The key to savings is organization. Well, lots of elbow grease and a solid understanding that you must be organized. I have been following The Krazy Coupon Lady, learning her techniques and best practices and I have been doing fairly well for myself.
So let me share with you my binder. I'm super proud of it. I bought the binder at target, It is a 1.5", soon I will need either another or a larger replacement. It is stuffed with baseball Trading Card Pages that I purchased at Staples. I bought 4 packages for $2.99 per package.
Open my binder and you will discover the left pocket has my WAG (short for Walgreens) Savings booklet, Target Beauty coupon book and Staples Rebate claims. To the right, I have 2 pages off all of my discount / reward cards. Here, they are all in one place not some in the binder, some in my wallet, some attached to my key chain. Here. One place. Organized.
I printed out the coupon policies for CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Safeway and even Target's 'we don't really have a policy' policy. You never know when you are going to encounter a cashier (or even a manager) that is not familiar with their company's policy. It's much easier to say "I have a copy right here" if questions were to arise, rather than receive misinformation. So far, I have not had to refer to these pages.
The coupons that randomly print based upon your shopping habits are called Catalina's. These pages in my binder are not coupons, they simply let me know what is out in the Catalina machine and where to find that specific Catalina. They say 'Available at Safeway, Walgreens...' Commonly called "check-out coupons" they tend to offer rebate rewards toward your next shopping trip, when you buy qualifying items.
My binder is separated by the way I shop my most visited store: Target. So I have Beauty, Wellness, Pet, Cleaning, Dry Goods / Water and Dairy / Cold / Frozen.
Then I have pages that are for Store-Specific coupons: Target, Walgreens, CVS/ Beauty360, Rite Aid.
Behind my Target tab I have the current sales flier, which I have used my 3-hole punch so it is secured through the rings. Every tab is set up this way. I circle things so I don't forget to check them out!
Behind the flyer is more trading card pockets with "store specific" coupons. These are coupons issued by the store NOT the manufacturer. So these coupons are only available for use at Target. I can use these coupons along WITH manufacture coupons, which is why I keep them separate - so I can maximize my dollar saved by easily seeing all available coupons to me.
Again, here is the flier and Rite Aid 'only' coupons.
What does your binder look like?
xoxo
xoxo
•Nancy-Lee