Need to get your coupons in order? These coupon binder category labels will help you find them all quickly! As you know I was laid off from my job only 4 days before Christmas. Not wanting to have to go back to work until I HAVE to I made the decision to do whatever I could to let me wait until September to return. Since my living expenses aren’t going down anytime soon I needed to find somewhere to make the most out of my money that I do have. One thing I began doing was couponing. Of course, I’m no Extreme Couponer but I get what my family needs and have a reasonable stockpile that serves us well. I have more stock of non-edibles as it’s more of what I can store easily but if the deal is good enough I’ll deal with some clutter for a bit. I don’t have a Shaw’s, Publix, or any other grocery store that those kinda deals come from anyways.
The key to couponing for me has definitely been being organized. Since starting I’ve also helped both my best friend and stepmother put together their own binders and taught them some tricks so that they too can reap the rewards. I get asked questions from people all the time and one of the most popular questions I hear is ‘What categories do I put in my coupon binder?’
Here is a complete list of all my coupon binder category labels after almost 6 months of use. This list has been modified through the months and while I probably have more than others I never have a problem quickly finding my coupons. I don’t mind spending a bit more time in the beginning then fumbling in the stores trying to figure out where I stuck it or going through pages of coupons.
Coupon Binder Category Labels
Air Fresheners/Candles
Baby
Baking
Beauty
Bread
Breakfast
Candy/Gum
Cleaning Supplies
Cold, Allergy, Medicine
Condiments, Salad Dressing
Dairy
Dishwashing
Drinks
Eye Care
Feminine Hygiene
First Aid
Food (Other)
Freezer – Dessert
Freezer – Food
Fruit & Vegetable
Granola Bars & Fruit Snacks
Hair Care
Laundry
Lotion
Meat
Misc.
Oral Care
Outdoors
Paper
Pasta
PB & J
Pets
Pillsbury
Prepared, Sides, Rice
Refrigerated
Reynolds, Zip Lock, Trash Bags
Salty, Snacks
Shaving, Deodorant
Soap, Bodywash
Soup
Toys
Vitamins
Yogurt
In the back, I also have a tab for restaurants. This isn’t organized the same and is in a sleeve that has 2 4×6 slots.
When it comes to setting up your binder definitely purchase good tabs. The paper ones will rip after a while but plastic ones are hard cardboard ones will last longer. I got a great deal in the Walmart clearance isle on these cute Carolina Pad tabs but every bottom tab is actually a folder and with several in there it takes up space I don’t really have. I bought the baseball card inserts
really cheap on Amazon. I compared them from Walmart, Target, Staples, etc and it was much cheaper this route for the number I needed.
If you’re curious about what the first 10 tabs are those are my store sections. They keep all the flyers, rainchecks, savings cards, etc for each individual store I frequent. You can check out both my Pre-Coupon Binder Organization Tip and my Store Tabs Section too if you’re just getting started or looking for ideas.
Now that’s organized. I’ve been couponing for almost 2 years now. I use a cheap accordion file and then I file all my inserts in a filing cabinet. I need to switch to the binder method and take it with me everywhere. I need to at least clip 1-2 inserts and then file the rest. I feel like I’m out of coupons when I’m at the store and need them most. Or if I find a hidden clearance deal, it would be nice to see my coupons all right there.I’m just scared to do it for some reason…
Wow that is organized!! Amazing!! This would be so much easier then my current system! Binder this weekend! This will make a good guideline for me to follow! Thanks!
i should do this…my coupon organizer is the size of a bank checkbook.
Wow that’s a great binder! I want to get one! I just started really couponing lately…since the show!! 🙂
Thanks for the tips, I am definitely wanting to get into couponing, with the final goal being an extreme couponer. (Which to me means both extreme couponing – obviously – but also being organized & basically awesome at it!) One of the biggest problems I’ve found so far is having a lack of stores where I live. I’ve never even heard of Publix or Shaw’s, but even with limited options it’s just so benefical! I’m excited to start 😀
I did because Pillsbury can end up with 30 coupons valid at once on their own.
That is some binder! I wish I could do couponing. And I sure would follow in your footsteps if I could. Although maybe not SO organized? You even gave Pillsbury their own section! Thanks for sharing your binder categories! They’re really helpful!
I tried for a while. I’d cut my coupons, file them….and the go to the store and leave them at home!!!
So I quit 🙂
WOW…I had put this article of your in my coupons folder and had not gotten around to reading it yet.
My coupons are a mess…my worse nightmare is matching a coupon with a sale item and finding it expired.
I need to get them organized and I like your suggestion of lots of tabs.
I have a dozen categories and am always searching and searching for the relevant coupon.
I am on my way to get more tabs, thanks!!!
Oh THANK YOU THANK YOU!! It was driving me insane that people would only do about 8-10 tabs! I thought to myself, “this is NOT going to work for me!” I have your categories printed out and am going to impliment them today! Thanks again!!!
I am currently looking for a different way to organize my coupons. It looks like I may have found it! I am going to give this a shot,
yey! finally a good alphabetical one! i’ve been looking for weeks and tadaaa. thanks you so much for sharing! I’m going to try and it and let you know how it goes 🙂
Great binder! I have a spiral organizer from The Couponizer that i won at a conference. I have a larger binder now and thought about the 4×6 sections but didn’t think about baseball card sections.
Thank you so much for this! I used your list and pared it down a little, combining things and taking out a few, as I only wanted 8 sections. I will get too overwhelmed otherwise! The alphabetical listing is awesome, that makes it so much easier, as I shop at more than one store, and was trying to figure out how I was going to set up my sections, because each store is laid out differently. Again, thanks!
I used to have less sections but I found my misc. section or others were becoming too thick. It was a pain to go through 15 pages of coupons that were able to be broken down to 2-3 pages. I’ve had it this way for about a year now 🙂 Works great. I use my store sections a lot too as I shop at different places too. The link to how I set that up in the front is in this post.
I am serious about couponing, but where and how do I get enough coupons to make a difference in my total at check-out. The only ones readily available to me are the ones that come with the weekly newspapers and they seem to have the same products over and over. Helps but not a lot. Thanks
I just did that to my coupon binder last weekend and it took two days. The only is I got the paper tabs because I didnt have enoung money for the others but I will have to keep my eye out for a deal to up grade them.
Hey i need help i must be doing it wrong i still pay too much….
Thank you sooooooo much!!! I am beginning to coupon and this article is extremely helpful! 🙂
I tried to set up a binder similar to this, but found the biggest problem was the expiration dates. How do you keep ahead of that? By the time I find the coupon I need I discover the date has expired.
I used to put them in envelopes by dates, but then had to go thru a huge pile to find the one I needed.
HELP!
My folder is by categories as I flowed through the grocery store starting with produce into canned goods to cereals to meet department to Dairy department to bakery……… It works well for me.