Congrats to Jennifer (jennyrg73@) who was chosen by Random.org as the winner of the coupon box giveaway!

You will be receiving an email with instructions on how to claim your prize.

For all the rest of you, I have made available a PDF file of the tabs I used when creating my box - you can download them here.

If you do use the tabs or make a coupon box, I would love to see your finished product! Leave a comment on this post or here.

The Coupon Box - this is the method I have settled on, and I'm pretty sure I am going to stick with it for a long time! I use envelopes with a card sticking up on top all inside a wicker basket lined with fabric. Since I cut out most of the coupons I get, I have a pretty extensive list of categories for my envelopes. All I do is cut the coupons out once a week and file them, if I see something I will most likely use, I put it in the envelope for the store I plan to use it at, and write it on my list. During the week when I am doing coupon listings on the blog, I will print out some of the ones I think I can use and file them either in the correct envelope to use later or right into the store envelope if I know what the regular or sale price is.




Some of the advantages about this method are: the box is small enough that you could take it with you to the store if you wanted, without being heavy or extremely bulky. All of the coupons are organized by how broad or specific you make the categories. Since you are clipping the coupons, you should have a general idea of what you have. You can usually use what you already have lying around your house to make one of these boxes (or for very cheaply buy a basket and envelopes at the dollar store, along with your newspapers for the week).

The only drawbacks I have about this system is that: if my basket tipped over, I would have a bunch of envelopes all over the floor, and you can only stuff so many coupons into an envelope before you start to tear it.

If you would like to see and/or use the tabs I made for my box, click here

The above picture is my coupon box, and I want to end this series of Coupon Organization with a giveaway! One reader will win a fully made coupon box, pictured below, like mine (I will customize the tabs to suit the grocery stores around you)!



The giveaway will be open until 11:59:59pm CST on December 10th 2009. The winner will be announced on December 11th, 2009.

How to enter:
1. Leave a comment telling me what your current method of coupon organization is
2. Subscribe to the RSS Feed
3. Blog about this giveaway, and give the URL to the page where you blogged about it



The winner will be notified via email and have 48 hours to respond with their mailing address or a new winner will be chosen. The winner will randomly be selected from all eligible entries using Random.org. Each person is allowed up to 3 entries into the giveaway, any additional or duplicate entries will be deleted.

The comments to this post have been closed, if you have any questions please send an email to shining.light.webmaster @ gmail . com (remove spaces).

If you missed the previous parts of the series click on over to see part 1 and part 2


The Couponizer - This is a great coupon organizing system to use to help you from sorting them to holding them. I used this system for quite some time and I loved it! You are probably wondering why I stopped using it then….? Well, I just have too many coupons for it to hold! The system worked beautifully, I would sit down and quickly cut my coupons out and place them on the CoupStacker, then when I was done I could just transfer each pile from the Stacker to the corresponding pocket of the organizer. Before I would go shopping I would make sure my loyalty cards were in the front plastic card holders and slide it all in its carrying case and head off to the store!

During my shopping trips, I used the front 2 pockets for my "plan to use" coupons and then once I actually put the item in my basket I would move the coupon over to the "use at checkout" pocket. This worked well for me since I usually will look at prices of items I have high value coupons for (I consider $1 or more to be a high value coupon) and if it is something I have room for in the budget to buy, I will, otherwise I leave the coupon in the "plan to use" pocket and once I got home, re-filed it into its correct category.

There were only a couple negative things about this system: if you cut out tons of coupons, you will likely over fill the organizer to the point it might not shut anymore, and once you get to that point of having too many coupons, you realize that there are not enough sub-categories to quickly find your coupons anymore.

Aside from those 2 reasons, I would definitely recommend this product to every beginner and even those of you who use the File System (after you cut them out, put them in the Couponizer, even keep a few "maybe I can use these" coupons in there too so you don't miss the unadvertised sale on those new items you've been wanting to try!

If you would like to find out more information about the Couponizer, or if you are interested in ordering one for yourself or as a gift click here or use the button on the left side bar.

Up next: The Coupon Box & A Giveaway!!!!

If you missed Part 1, click here


The File System- This system is very good for the person who has the least amount of time to spend cutting and organizing their coupons. Reason being, you only cut the coupons you need!



This method works well if you read blogs or websites which give a thorough matchup of the sales with what coupons you need and which inserts they came in. After reading these sites, you should, in theory, be able to go straight to your box and easily find the coupons you need and cut only those out and be done.

The only materials you need to make this system work for you is a file box or cabinet (even a bankers box would work fine) and several hanging exterior file folders. You will want to make sure that you have a temporary labeling system for each file that can be easily changed, a post-it note would work well or even just a piece of paper taped to the top of the file.

This method is great for someone who is just starting out couponing because you do not spend an insane amount of time clipping and organizing coupons that you don't know how to really use yet! It minimizes the mess of stray coupons floating around and keeps them pretty well organized.

The drawbacks are pretty obvious to this method too though. If you constantly rely on someone else to find the deals for you, you inhibit yourself from really learning how to shop the sales and use coupons. Not one person will be able to tell you what the target prices are for what you should be buying for your family in your current stage of life.

You might miss some really great coupons if you don't really look through the ads! Also, when you don't cut them out, you have a harder time remembering what coupons you have since you didn't "handle" them.

One last point is that almost all stores run unadvertised deals and you won't have your coupons with you. (I'm not saying that you need to take advantage of every deal that you can, but the chances of you going all the way back home for a coupon are slim compared to just running out to the car)

Up next: The Couponizer

There are 4 types of Coupon Organization methods in which I am going to outline for you over the days ahead. There are probably a hundred ways to organize them, but these are the one's I've tried and can speak from experience about.

The Coupon Binder - This is basically a 3 ring binder (the zipper one's work best, in case they tip over) with baseball card holders inside. The initial cost for the supplies could be rather expensive, but if you look around or wait for the school year to begin, this shouldn't cost very much at all.

You will need to determine how many categories you will need, and buy the corresponding number of baseball card holders. If you would like to separate the different types of coupons you have, then you will need a set of dividers.

Once you have your binder, card holders and dividers, it's time to set it up. Begin by deciding how your want the flow of your binder to be. Do you want it laid out as your most frequented grocery store? Or do you want it alphabetical? Once you decide, it’s time to start loading your coupons into the card holders.

Some people use 1 slot for each coupon, or a different product on front and back and some people use the slots to hold similar items. The point of using this method is to be able to easily see what coupons you have and be able to quickly locate them.

A lot of times, the zippered binders have some really great compartments on the inside front panel. This area is great for storing the current grocery circulars, a pair of scissors, a pen, your shopping lists and any stores coupon policy you feel would be good to have on hand.

I have used this method, and I have used the binder method on a smaller scale as well (think day planner size).

*They worked great while I was using them, but if I slacked off any bit, my binder seemed out of control and full of expired coupons.

*This method worked quite well for someone like me who clips almost every coupon, but also became very bulky and heavy.

*I did not like was how massive it was to manipulate in the front seat of the grocery cart, I couldn't imagine trying to do that with a child up there too!

*My other problem with this method was that many of the coupons I get won't fit into those slots without having to be folded up so many times I couldn't tell what the coupon was for anymore.

*For other people this method works like a charm.

*They can see exactly what they have and all of the multiples of the same coupon are right there in the same pocket.

*If you can continually keep your binder organized, everything will stay right in its place and be easy to clean out any expired ones.

Overall, this method worked pretty well for me during the time that I used it often, kept it organized and actually put everything in the pockets!!

Stay tuned for the next installment of this series: The File System