One of the best ways to maximize your coupon savings is to have multiple "like" coupons. That way, when an item is a great deal, you can buy several to stockpile until the next coupon and sale comes around.

A good question is how do you cut all of those coupons? Doesn't it take a lot of time? Really, it doesn't if you have a good system.

I normally buy 4 Sunday papers at Walgreens for $0.88 each. I save WAY more than the $3.52 I spend each week. I find that 4 is plenty for my family of 6 but you may choose to get more. Sometimes, like this past week, I'll buy extra if there is a super coupon that I KNOW I can use. (This week there were $2.50 coupons for Finish dishwasher detergent and I purchased 6 papers)

The first thing I do is go through all my papers and take out the coupon inserts. I group all the same type of insert together and set them on the table or floor like this...

Then I'll start tearing off the top pages and stack the like pages together. I'll do this until all the pages have been torn apart and stacked together like this....

Now I'm ready to cut. I'll make sure those same 4 like pages are stacked together with the like coupons matching up and I'll cut through all 4 pages at the same time. That way I cut once but have actually cut out 4 coupons...


See how nicely they cut that way?
I will continue to stack and cut my coupon pages until I have all of them cut. As I clip them, I place them in a pile like this...



Now, I'm ready to sort them and get them ready to go into my binder. I sort them in stacks based on how I put them in my binder. All paper products, all personal products, all frozen items, etc....Then I get my coupon binder and starting at the front I add the coupons to the correct section.


Here is my Sparkle coupon, safely tucked away in its own space in my binder waiting for a great sale to come along!

It may look like a lot of steps and that it takes a lot of time, but it really doesn't. I usually clip my coupons in the evening while I'm watching something on T.V. In less than 30 minutes my coupons are all clipped, sorted and safely tucked away for when I need them.

Would you like to see how I organize my coupons into my binder? Click HERE

Also, there is one very important piece of information EVERY coupon binder needs...

I've read on many coupon forums that some one lost / found a binder and since there was no name, number or even email address there was no way to return the binder. Something to think about :-)