*This is my old binder, but the method is the same! I now have designed and sell my own binders!

I used a Case It brand binder (find some at that link on Amazon!) that has 2 rings inside. One is a 2 1/2 inch ring and the other is 1 inch ring.

The left section is bigger and holds all my coupons for groceries or things I might find in a grocery store. The right side I use for everything that I buy at CVS or Walgreens. Toiletries and Pharmacy items.

I love this binder because it has so many pockets and zipper bags. I keep store circulars, grocery cards, coupon books and scissors here.

PUT YOUR NAME IN YOUR BINDER! Just incase you loose or forget it in the cart, make sure someone can get it back to you!

I use baseball card holders to store my coupons. I have a few clear CD pages in here but those are just in the back for really big coupons I can’t fold. I cut and put all my coupons in at one time.

You can watch video too:

 This method is best for me. I love to be able to flip through the pages and see exactly what I have, it also makes pulling out expired’s easy. My sections of the binder are labeled like the isles of a grocery store. I sit my binder in the child seat of the cart ( if a kid is there I have to put the binder in the cart) than I as I walk down

the aisles I just flip to that section of the binder and can easily see what coupons I have.

These are the categories that I have in my binder.

First section:

• Dairy
• Snacks
• Baking
• Canned
• Deli
• Boxed
• Frozen
• Drinks
• Cereal
• Cleaning
• Non-Food
• Pets
• Mom/Baby

Second Section:

• Deodorant
• Teeth
• Shaving
• Lotion
• Shampoo
• Make-Up
• Pharmacy
• Paper

Places to buy supplies. I would estimate it to cost about $40 to put together a good binder.

Binders:

During the back to school sales try Target, Walmart, Walgreens and the Office Supply Stores. Or check out Amazon.

Baseball Card Pages:

I get mine at Walmart, they are about 35 for $5.98. They are located in the front of the store by the baseball and Pokemon cards. Target has a bigger pack for about $15 but they are always sold out. I have heard that people get them at the Dollar Store but I have looked for a year and have never seen them.

Page Dividers:

Again, usually Walmart. Just make sure you don’t use the paper pages, they will tear in no time. Get the plastic pages. I used a label maker to label mine.

Reader Amber D. sent me in these pictures of her local $.99 store and Dollar Tree. She found Breyers and Klondike items for almost half of what they are in the Grocery stores. Also, below at the $.99 store she found packages of Hanes socks for only $.99. These are normally $6-$7 at Walmart.

I forget all the time to stop by my local $1 stores. I am not sure why, there are so many good deals to be had there. Recently, I had to purchase a bunch of end of the year items for the school I work at, I bought almost all of it at Walmart (assuming that was the cheapest) and ran into the $1 store to grab one last thing. Imagine my surprise whenI found everything I had bought at Walmart MUCH cheaper!

I think some of the stigma or reasons why I forget to go in is because they don’t always have the same items, some of the stores can be dirty, and there is not much customer service.

On the other hand…. I have gotten a BAG of avocados for only $.99, backpacks for my family reunion, supplies for Haiti, and name brand medication for next to nothing!

Do you shop at your Dollar store? What deals have you found?

We are accustomed to seeing 2 barcodes on all our coupons, well by the end of July that will be coming to an end. That short barcode like the one you see above will be gone. It is being replaced by the longer Databar Barcode.

According to Frugal Finders (thank you for the all the good info!), the DataBar barcode contains much more information than a UPC code does. For example, it accommodates longer manufacturer identification numbers, which check to see if you purchased the correct item. Also, since there is minimal human readable text, this means the end of barcode decoding!

Retailers that utilize DataBar will experience automatic expiration date checking, reduced cashier intervention and improved scan rates. This means your checkout experience should be much less painful and will be faster.

Of course, in order for these coupons to scan, the retailer would need to update their POS system to accommodate the new barcode. Most major retailers like Target and Walgreens already support DataBar barcodes, with other retailers soon to come.

** I am thrilled with the changes, it will be MUCH harder for people (like J’amie from TLC) to commit coupon fraud and use coupons in a way they should not be used. It will also make checkout easier and faster… hopefully!

This is also why the Pop Tarts coupon printed with only 1 barcode.

Yesterday on the radio show, if you missed it you can hear it HERE, we talked about how to store your coupons. I gave 3 different ways/ideas to do it:

• The Binder Method – this is the one I use, where you place all your coupons in a binder, with clear pages so you can see what you have.
• The Insert Method – where you store your coupons by week in file folders ( I do this sometimes)
• The Box Method – Where you use a show box or other size box to store your coupons, pulling them out as you make your shopping trip.

There are many benefits to any way that you decide to organize your coupons. The KEY is to do what works for you so that you can FIND the coupon that you need.

This is an example of the Box Method sent in by reader Mandy. She buys 4 papers each week.

Mandy used a cute craft box ( I have seen these at Hobby Lobby) and scrapbook paper to decorate and personalize her dividers. Then I believe, ( if I can see that right ) she uses envelopes to hold different coupons in the box.

Reader Patti sent in this picture of her binder…. Patti gets a bunch of papers a week and is out of room!

This brings me to the purpose of this post. Yesterday the first caller Sarah from MN (Hi! Thank you for calling!!) was asking about how to store her coupons when she has so many. Just like Patti, I am guessing Sarah’s binder looks like that as well. As I was talking, I could not think fast enough to give her some suggestions. The second caller Jason, was right on! It snapped me back to thinking straight!

I go through phases when I coupon. For a long time I was getting 10-12 papers a week, that is a LOT of coupons. You can’t possible get them all into a binder, well you can but it would have to be one of the 5 inch rings and I can’ take that to the store. What I would do and what Jason does is cut out half of them and put them in the binder and the other half store and use like the insert method.

What happens then, is that you have your main coupons, the ones in the binder. You can take these with you to the store you can pull out what you need etc. But then, when there is a killer deal, a mega event, or a super clearance you can go into your whole inserts that you have not cut out yet and pull out only the coupons that you need. This saves you space in your binder and time cutting them out. BUT you still have them if you need them.

Sarah, that might be something to try and see how it works for you, it will save you some space. Right now I am only getting about 6 papers a week and so I am not having any trouble getting them all in my binder.

Does anyone else have any suggestions? How do you store your coupons?

One of the most helpful resources that I can offer you is the coupon database. You will find the database up at the top of my blog, in the navigation bar. I took a screen shot of it so you can see where to go.

Click on Coupon Database.

This will take you to a database of over 4,000 current coupons and where you can find them! This is sooo helpful when planning a shopping trip or making a meal. I just go and type in what I am planning on buying and see where I can find a coupon for it.

Once there I just type in what I am looking for:

This time I typed in “Huggies”, hit enter and up comes all the current Huggies coupons and their location. It pulled up 26 current coupons for Huggies.

The database will tell you any exclusions, the size you need to purchase, what store it is for and when it expires. On the far right, if it is a printable coupon, you can click the green link and print it from there!

Under source you might see this:

SS 05/15/11

This means that you can find this coupon in the May 5th Smart Source insert in your Sunday paper. To see a list of abbreviations go HERE.

That is pretty much it, make sure to take advantage of this great resource!

** Some of you are only seeing 1/2 of the page… I am fixing that as we speak! Sorry!

You have all these expired coupons, what do you do with them? Toss them out? NO!

Send them to the Troops!

Our Men and Women overseas can use expired coupons for 6 months and sometimes up to a year after they are expired.

Jenan R. a reader on my blog has volunteered to adopt a military base overseas to send our coupons to. It is a tremendous amount of work. The coupons have to be sorted by price, non- food, and food. Anything that has a calorie is considered a food. Then the total has to be added up when they are done.

On the 9th of each month at Jenan’s church, they let her borrow a room to sort these. If you would like to help please email Jenan at jrsqueaky@gmail.com.

You can also help by sorting these your self before you send them. Don’t let that keep you from sending them, but it would really help!

Sort all your coupons into piles by how much the coupons is worth.

Then place them in a bag and write the price of the coupon, the total amount $ that they equal, and if it is food or nonfood. This will help speed things up for her.

New Rules for Expired coupons.

Then Mail them:

The Church at Creeks End
C/o Jenan Ritchey
20010 Kuykendahl
Spring, Tx 77379

If you can include $1 0r $2 to help her ship them over that would be great! Thank you so much for your support!

When you live in the south, unfortunately  you do not have a basement, attic or garage that you can keep food or stockpile items in. You have to be creative and organized in the ways that you can store items.

A friend of mine asked me to post what I store in my garage. I am NOT an expert on this at all, it is mostly trial and error. Who knew deoderant would melt?? Well, I do now! It was also nicely pointed out to me by a friend that I was killing my batteries by keeping them in the hot garage. Honestly, I had forgotten my basic 11th grade science class about how batteries work and that I really needed to keep them in the cold if possible.

Also, there is the issue of the cement, the chemiclas from it will leach into your food products so you have to store everything up off the ground. This also goes for anything you are storing water/liquid in. Do not store your food or other products near gasoline, insecticides or other chemicals. The plastic that these chemicals are stored in is porous and can leach into your food and products also. These items should be in a separate cabinet on the other side of the garage.

Most people have the same problems with garage storage. Either your summers are too hot or the winters are too cold. I am not sure there is a perfect climate for all year long non-climate controlled garage storage.

These are the things that I store in my garage:
Razors
Laundry Products
Wipes
Cleaning Supplies
Soap
Liquid Hand Soap
Shampoo and Conditioner
Paper Products
Air Fresheners
Toothbrushes and Toothpaste
Body Wash
Band-Aids

Things that I don’t store in the garage anymore or never have…

Lotion ( it all separates in the heat, even shaking it something happens to it!)
Deodorant
Batteries
Diaper’s ( they smell milldewy to me… call me crazy!)
Candles (obvously these melt!)
Make Up (I never kept this in the garage, but the heat will ruin it)
Medicine
Food, canned or boxed or otherwise!

Although I do not keep food in my garage out in the open, I do have a refridgerator and chest freezer in my garage.

What do you keep in your garage?