Mom's "Almost Perfect" Coupon Organizer

As I was marking items for my garage sale I found a 3-ring binder with vinyl pages designed to hold sports trading cards. Each page had 9 clear vinyl pockets. I slapped a $1 sticker on it and tossed it in the garage sale bargain box. Then I took it back out and looked at the vinyl pages again. Suddenly I knew I had found the perfect (well almost perfect) solution for organizing my coupons. I grabbed a handful of coupons from my shoebox and started putting them in the pockets of the vinyl pages. It took some folding but the coupons fit. Now I could see all my coupons by simply turning pages in the binder.

Next I cut trading card sized pieces of paper for each pocket. This gave me twice as much coupon space because I could use the front and back of the pockets. Then I made inserts to indicate the type of coupons for each area - "Dairy", "Canned Goods", "Freezer", etc.

I tried several different formats for organizing the coupon catagories. First I arranged them by product brands then by the layout of my favorite grocery store. This was great when I was shopping there - but was confusing when I switched stores.

Finally I settled on organizing the pages alphabetically. So when I was going down the aisle and reached the salad dressing area - all I had to do was flip to the "S" section and I could see which coupons I had for salad dressing.

I used this terrific coupon organizer for years. Every time I took my binder to the grocery store I would get envious looks from other couponers. As I said, it was "perfect" - or I thought it was until I found my new "coupon friendly" vinyl pages.

Mom's NEW and Improved Coupon Organizer