saver who gets lost in the shuffle of coupons just like you. So whats the best strategy for organizing your coupons? I know of two different methods and right now I'm honestly thinking of switching myself.

Method #1: The Coupon Binder
This method is greatly organized but timely as well. You need a coupon binder and baseball card organizers. You divide your organizer into the catergories you find appropriate i.e. sections in your grocery store, alphabetical, whatever. It is great when you are trying to find a coupon quickly but you have to stay on top of this method of you will be like me and have a bunch of coupons just waiting to be sorted.

That leads to

Method #2: The Insert Savers
When using a saving site they will tell you exactly what insert each coupon can be found in therefore it is possible to keep each insert and just pull out the coupons as needed. The only requirement is that you need to write the date on the top of the insert so you can keep track. This is not great for when you are at a store and find a great deal as you have to do some searching. How can you avoid that? Each week a list of coupons is available, print it out and keep that sorted. Probably easier to sort as it is already typed up for you and only requires electronical sorting.

So I have only done method #1 so #2 seems wonderful to me right now. But I haven't tried it so it too may have its downfalls. As of Sunday I'm going to start using method #2 and then I will be able to more accurately assess that method and hopefully I won't spend my Sundays cutting and sorting. Have any experience with either method or do you have a totally different idea? I would love to hear your experiences.

2 comments:

  1. i bought a cheap coupon organizer on amazon that i cut the coupons out and sort them into categories based on the tabs in my organizer. its small and portable, i just need to remember to take it! but if i'm in the hygience section, i look at those coupons and try to match up the best price... works sometimes, like i said, if i remember it!

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  2. that is how i use to do my coupons way back when but found myself spending so much time shuffling through coupons at the grocery store that i just got exhausted. maybe had it been better divided it would have worked but it was easier to sort before

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