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Organizing Coupons

Posted on 3:01 PM comments (2)
Labels: coupons, organization

Lisa B emailed me last week asking this:

You seem very organized with your CVS scenarios and your coupon planning online. Are you that organized when it comes to organizing your coupons offline? How do you clip and save your coupons for later use?

I thought this sounded like good post fodder, so here's my answer:

I'm normally not nearly as organized as I'd like to be. For months, my coupons were stacked in a corner of my buffet counter waiting to be clipped and filed. And I never seemed to find time to do that, so they kept getting more behind, and piled higher, and it was nearly impossible to find a coupon when I needed it. So after much trial and error, I came up with the system I use now, and I'm loving it. It is so fast and easy to find what I'm looking for!

Here's what I do:

First, I write the date of the inserts on the front of each packet.
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Then, using Post-it Flags (free at CVS a while back), I group together all of the Smart Source packets (I usually get 4 or 6 newspapers each week), and put a flag on the first and last pages of the group of packets, and label it SS.
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I do the same with the Red Plum packets, labeling them RP.
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I then put them in a file folder. The Post-it Flags allow me to quickly pull out ALL of the Smart Source packets or ALL or the Red Plum packets, without going through them first.
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Then, I write the date on the folder. When I need to reuse this folder in the future (after these coupons are all used or expired), I'll just cross out this date and write the new date underneath.
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I have two small coupon holders for coupons I pick up in places other than the newspaper, like at CVS, in the mail, blinkies at the supermarket, peelies, rebate forms, internet prints, or tear-off pads.
One is for items that I purchase at the drug store,

And the other is for grocery coupons.
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The file folders and the little coupon filers all fit in this handy File Holder.

This system works well for me. It's small enough that I can take it with me if I need to, but large enough to hold everything. And the best thing about it is No More Clipping! I clip the coupons as I need them, and that frees up so much time for me.

How do you organize your coupons? Leave a comment below and let us know!

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Recovering from Hurricane Autumn

Posted on 11:30 AM No Comments
Labels: cleaning, family, organization

Yesterday, I did the most dreaded and put-off task of all: I helped my 10 year old daughter clean her room.
To be clear, it's not a common occurrence for me to clean her room with her. Usually it's Autumn's responsibility, and the rule is that she can't make any allowance for doing other chores around the house unless her room is clean. Truth be told, though, it hasn't been clean in a LONG while.
Our newest daughter, Callie, turned a month old this week. With her birth, and the end of a long, painful pregnancy before that, our normal routine around the house kind of fell by the wayside. And Autumn's room became ever increasingly more and more messy. In defense of her laziness (ever the enabler, I am), a lot of the mess was due to her having too much stuff in too small a space. So Tim agreed to watch the younger girls while I spent a little while helping Autumn clean her room and purge it of toys, books, and things that she no longer needed or wanted.
A little while turned into 2 1/2 hours, but the final result was a sight almost long forgotten - a clean, vacuumed carpet, an empty clothes hamper, and dresser and nightstand tops that were cleared and dusted.
Autumn worked very hard right alongside me, and was actually more willing to give up her unwanted things than I was. She kept saying things like, "What would they say on Clean House?" and putting things in the piles to throw and give away. I think I was more attached to some of the things than she was! I could remember her sitting there as a younger child, playing with her ponies or reading her Disney Princess books. Nostalgia just flooded over me, but I was sensible with what I decided to keep for the younger girls and what I decided should go.
My two year old, Zoe, already has more toys that she needs or plays with, and will most likely keep accumulating them from family and friends in the future. And Zoe's toys will be passed down to Callie later, on top of the new things she'll accumulate, also. So it just isn't reasonable or practical to hand down too many things from their much older sister. And our home is not very large, so there's only so much storage space.
As dreaded as the job was, it actually turned into some good bonding time for Autumn and I. We talked, and laughed, and sang and danced to her new favorite CD, Michael Jackson, Number Ones. She got the CD for Christmas, because as silly as it sounds, in the past year or so, she's become a huge fan on Michael Jackson's old stuff. And since I grew up listening to those songs, it was fun to sing them together while we cleaned.
I'm glad to have her room cleaned, and so is she. And so is Tim, who was growing more and more irritated with tripping over her things on his way to adjust the thermostat, which is in her room.
Now I just need to get the mound of this week's clean clothes folded and put away, and the house will be back to it's normal clean and organized state!