How Do You Do It? Couponing-Part 2

Now how I started seriously couponing at home.....I decided to go whole hog into this and bought about 8 papers for the first 3-4 months I couponed, which I have to say was WAY too much at once! I wanted in on the deals and I wanted in on them fast and I got it and it was almost so much to handle that I turned away. Thanks to many kind cashiers and new found friends at the above sites I was able to pear it down to 1-3 papers a week until I got the hang of it.

One of my first decisions was to move from an accordion coupon sorted(which has several pockets in one plastic holder with tabs at the top of each and usually has a bungee type string to close it off). It was very convenient in that it fit in my purse very easily but when I got to the store, if I needed a coupon I didn't have out already it took tons of time finding it in all my coupons.

From there I went to the binder method. At first I couldn't see the point in paying money for one of those binders with zippers. I simply used an old hardback one I had from way back in high school. I added some 9-count Baseball Collector's Card holders, a few index pages to separate them and went about my business. After having my coupons fall out again and again and again, I finally saw the light and bought my first Mead 5-Star Case-It Binder. My first binder was a fluke and fell apart within two weeks causing me to return it and search for a better option.

I finally settled on:










I bought it from Amazon.com HERE and splurged about $25 on it, shipping and all.
It was WELL WORTH IT! I've had this binder for months now with no problems from it whatsoever! I've added another pack of 9-Count Baseball Card holders into it to accommodate my growing coupon amounts and this binder has been tossed, jumped on(remember my kids? LOL) and just generally beat on and it looks just as good as it did when I got it! The two pencil pouch type separators(red and gray in the above pictures) came with the binder, as did the carrying strap(VERY useful!), I added the blue pouch for pre-planned trips(0.10 at CVS on clearance).

Just remember what works for each person is incredibly different. There are lots of ways to tote your coupons around and this is just what happens to work best for me.

~Part 3 Tomorrow~