Many extreme couponers have a binder or box method to maintain their coupons. The binder keeps the coupons in book like format, complete with a table of contents, using the plastic thingies kids put their baseball cards in. This sounds like an easy way to view your coupons and allows for quick pulling at the register. Some go with 'a large box with a bazillion coupons in it method'.
Here is a rather extreme look at the binder method:
Now, this is a money saving excursion for me, so I don't want to put any money into making a book and buying baseball card holders until I get really serious and start saving some serious cash. So I am going to make a hybrid of these two ideas.
Being part OCD and part all over the place, I think a mix of the above will definitely work for me.
After 4 years in the business world, I am an Excel wizz! So this was an obvious and easy way to organize my coupons. The OCD side of me loves everything about spreadsheets; so I got to thinking about what kind of pertinent information needs to be in my spreadsheet. The biggies were Brand, Item, Coupon, Expiration Date, and Number of Coupons.
Here's what I came up with:
This spreadsheet allows me to sort by brand or product when I have new coupons to enter, and it also helps me to check manufacturing coupons against store coupons for double the savings! This is my first input so I am still lacking all of the details I will eventually need, but I feel like this is a good jumping off point. I use a macro in Excel to tell me when I have coupons that are about to expire, they are pictured in yellow above. I also have a comments section, in case there are certain terms that apply to a coupon, like only 4 of a like coupon, a certain sized can, or a buy one get one free type deal. (Everyone loves a good BOGO) Once I finish inputting the coupons, I sort them into like coupons and throw them in a big Ziploc bag.
And 'Viola'... a semi-organized coupon tracking hybrid.
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