The biggest piece of advice I can give a new couponer is to stay organized. The wost thing is to miss out on a deal because you couldn't find the coupon, you lost it, or your dog ate it. There are a few ways avid couponers stay organized, let me explain ;
The Coupon Folder
One of the most basic, cheapest, and time friendly ways to organize. They're usually small little accordion style folders, so it's easy to fit into a purse, or just carry into the store (and pop your bank card/cash into a file) It's easy to just pop the coupons in their desired spot and go. Although, when you're going to use a coupon, you have to pull the entire stack from that file out, which can be a pain in the butt, not to mention messy.
The Coupon Book
A lot of people have regular binders bought, with baseball card inserts. The little pocketed style holders, that are great to fit coupons in. This method takes a while to start up, and can get confusing, with all the coupons going out and coming in. The binder can also get really big, and pretty heavy fast. This is used by more avid couponers
The Envelope Couponer
A lot of new people to coupons start like this. Getting a few envelopes and putting their coupons in. This can get really bulky in a purse, and since you can't just hold it out like a binder (without occasionally dropping a few envelopes) it's not very convenient. Theres really no pros about this, I suggest to stay away.
The Wallet Coupon
This is for the planned shopper. You know, the people who make lists, and stick to them. That way, they know exactly what coupons they'll need. So they store their coupons at home, using one of the above methods and bring the coupons they'll need. This is good in a sense they don't need to haul around a few hundred coupons, that may get lost or *gasp* stolen. But also this is a bad method in the sense if one were to see a surprise sale that could get them free products or next-to-nothing, and they don't have the coupon on them.. thats no good.
Happy Couponing !
