Tips like these helped us pay off $127K in debt. You can read our story in Slaying the Debt Dragon: How One Family Conquered Their Money Monster and Found an Inspired Happily Ever After.

Welcome to 31 Debt Free Missions! This year on Queen of Free, during each day in January, we will provide 31 concrete debt free missions or challenges for you to take on to #SlayDebt and take charge of your finances this year. Each mission will take you less than an hour (some will only require 15 minutes). Whereas, 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth (which I’m reworking this year and reposting in January, too) focused on some of the philosophical changes you need to make in order to be successful with money, 31 Debt Free Missions are action steps to put into place after you have your thinking straight. Even better, during the month of January, we’re revisiting each of these challenges in order to sharpen our money saving and debt slaying skills.

Are you ready? Your mission is as follows:

Day #29: Organize Coupons

Friends, I love me some coupons. Coupons for grocery stores, coupons for clothes, coupons for restaurants (just not this month), coupons for car maintenance, coupons for haircuts, online coupons, in store coupons, rebates, printable coupons, eClubs, coupons that you clip – if they make a coupon for it, I want it.

But let’s face it. Coupons can be a pain in the patuski. You have to cut them out, organize them, and then actually remember to bring them with you. They can be time consuming if you don’t do it right. And there’s nothing worst than realizing you missed out on matching them up for a great deal.

Believe it or not, I have taught 2 hour courses on how to most effectively use coupons (and I had to keep myself from going over the time limit). But here are some of my favorite tips to begin organizing your coupons and incorporating them into your daily life.

Go Digital

Couponing ain’t for your granny, any more. Most stores have digital options when it comes to clipping coupons. I love Meijer’s mPerks program both for its coupons (by the way, you can even scan items as you place them into the cart to see if there are coupons available) and its Rewards programs (which reminds me I have a $6/$6 coupon I need to spend soon – WAHOO!). Target, Kroger, and Walmart have their own programs, too. Heck, even Amazon has coupons now. So if you envisioned yourself never being able to manage a big binder or box, sorted and alphabetized, the good news is you don’t have to. At a minimum, use your phone to Google for coupons at stores (especially clothing retailers). I can’t count the number of times (including tonight!) that I’ve been able to find a coupon on my phone right before I check out.

Find a System that Works

Organizational systems are funny. For some reason, we return to our failure expecting a different result (by the way, that’s one definition of insanity). So if in the past you’ve tried to manage a big binder but never remembered to bring it with you or let things expire because they’re hiding in the back. I’m a binder kind of girl, but I have friends that keep coupons in envelopes, stacks, or even baskets. Like any new habit, it takes 30-45 days to really establish yourself and figure out what might work before you begin tweaking the system.

Pace Yourself

One of the biggest mistakes I see new couponers make is that they go whole hog, spend 50-60 hours a week, get really good at saving money with coupons and then COMPLETELY BURN THEMSELVES OUT. Here’s the thing. If you want to spend 50-60 hours at anything, I suggest getting a job instead of messing with coupons. Sure, you’ll have less toilet paper and candy bars but you will actually have REAL money toward paying off debt. I’m not extreme about couponing. I probably spend around 1-2 hours per week in the practice and save easily $10-50. It’s not that difficult to find a rhythm that works. I usually multitask organizing coupons while watching a little guilty pleasure TV. That way I’m not completely wasting time. Here’s the difficult truth. You’ll screw up at some point with coupon. You’ll get lazy or burnt out. Just like paying off debt, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. When you find yourself in that place, dust your self off and begin again. The average millionaire uses coupons. Coupons are basically free money? Do you want to be a millionaire and have free money? Well OK, then, get back at it.

Know Your Store Policies

Maximizing your coupon experience depends upon your store coupon policies. Read them, know them, and then print out a copy to stick in your binder (if that’s a system that works for you) so you can back up your knowledge in the store if necessary. Every store is different (I’d highly recommend checking out my The Best Ways to Save series to find your store).

My Personal Practice

For years (8 to be exact), I have been the lady with the huge binder in the grocery store. I use a combination of Digital Coupons and traditional paper ones. Some I print from the newspaper, some I clip from the Sunday paper. In the binder I have pages that I purchased from the baseball card shop (my original pages were actually from my husband’s old baseball card binder). I place coupons so that the expiration date, item, and dollar amount are all visible. Sometimes that calls for a little creative folding. I organize them by aisle of the grocery store I shop at most frequently which is Meijer (behind ALDI of course). So in the front are the produce coupons followed by frozen foods, dry goods, all the way back to the dairy section. I have two sections divided by a divider in the back of the binder. One is just for Meijer Store coupons (ones printed at the register or rarely found in the paper or mailed to me). One is just for Target Store coupons. Then I have a section filled with store rewards cards, gift cards, and miscellaneous non-grocery store coupons like those for Bath and Body Works, Office Depot, and restaurants. I also have a pouch for oversized coupons that can’t be folded to fit in one of the baseball card holder slots.

Again, I wish we could talk for HOURS about coupons AND I would love to share 5 Quick Ways to Save Money WITHOUT Coupons, too. But right now, you need to get busy on your mission. Spend an hour organizing coupons and figuring out the system that works best for you!

Did you see the previous Debt Free Missions? Knock them all out this month!

My book is now available: Slaying the Debt Dragon: How One Family Conquered Their Money Monster and Found an Inspired Happily Ever After. You can also check out Inspiration to Pay Off Debt: 30 Days of Encouragement from the Queen of Free on Kindle.

This post contains an affiliate link. That means when you get a great deal or maybe even something for free, you also help our family pay off our mortgage early. And for that, we royally thank you!

31 Debt Free Missions: Organize Coupons

Day #29: Organize Coupons

Go Digital

Find a System that Works

Pace Yourself

Know Your Store Policies

My Personal Practice

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Day #29: Organize Coupons

Go Digital

Find a System that Works

Pace Yourself

Know Your Store Policies

My Personal Practice

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Testimonials

Don’t Miss Out on E-mail Updates