Ramblings-n-Writings

Being computer-less for a couple of days last week opened up hours and hours of time that I had to fill. (For those who don’t know, my work – editing, writing and design – requires a computer, so I tend to spend large portions of my day in front of the screen.) Without the computer, I accomplished quite a few tasks on my to-do list, including scrubbing all of the floors and walls, prepping the flowerbeds for spring, and organizing my coupons.

So, today’s Frugal Friday post is about coupon organization. I liked my old system of organization (expandable accordion file) for a couple of reasons – the file was small enough to fit in my purse so it went everywhere with me and the categories were simple. However, I also found the system frustrating because if I spotted a “deal” in the store, I had to stand there shuffling through a stack of coupons (by stack I mean the accumulation of deodorant coupons or shampoo coupons – they are divided by categories but each category seems to have 10-15 or more coupons). My brain always shouted, “Wasting time! Wasting time!” to which I responded, “Saving money!” But sometimes the frustration of knowing I had a coupon and not being able to quickly find it got, well, frustrating.

Old system – accordion folder

On various blogs I read about people using a notebook system. Suddenly having overwhelming amounts of time on my hands last week prompted me to invest in the baseball card holders, find an old notebook and start organizing. My new system is about halfway finished because I ran out of holder things (I originally bought 2 packs, and definitely needed 3, maybe even 4 packs which I purchased today). I divided my coupons into pages (cereal, snacks, sauces/spices/dressings, deodorant, toothpaste, shampoo, Dove, paper products, cleaning products, detergents etc.)

The hour or so that I invested in organizing the coupons has already paid off. When I browsed the circulars this week, it was soooo much easier! I didn’t have to shuffle through my accordion sections looking for a coupon. I turned to the page in the notebook for ____ and almost instantly knew if I had a coupon that would work on the sale item! Amazing! (Saving time = frugal!)

New system

The only downfall that I see to the notebook system is having to lug it around with me. I loved having the accordion in my purse at all times no matter what store I was in. For example, tonight we were in Wal-Mart with my in-laws and I hadn’t even considered taking my coupon notebook with me, but had the accordion with a handful of coupons. We ventured down the dog food aisle, and I spotted a dog food that I hadn’t been able to find anywhere for the last 3 months but I had coupons for. Thankfully, the cat food/dog food coupons weren’t organized yet and were still in the accordion. I managed a free bag of dog food and 75 cents off another one – something I couldn’t have done with my notebook sitting in the house 60 miles away.

For those of you who use the notebook system, do you leave the notebook in your car at all times except when you are adding coupons? What do you do when you spot that unexpected deal (or, in my case, the elusive product) in a store?

Update: I used the notebook for the first time today (3/28). It worked great in the store! I spotted some Ragu spaghetti sauce that was on sale and I turned to the page in my notebook where the sauce coupon was. I didn’t see the coupon, so I quickly flipped through the other food pages and realized it must have been a coupon I discarded earlier in the day since it expired. With the accordion system, I probably would’ve wasted another minute flipping back through the categories to make sure I didn’t miss the coupon. Another benefit is the notebook allowed my husband to be more involved with the shopping too. We ventured down the cat/dog aisle because I spotted some sale signs. I opened the notebook to the cat page and discovered that my husband is about 10x faster than I am at spotting an item on the shelves! Seriously! He would look at the coupons and say “what about this one” and within a few seconds found the product and its price and decided if it was good or bad with the coupon! I didn’t time our trip through Krogers, but I’m pretty sure it was shorter than usual.

For more Frugal Friday ideas, visit Biblical Womanhood.

Related posts:

1. Frugal Friday: Homemade Pet Food
2. Super Savings: CVS, Kroger, Wal-Mart
3. Frugal Friday: Freezer Organization
4. I Went Krogering!
5. Surviving on One Income: Shopping Strategies

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