Introducing the COUPON BOX!

So we started out with the pouch- that worked well until we started getting the awesome mainland inserts with ALL the coupons and multiples of the inserts (now up to 6 copies a week sometimes).

Then I converted to the binder- tabs, baseball card holders- the works.  Except I didn't like carrying it in stores with me because it's so OBVIOUS and hard to work with in the cart.  The rings also came open more than once while I was in a store.  Then there's the whole sorting THEN filing part- making sure there is enough pockets to keep everything together.  I just didn't like it.  I finally finished the sorting and never got to the filing into pockets- it just didn't work for me.

So after trying out a few others, we can now show you the COUPON BOX!

 (Thanks for the pic, Jenny)

It's actually a plastic shoe box that snaps shut ($3.49 from Target- hers is pink, I got green, they also had blue and black) and index cards ($2.50) to tab the main categories and then even divide it out into more sub-categories using envelopes (80 for $1.42); i.e. under FOOD: baking, breakfast, canned items, condiments etc.  This just means going to the right envelope to find the coupon and keeping all the multiples stapled together.  It's even been kid tested- fallen off the couch twice and didn't even open!

Total before tax: $7.41 (Hawaii prices, used my saved up gift cards!)

I admit it has been a while since I've been excited to go find deals because of the mess it used to be, but it'll be fun to give the box it's first trial run and have them all at my fingertips again like when we did the pouch and could do deals we didn't know about- those unadvertised ones are sad to miss. 

I start with categories like Baby, Beauty, Food, Health, Household then also do Restaurant and Store coupons.

It truly is a matter of preference when it comes to organizing- but I think we finally found something to fit the volume and ease we need in our couponing.  But no matter what you use, make sure you put your name and phone number on it in case it ever gets lost!