As many know, I love coupons. I collect them, I swap them, and I use them.

This week I hit a huge score at the recycling center at the county dump. We were dropping off our papers and a lady had a huge box of newspapers. My kids asked if she had any coupons and she said she wasn’t sure. She was kind enough to look through her box as she threw the papers into the bin and gave us all her inserts! Thank you, kind stranger!

Dumpster diving at its easiest! No diving needed!

Another friend handed me a stack of coupons she wasn’t going to use. Yay, more coupons!

But what do you do with all these coupons? So you can find things for the big sale?

I like to sort my inserts by type and then place them in manilla envelopes. Check out my pile with all the extras I got this week!

(Sorry for the bad photo. I really can’t wait to replace my camera!!!)

When I go to the store I take my clipped coupons and I put them in envelopes from junk mail. I try to organize them by where they are located in the store, but it is an imperfect system. I’ve been working on an idea for better organization, just haven’t been quite sure how to pull it off.

Then I saw a great blog entry about a woman who took a recipe tin and turned it into a coupon box! Well, I thought that was just fantastic! So, I completely stole her idea!!!!! The internet is a great resource when you want it to be!

When I first got married, my inlaws all wrote family recipes and gave them to me in a wooden recipe box. This way I could make recipes that my husband knew. Fantastic idea, but my husband is a picky eater and so it is hard to find recipes he does like. Even those from home, sorry inlaws.

I’m in my 12th home in 14 years of marriage. In every house I unpack this little recipe box, I find a nice home for it on my counter somewhere, and I never open it. When we move it goes into a box to await its new home.

Seems silly, but I can’t bear to just throw these recipes away. Even if I’ve never used them. But really, does the box need to be on my counter? It’s a really nice little wooden box.

Well, the time has come. I will use my little wooden box!! I mean REALLY use it! Not just set it on a counter and ignore it!

It is now my coupon box! I can sort hundreds of coupons in here, it fits easily in my current purse (or one hand), and I can take it with me to the store!!!

Perfect!

I used a recipe card and made dividers out of some fun scrapbook paper. I used a piece of paper to figure out how to make indexing tabs. I fit five cards on each sheet of scrapbook paper, and I found the right size so I could have 5 different tabs. So each paper has a particular tab!

Aren’t they cute? Twenty-five divider cards with just a little bit of work on my part! I did laminate them, as well, so they can stand the test of time.

I then pulled out my FOUR envelopes of coupons from my purse. Yeah, see why I wanted to be able to sort them better?

The coupons got weeded through, expired ones pulled, the rest organized into groups and placed in the proper order in the coupon box! I also went through the loose coupons from my big scores, clipping and sorting.

I still have all the inserts organized in my envelopes, but this will make things a lot easier come grocery day!

The one thing I have left to do is find my sticker labels. That way I can label my dividers in a way that is removable should I decide to change anything.

I came up with many good categories which hopefully will mean I can speed up my shopping. Anything to speed up Triple Coupon Day!!!

Here’s my finished coupon box with coupons!

What do you think?

Here’s my categories:
Baking: Flour, spices, etc
Beverages: water, juice, etc
Boxed: Stove Top,
Breakfast: Cereal, bisquick
Candy: Chocolate!
Canned: Soup, veggies
Cleaners: Swiffer, Lysol
CVS (I have so many I figured it deserved its own)
Dairy: Yogurt, Eggs, Cheese
Frozen: Waffles, Bread, TV Dinners, Veggies
Hygene: Toothpaste, Soap
International: Salsa, oriental foods
Make-Up
Meat: Pepperoni, sliced meats
Meds: Tylenol
Misc
Paper/Plastic: TP, sandwhich bags
Pasta/Rice
Pet Food
Produce
Refridgerated: Cookie Doughs
Restaurants
Snacks: Crackers, Pudding Cups, Cookies

So there you go!

After I finished, I did my CVS shopping, dropped clothes at the cleaners, and saw my chiropractor.

Friday was brought to me by the letter C!

–Lady O