Extreme Couponing 101/About Coupons & Organizing Your Coupons

This is my part #3 of L2S's Extreme Couponing. You can check out part #1 here & part #2 here. In this chapter of the series, I'm gonna discuss coupons themselves & organizing your coupons.

First thing, there are facts about coupons, we all as couponers should know. First of those things are..

Do Not Copy coupons, that is illegal and is considered fraud

Codes, all coupons printed have unique codes and these help identify that they are not copied
for

Use coupon exactly how it stated, this means if your coupon is $1/1 Kellogg's Cereal treats-don't not use that coupon on regular Kellogg's cereal. If the coupon is for $1/2 you'll have to purchase 2 products to get the $1.00 off

pay close attention to the wording/restrictions on the coupons. there's are major manufacturers that have their own coupon guidelines...

ex: P&G coupons are 'limit of 4 like coupons'

ex: Unilever coupons are 'maximum of (2) Identical coupons'


Next I want to talk about organizing coupons. Many people have different ways of organizing their coupons, that really is up to the individual person. What would work for some, may not work for others.

Some people carry coupon binders: this is an organized binder, that is divided into categories depending on your needs.

pros of coupon binder, great to have when you see clearanced items and it's organized

cons of coupon binder, take lots of time to up keep and it's kinda big to carry

Some people organized inserts by date: when you organize this way, you normally cut your coupons per shopping trip and your coupon inserts are arranged by date.

pros of organized inserts by date: less to carry around, it's organized and it's easier to get to a coupon

cons of organized inserts by date: doing it this way, sometimes when you find a clearanced or discountinued item you may not have a coupon on hand for it.


There are many different ways of organizing your coupons, that may very well depend of whats best and easiest for each individual person. Me personally I do use the organize coupon insert by date method, I have a 2 drawer file cabinet and my inserts are organized by date, I used to carry a binder but that became just too much for me. So I carry 2 wallet length size coupon organizers, it comes with labeled dividers. These are great for me because I use one for my printables & the other is for the coupons that comes with samples, peelies, catalina coupons, store coupons etc.

Now when there's a hot coupon like this weeks' $3/2 Nivea lip coupon, I say that because starting Sunday Nivea Lip is on sale at all 3 pharmacies & Shoprite. I will cut & carry extra Nivea coupons because its on sale almost everywhere.


Organizing your coupons depends on what's the best for you, if you have any suggestions please leave a comment below!!!!!