How to Create a Personal Coupon Book

Coupons are a great way to save money, but they can also be inconvenient. If you use coupons heavily and don't have a good system in place, you could waste a lot of time sorting through stacks of them. You could be missing out on great deals and forgetting to use valuable coupons before they expire. Creating a personal coupon book keeps you organized so you never miss a deal.

Things You'll Need

• 3-ring binder Baseball card storage sleeves Dividers Folder Envelope

Instructions

1. Walk around your grocery store and make a note of what is in each aisle. Create a list of departments from one side of the store to the other so that your coupons will be in order as you walk the store. Note the major items in each aisle.

2. Label dividers for each section and aisle. Make notes on each divider to indicate what is in them,such as "produce" or "aisle 1: canned goods and boxed meals." Do this for the whole store, placing the sections in the order in which you would walk the store.

3. Insert baseball card storage sleeves in the divider sections. Place your coupons in the square sleeves. If you have duplicate coupons, gather them all together and put them all in the same sleeve, putting the one that will expire the soonest on top.

4. Insert a folder into your three-ring binder. Collect sales ads from stores or from the newspaper and keep them in this folder. If you regularly shop at more than one store, you can compare prices while shopping. If you can't remember whether an item was on sale at another store, you will have all of your store fliers handy. Add the empty envelope to the folder as well.

5. Shop the store in the order you assembled your coupon book, turning the pages as you go from aisle to aisle so that you can easily see which coupons you have. When you see one you would like to use, place it in the empty envelope so you'll have them all ready at checkout without having to hold them.

Tips & Warnings

• Go through your book once a week, removing old coupons and adding new ones.

Resources

• Baseball Card Sleeves