A thing of beauty...

is a joy at the grocery store! After months of struggling along with my previous coupon organization system, I finally broke down and bought a Mead Five-Star binder, upon the recs of some nice ladies at HCW. I have died and gone to coupon heaven! 

I had resisted buying a binder and accessories for quite a while. My previous accordion file was free, and being the tightwad that I am, I didn't want to spend money on a new system. But I realized last weekend at Meijer that my accordion-file system just wasn't working. Imagine having fistfuls of coupons, sifting through them in the aisle just because you found something on sale and darn it! You knew you had clipped that coupon! Now where is it?! (Now imagine that with a toddler in tow, who is melting down because you won't let her open the Goldfish crackers. Not pretty.) 

Yeah, I was frustrated. So I bought a new binder. I stocked it with two calculators (one for figuring per-unit prices, the other to keep a running total), a pen, paper, paper clips, kid scissors, and plenty of clear sleeves used to store baseball cards. And it zips closed, so if I drop it, I don't have a coupon avalanche! (Right, Hubby?) See? Look! 

In the above photo, you can see the front of my binder. It has a mesh pocket that zips closed. I keep my calculators here, and any coupons that I'm using during the shopping trip that I'm on. 

In this photo (above)  you can see the inside cover of my binder. On the left, there are several accordion folders, in which I keep lists, uncut inserts, and store ads. On the right, you can see a small zippered pouch that holds my scissors, paper clips, and spare note paper. 

And here is the best part- the COUPONS! Oh, they are so organized, and bring a leap of joy to my little thrifty, hyper-organized heart. I purchased some dividers along with the binder, and so I have divided my coupons by my store's layout. Health & beauty comes first, frozen food and bread comes last, with everything else in the middle. I broke out my label maker and labeled all my little tabs, and I am in LOOOOOVE. 

Did I mention that this sucker is HEAVY? Yeppers, it's a bit of a chore to haul her around, but I think it's worth it. I can find everything now, just by flipping pages. Hubby thinks I'm nuts, but that's okay, because I've already saved enough to pay for my new binder. : )