I use a binder system to try and keep things organized. I have used various methods over the years and have strayed from using my binder at certain points in my life but I always come back to it. I love having all my coupons there, cut, and ready to use; especially when I find those great clearance deals or an unadvertised sale.
When I started using a binder for organizing my coupons in college, I took my boyfriend's zipper binder that he was no longer using and filled it up with baseball cards sheets. That was about 7 years ago and I still use that binder. The binder is a Staples brand 2.5in D ring with an accordion file. I have loved that binder and it had held up well over the years but I have run into the problem that it is just too small too hold everything.
I have run out of room to put all of my coupons. I also want to have room to put all of my rain checks so I stop losing them and being unable to find them when I want to use them. So the search for a new, larger binder began. Case It has the only 4in zipper binder that I was able to find so after a bit of convincing from my husband to buy it, I ordered the binder and some more baseball card pages. He was happy with the thought that after all these years he might get his binder back finally!
My binder arrived today and I was so excited! Brian left for work shortly after I opened the box and with Lily down for a nap, I began moving my coupon filled pages to the new binder. After I had about 4 categories transferred to the new binder I realized I had a problem. I use dividers to separate my coupon categories and the tabs were hanging over the zipper. I could not close the binder without bending the tabs. Upset, I transferred my coupons back to my old binder so Lily and I could go out.
So now I need to decide what to do. After talking to Brian and my dad I am heavily leaning toward returning the binder and doing one of three things. One, I could get a Coupon Clutch or make one. If you are unfamiliar with them they are cloth covers for standard binders that Velcro close at the top and bottom to prevent items from falling out. Two, I could get another binder of similar size and split my stuff between them. This option worries me a bit for convince in the store if I have two binders to go through. Personally if I go this route, one binder will always stay at home and I will just use it for rain checks mainly since I will want to have all of my coupons will me. Three, I could order another Case It style binder with two sets of rings. It would provide me with the same amount of storage all-in-one but I did not like the way the binder was set up. It has 3in rings on the left and 1.5in rings on the right.
Another factor in my decision is the quality of the 4in binder. I know I could make it work if I had to, replace the dividers I love so much (they have awesome pockets for additional storage), but I am not sure the binder would last me a year. The material is thin and the zipper seems to be very poor quality. I definitely cannot see it lasting anywhere near as long as my Staples binder has lasted.
After my upsetting experience with the new binder, another local couponer had posted in a group I am part of that she had coupons available for pick-up. She had already clipped what she wanted from the inserts and was willing to give what she did not want away. I told her I was interesting in picking them up. I picked up coupons from another person before and it was exciting to go through my little goodie bag of coupons and found some great coupons I needed.
Once I finally got Lily packed into the car we made our way out toward the location of the coupons. I knew Harris Teeter would be on the way and we needed gas from BJ's so we made a few stops on the way there. We also stopped in CVS to see if they had anything I wanted in stock and per usual nothing was in stock that I wanted.
We found the location to pick up the coupons and they were not there. So I sent a message saying I had stopped by and they were gone. While walking back to the car with Lily, I saw the mail center had a garbage can so I peeked inside and saw some discarded Red Plum inserts! I grabbed them and headed to the car with Lily.
I wanted to stay nearby in case my coupon fairy messaged me saying she had moved the coupons since it was late so I drove around the apartment buildings a bit until I saw another mail center. This had two garbage cans and they were both full! I grabbed an empty box from the car and filled it with inserts to sort through at home. This is the most successful I have ever been at finding discarded inserts so I was very excited, definitely made up for the binder issues earlier. I was planning on buying extra newspapers this week for the Red Plum coupons but thanks to this haul of discards I can just buy my normal 2 papers for the week!
While scoring the box full of goodies to sort my coupon fairy messaged me saying a family member brought them inside thinking I was not going to show up. She put them back outside for me so we picked them up on our way out.
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