With prices of even regular, everyday-use items shooting up, it makes a lot of sense to take the advantage of manufacturer's coupons, which help in decreasing the weekly house shopping budget to a great extent. These days, coupons are available for almost all household items, right from vegetables and fruits to cosmetics and medicines. Although the use of coupons can greatly help in cost cutting, yet organizing them can sometimes be quite a headache. The best way to deal with this situation is to form organizers and then keep the coupons in them accordingly. Given below is some useful information on the ways to form coupon categories.
Setting Up a Coupon Organizer
When it comes to forming categories, the easiest way to do that is to sort the coupons according to the products. For example, you can have categories like 'frozen foods', 'cosmetics', etc. So, the next time you are out buying say yogurt, you know that you have to look into the 'dairy products' category to find the relevant coupon. Here is the list that you can consider while sorting out your coupons.
- Housekeeping
- Medicines/toiletries
- Containers to store food items
- Cosmetics
- Beverages
- Canned foods
- Meat/meat products
- Dairy products
- Cooking supplies including oil, flour, etc.
- Beverages
- Frozen food items
- Desserts/snacks
- Baby foods and items
- Breakfast items including cereals
- Pet foods and items
- Pasta/rice
- Condiments
- Sauces/seasoning/soups/dressings
- Cookies/crackers/dry snacks
- Seafood
➜ Some categories such as 'groceries' can have lots of items under them, and thus, a number of different coupons to sort out. So, in that case, forming grocery coupon organizer categories such as the ones mentioned above will make your job much easier.
➜ You can also save money on groceries with the help of this. Also, if there are certain items which you purchase very rarely, then it would be better if you club these together and form a single category so that when needed, they are handy. At the same time, you do not need to sort them all out at the same time.
➜ Besides categories based on products, you can organize your coupons according to their date of expiry. The coupons whose date of expiry is nearing, should be kept in the front and the others at the back. Another method which many people follow while sorting out coupons is to sort them out alphabetically.
➜ There are many coupon organizers available in the market and you can opt for any of these. You will find many purses and wallets which come with in-built organizers. However, on second thoughts, why spend money on them when you can make one easily at home.
➜ Write down all the categories of the coupons you have and then take as many envelops. On the envelops, write the product category name and then put the coupons inside accordingly. After this, all you have to do is insert these envelops in a file folder or place them in a shoe box.
➜ Besides these, some other things that you should do to take maximum advantage of discount coupons are - firstly, before stepping out for shopping, make a list of things that you need on a sheet of paper. Next, check your coupons and then mark a tick in front of the item on the list whose coupon you have.
Also, if you have any coupons whose expiry is nearing, then you can add that particular product to your purchasing list as well if you feel that you might need it in the coming months and purchasing it now makes sense. Take this grocery list and the coupons along while shopping. At the grocery store, when you are buying stuff, you will already be aware that every ticked item has a coupon, thus it will save you a lot of time as well as money.
