January Challenge: Project Paper {step 6}

This is the one I know many of you have been waiting for.... are you ready for this?!  COUPONS!

So far we have done some Research, Kept and Recycled, Created a Filing System, Organized Receipts,  Created a Daily Routine to Maintain and Gone Paperless.

These days, everyone is doing what they can to save a penny.  And what's the most popular way to do so?  Why those dreaded paper stacks of coupons.  Love and hate 'em at the same time.  Love that they save me oodles on groceries and home goods.  Hate that they are mostly in paper form, tedious to round up, print, clip, and store.  Some days I wonder if all the trouble is really worth it, but when I see those savings of $30 plus dollars on the bottom of the receipt when I walk out of the store, I know I am doing the right thing for our family.

Here is the all important disclaimer.  How and why you use coupons, will have a major impact on the most successful way to store/file/organize your coupons.  What I show you today, goes with my weekly system well, however, it may not mesh into your system.

I have seen boatloads of storage options for coupons, from photo albums {dividing out the page protectors by category and sliding the coupons into the page protectors themselves}, to using baskets with card dividers to sticking with the simple receipt/coupon envelopes like the one I shared here.

I actually tried a coupon envelope once upon a time....

Too much work for me.  Really.  I was honestly confused at the best way to utilize the filing part, do I file coupons by product name?  Or by type of product?  I was doing both and inconsistently.  On top of that, I began stuffing all my coupons for the current shopping trip into the front of the envelope, and then at the store, was left digging through all of the other slots trying to find something because I knew I had a coupon for something I just found on sale.  And then, I decided the envelope just wasn't working for me so I started using a regular legal sized envelope.  Which didn't hold up past two shopping trips before it looked like it had been run over by a shopping cart twenty six times.  Then I started tossing them into a large ziploc bag.  Really?  Another totally awful solution.

It was time to really analyze how I use my coupons, and come up with a practical way for me to store them.

I shared here my morning process of searching for coupons, clipping them, meal planning accordingly and stacking up all my coupons for my weekly shopping trip.

Knowing this process... here is how I analyzed the situation:

• I wanted one place to house all coupons that correlated with our weekly meals/shopping trip
• I wanted to have a back-up location to store the remainder of my coupons, for future trips
• I wanted to have a place to store all coupons that are store specific {30% off at Kohls, 20% off at Bed Bath & Beyond} or restaurant specific
• Using a filing system is too time consuming for me
• I don't want to lug around a large binder, basket or envelope everywhere

Again, these are all personal preferences, however, based on this information, here is what I had come up with.

I found simple stationary envelopes, which seemed to be the perfect size for toting around with me, inside my planner or attached to my grocery list.

I knew right away from previous experience, left as is, the envelope would hold not up to my weekly shopping excursions.  It needed to be beefed up a bit.  So that's what I did...

I cut down strips of heavy duty cardstock paper.

And I wrapped the paper around the envelope and secured with some double sided tape.

I whipped up some additional labels to match my receipt envelope, one envelope would be used for my "Current Trip" to the store, the other would be for all remaining "Coupons" and the last would be for my "Store Specific" coupons.

Then, for a final step of durability and longevity, I popped the envelopes through my laminating machine...

I paper-clipped together my stacks of receipts and popped them into their respective envelopes.

Each week I fill out my shopping list, {you can purchase your own personalized version here in my Etsy shop}, and keep it clipped to my clipboard as I am shopping.  Yes, I am that girl.

And now I can also attach the envelope with all of my coupons for that specific trip, right to the clipboard with the shopping list.  The coupons will always be right at my fingertips.  No more bulky envelope....

The other two envelopes?  Well, they are tucked in my planner in a pocket in the back {on the opposite side of where my bills to pay are tucked}

Of course, my planner is always with me, so I still have access to my other coupons if I need them throughout my trip for an unexpected sale or purchase.

So there you have it.  That's what has been working for this gal.  However, as I mentioned it all really depends on your current system and how many receipts you clip and need to store.  It helps to make a list of what you want/don't want first, when creating your system.  Brainstorm and then Google around for solutions, because there are all sorts of them out there.

While I have you all here, many of you were extremely interested in the label I had used for my receipt folder.  I will plan on adding another label tutorial to my blog list, however, until then, I will share my template with you to play around with and use!

Click here to download and edit Label template

I print these on Avery 18163 labels and just stick them accordingly.  Enjoy!

And that wraps up Project Paper for January!  Six easy peasy steps.  A couple of days left until I will host our link party and you can all share all of your Project Paper work in all it's glory!  I am super giddy excited to see all the organized eye candy, it sounds like many of you have been hard at work!

Let's keep talking coupons for a moment shall we?  Where do you find all of money saving deals?  Any couponing tips and tricks for us soft core couponers?  What storage methods work best for you?


UPDATE:  After a couple of weeks, I decided the stationary envelopes were just TOO SMALL!  So, I switched to creating larger envelopes!  Much better!!

Seriously, how cute is that paper?  Little fruit dots?  Are you kidding me!  Had to do it!

I decided a little challenge would be fun! This month we are getting all those papers in order!  Wanna join?  Take pictures and blog about your awesomeness as you go!  I am hoping to do a giant, "We did it!" celebratory post where we can all link up our paper filing success stories at the end of the month!

Previous steps in this project: Step 1: Research, Keep, Toss, Step 2: Setup a Filing System, Step 3: Setup of a Receipt Saving System, Step 4: Maintaining Your System and Step 5: Go Paperless.