Coupons - Binder or Not to Binder?

Should you use a binder for your coupons or not?

I have used a couple different coupon methods. When I was in the beginning couponing stages I used the basic file style coupon holder (below). That seemed to work really well for me because I could pull them out of the slot and just look through them really quick and it fit in my purse.

As I became a passionate coupon shopper I had seen people using the binder method and I thought, "Wow, I need to step up"; so I had my big heavy binder with all my coupons, sorted by date and coupon insert. But the problem for me was when I seen an item on sale that was not on my already prepared list I would have to sort through all the inserts. Then it would totally frustrate me knowing I had seen a coupon, then I couldn't find it.

So I moved to the baseball card type binder, cutting out all the coupons putting them in their individual slots. That seemed to take some time. It looked really nice and I could flip through the pages pretty easy. Problem here is that I would have to remember to take my binder in with me everywhere and leave it in the car. I was tired of carrying a heavy binder.

Now I'm back to the "old school" coupon book that I can throw in the purse and take it everywhere. The only difference is that I have two now. A grocery book and a Walgreen's type book.

I like being able to cut out the coupons, put them in their stacks as I'm cutting, then I grab them and put them in their slots in my books. Easy. I can still match my coupons up with sales, I just look under my category rather than a date.

I really think it totally depends on your personality, your lifestyle, your time, etc.

For some great ways to organize your coupons to go Frugal Coupon Living; she has a great article.