Week #7: Coupons

This week's challenge in the 52-Week Organized Home Challenge is to organize my coupons.

This week's challenge, unlike last weeks, took MUCH more time & required MUCH more organizing!  Because this is what I started with:

Ha!  I used to be so good at couponing.  I even did a post about it awhile back.  But over the past 4-6 months, as my Scentsy business has really started to grow & expand, couponing has taken a back seat.  

I was actually really happy to see this challenge in week #7, because I'm ready to get back into the swing of things with couponing and get my coupon binder organized again.

First, I emptied out all of the expired coupons from my binder.  Which was about all of them.  Ha!

Next, I went through all of my coupon inserts, keeping only the ones that were not expired or about to expire.  I was able to considerably reduce my coupon stack by doing this.

The next step was to start clipping coupons.  This is, by far, my most least favorite task.  Especially since I had a million inserts to go through.  I used to clip just about every coupon in the insert, but over time I have come to realize that was just a waste of time.  Half of the time I wouldn't even use the coupon, or worse, I bought stuff just because it was on sale & because I had a coupon, not because I needed or or would use it.  What a waste.

So now, I just clip coupons that I need & know that I will use.

Next, it was time to separate the coupons according to the categories in my binder.  

Then I put them all into the binder.

After quite a few hours, I was finally done!  Phew!  This challenge took a very long time.  I have vowed never ever again to let my coupon inserts stack up like this again.  If I can take 30 minutes or so every Sunday to clip & organize my new coupons, I should be able to keep them all organized & under control.  I hope.

Next Week's Challenge: Meal Planning/Grocery Shopping