Organizing your coupons

I clip all the coupons in the Sunday ads, pull out all the coupons in magazines and mail fliers. I just have an acordian coupon organizer that I sort them in by catagory. Once a month I pull out all the coupons that will expire that month and put them into a business size envelope. Any of these that will expire I record on a list with the item, quantit size and coupon value. During my shopping for the month I check prices to see if I can find a good deal on those items. I don't take the time to record items that I do not normally use so that I am not tempted to buy unneeded items.

I have a large accordian file box that I use for my bills. I have a section marked coupons that I put any loose or whole flyers from the paper into until I can clip and file them. It is easy to lose coupons if they are not in a specific place until I have time to clip.

I have regular sized envelopes that I have labeled with each store that I shop: Walgreens, Rite Aid, Publix, CVS, Kroger, Target, Walmart, Southern Market, Dollar General. As I prepare my shopping list I put the coupons for the items from that store in the envelope. My list looks like this:

Publix- $5 off $30 purchase

3 Hamburger helper 2/$1.59- $.75/3 Q= $.54 each
2-16 oz carrots- 2/$1.69
nature valley granola bars- $1.40- $.50(doubled)= $.40
2- Marie Callendar croutons BOGO - BOGO coupon= both free
Lance crackers $1.40- $1 Q= $.40
4 boxes Pop Secret popcorn-2/$4.89- 2-$50(D)= $1.40 each box
Hershey Bliss- $2-$1 CVS Q+$1 Man Q= free
2 6 pk Yoplait yogurt- 2/$2.79- two $.75 Q's=$1.04 per pack
2 speed stick deoderant- 2/$2.59-$.50 (D)= 2/$1.59
Loreal kids shampoo- $2.50- $1 publix Q+ $.75 Q= $.75
2- suddenly salad- $2.29 each- $.50(D)/2+ 2/$3.60
2 New York Pizza sticks- $2.79 each- two $.40(D)= $2 each

I list quantity to buy, item, quantity size of sale item, sale price, coupon value, my final price per item.

When I go into the store all I have to have is that one envelope. I do put the large one that has that months expiring coupons in my purse so that if I find a good deal I can pull it and buy that item. I put my grocery list for each store in the envelope. I carry the list that I made of expiring coupons so I don't have to flip through all of them, I just go down the list.