Clipping or Filing?

No I'm not talking about your nails!!!! I'm talking about your coupons of course. I know that this post and picture might send my sisters to go get me professional help. You see, we joke about addiction in my clan (because we like to laugh about problems instead of cry). Well, I finally found mine. I have a stash, a supplier, and cravings. Yep, I think you could call it an addiction. But I also have an 18 month old. So I have to hide my addiction. I can't just leave my coupons lying around the house. That is like letting him eat cash. So I have opted for the filing method of storage for my coupons.


Basically I took a bunch of files and labeled them This Month SS (Smart Source), This Month RP (Red Plum), Last Month and so on. Then I write the date on the front of each insert and put them in order in the file. When the kids mess up the order, it is printed in tiny you really need bifocals print on the spine. Savings Angel and many of the coupon web sites will let you know which of these inserts to find the coupon. Once I have my list with that information, I can just clip the coupons I need. This has helped me as a new couponer (I ran my spell check and that is not a word!) to be able to find the coupons I need. Before I would have clipped perhaps 5 coupons of products I couldn't get at Aldis and let them expire before I used them. Now I am trying anything cheaper than Aldis and many new to me products. So every coupon is a potential I might use. That is the biggest reason I'm not a clipper.

But for those of you that are. Let your kids clip for you. They will actually enjoy doing it. I don't have this option. My new addiction has me very paranoid about my stash. You can get one of those cute little folders for storing them. But I can tell you that its not going to last. You will quickly add more and more categories, outgrow it and be on to the plastic shoe box. The advantage you have is that you can go shopping with the whole stash. So, when you see that clearanced item, you can (hopefully) match up your coupon and really score a deal (see, talking like an addict again. Weird how similar the language is). You will also need to decide which coupons to clip. This is now simple for me: all of them. Alright, personally, I skip the pet food, but that is about it. My junkie friend is a clipper. She is a new addict, like me. We will start talking about this weeks score and sometimes she has to miss them because she didn't clip that coupon!

Yep, I think my sisters will be sending help any moment now. So if you don't hear from me for awhile it means they sent me took me out and made me pay retail.


Hey, look what I found while I was working on this post! Money Saving Madness was talking about what worked for her and found something you might like. Money Saving Madness is having a give away of a coupon organizer. So click on over and enter. I know, I know, you thought I was a filer. I am, but the price was right!