Isn't she a beauty.... I'm not sure what her original purpose was, maybe a day planner or something, but I'm turning her into my coupon binder.
She's still a work in progress, and I'm sure it'll take a while to get her situated into what works for me. The binder part isn't quite 3" like alot of other couponers recommend using, (I'm thinking it's 1 1/2" to 2" but hopefully it'll work. If not, it'll go in a yard sale.) On the left in the very back is a place I can stick my store ads and 2 pen holders. Behind the zipper part, I've got my P&G $120 coupon book, and my Right At Home coupon book. And then there is the handy dandy calculator. The screen has some kind of spot on it, but it's fully functionable and readable, so no biggie for me. There are also slots for my shopper's cards on the right hand side of the calculator. I haven't put them in yet. On the right hand side of the binder, I added a pencil pouch from my sons torn mead binder. It holds my scissors, paperclips, etc. The pouch under it will hold ??? not sure yet, maybe rebate forms.
Then, when you flip the pencil pouch over, it has some more small pockets. Not sure what I'll use the top 2 for, but the bottom left one will hold the coupons that I'll take to the checkout, and the bottom right will hold coupons that need to be filed, or refiled. (blinkies, found coupons on shelves, etc.) And then there's my baseball card pages. The very first page is for my "free item" coupons. The 2nd page holds my kroger cpns. and the third page is for meijer coupons. I don't have tabbed dividers yet, but they are divided by the untabbed dividers, and I've written in pencil what each divider is for. So, when I get the tabbed ones, I'll pull the old ones out and stick the new ones in.
I currently have my categories set up like this:
freebie cpns
kroger cpns
meijer cpns
baking/mixes
beverages
canned goods
cereals/breakfast items
condiments
cleaning/laundry (which is separated by types of cleaners due to the amount of cpns)
dairy/meats (I put these together because they're close together in the store and it's easier for me that way)
frozen foods (separate pages for each category ex. breakfast, meats, veggies, desserts)
makeup
otc meds
paper/plastic
pasta/rice
personal hygiene(also separated by types because there's a cpn overload on these items, ex. oral care, razors, body washes, shampoos, etc)
pet
snacks
And then I added a couple of pages for Pillsbury products, because there's so many cpns for them and the last page is for produce and breads, I just combined those two because I never seem to get many cpns for those items.
This picture shows that pocket for the ads I talked about earlier. And my batteries died in my camera before I could take a picture of the back of the binder on the inside. There was another pocket similar to the one with the ads in it so I slipped a mini clipboard that I've had on my fridge for years right down in that pocket...presto, a grocery list holder. So, there you have it. Not too shabby for $3, wouldn't you agree? So for anyone looking for a binder pretty reasonable, try a Goodwill near you. You'd be surprised what they have. And the money goes to a good cause.
