How to Make a Grocery Coupon Book
A 3-Ring Binder Makes an Easy-to-Use Coupon Organizer
Oct 31, 2009
Coupons can be a great way to save money on groceries and other necessities. But, they easily become a disorganized mess that is annoying and not practical. To save time and effort, utilize a coupon book and take full advantage of available savings. Find the right 3-ring binder and spend time organizing the coupon book. The end result will be a practical coupon book that will help save money.
Find the Right Binder for the Coupon Book
Zippered, 3-ring binders work well for coupon books because they prevent coupons, shopping lists and circulars from falling out of the binder when it’s being carried to and from a store. Ideally, a coupon book will have at least one interior pocket for storing circulars, a calculator and other shopping necessities.
A good 3-ring binder for a coupon book will be one that is large enough to fit 8 ½ x 11 inch baseball card protective sleeves. Each clear, plastic page should have nine baseball card-sized pockets. Baseball card sleeves are generally available at any store that sells trading cards. Look in the trading card aisle at Walmart or other department stores.
Zippered binders can be expensive, but can sometimes be found at yard sales and clearance racks in department stores. Check back-to-school sales and end-of-season, clearance sales for the best values on potential coupon books.
Organizing the Coupon Book
Once the plastic sleeves are in place, begin filling the pockets with coupons. Separate food from non-food coupons. Dedicate one page to a certain type of product. For instance, all the cereal coupons will be on one page in the coupon book. For easy viewing, place one coupon only in each pocket. Be sure all the important information is clearly visible. The product, the coupon savings and the expiration date should all be visible without having to remove the coupon from the sleeve.
Use tabbed page dividers to clearly mark different sections of the coupon book. Be as detailed as necessary. The more coupons there are, the more helpful it is to separate the sections. The idea is to make the coupon book as easy to use as possible. Use a page divider for sections for snack foods, dairy, soaps, paper products and so on.
Clip each coupon carefully so it fits nicely into the plastic sleeve. Coupons that are larger than the pocket can be folded to fit, with all necessary information showing.
Using the Coupon Book
Search the coupon book when making a grocery list. Match coupons to sale items in the weekly circulars. Remove those coupons from the sleeve and place them in a binder pocket or separate sleeve for easy access. Bring the coupon book shopping. It’s easy to flip through the pages to match coupons to unexpected sale items or impulse buys.
Setting up a coupon book can be a bit time consuming, but once the initial organization is complete, maintaining a book takes just a few minutes each week. Find a good quality 3-ring binder to serve as a coupon book. Fill it with baseball card sleeves and begin sorting and organizing coupons to save money on necessities. For more money-saving strategies, add a price book to the coupon book.
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