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Hi, I'm Olga with Grocery Coupon Network. In this video I'm going to discuss using envelopes
to organize your coupons. this is a great method people just starting out using coupons
or don't clip a lot of coupons. It's just a very easy way to begin couponing. First,
I'm going to go over some of the benefits of using envelopes as opposed to going straight
to an organizer or a binder. The first one is that they're very inexpensive. Envelopes
do not cost a lot, they're low commitment. They're also very portable. You can stick
quite a few envelopes in your purse of your reusable shopping bag. It's not a lot to carry
around so you always have them with you. Another benefit is before you go and switch to a larger
coupon organizer or binder, this helps you really decide what kind of couponing style
you want to use or how you want to organize your coupons. Some people really prefer a
binder, some people really prefer an organizer that's just a fancier version to this. This
let's you figure out how you want to do it before you commit and go spend some money.
Some of the cons of using envelopes would be that it's harder to find your coupons very
quickly if you don't have a lot of categories (if your categories are very broad). You might
have a lot of your coupons in one envelope, which would make it harder to find quickly.
You also might not have everything that you want to have with you here with your coupons.
Sometimes people like to keep their ads and their coupon policies, a pair of scissors
in case they need to cut something out, and obviously you won't be able to fit a lot in
one coupon envelope, so that's something to keep in mind. The first thing you want to
do is go out and, obviously, get yourself some envelopes and then choose your categories.
I try to follow the path of the grocery store when I do my envelopes. It just makes it easier
for me. Everyone has categories they're going to include or exclude, it just depending on
your family's needs. Using envelopes first really gives you flexibility to add and change
categories without having to redo a binder or a coupon organizer. So this is a really
great thing to start with. So after you choose your categories, (which again can be very
flexible - you don't have to commit long-term to anything), I also suggest having some key
categories regardless of what your categories personally are. The first one is having an
envelope in the front always that for free or hot coupons. this would be coupons for
free products. If the products are free, you don't want to miss out on these coupons. So,
having them readily available and in view all the time is really nice. Also hot coupons,
- coupons that you don't want to miss out on. Like high value coupons or things that
you use all the time. That's great to have in there. I also keep Register Rewards from
Walgreens or CVS Extra Care Bucks in there so that way you get into the habit of looking
into this evelople everytime and you won't miss out on those deals. Another envelope
that I like to have is upcoming deals. This is very handy when you're following blogs
about deal that might be coming up in a week or two at different stores and a lot of times
those coupons get lost in the shuffle and by the time the two weeks are over, you forgot
what you even clipped the coupon for. So I keep a second envelope. Just as an example,
I have a coupon that was featured in a blog post on Grocery Coupon Network several days
ago and the deal that's upcoming at Walgreens isn't going to happen for another two weeks,
which for me is a long time - I won't remember what's going on. So, what I personally do
is I take the coupon, I write the details of the deal on the back of the coupon, and
then I will file it away in the upcoming deals envelope, and because it's just an envelope
(I change my envelopes out a lot), I'll write the date and the store that the deal is happening
at. So I can very quickly look and see that on February 26th, there's something in this
envelope that's a great deal at Walgreens. So I can keep looking at that and I won't
miss anything. So I really like having that as well. Another thing that you might want
to have an envelope for is stores that you frequent often. I do a lot of shopping at
Target and I use a lot of Target store coupons that I stack with manufacturer coupons. And
I like to have a separate envelope to keep those all handy because I do a lot of shopping
there. If you're not familiar with coupon stacking or coupon stacking at Target, we
have a whole coupon stacking video. We have a Target video that explains how to do that
specifically at Target. So you might want to take a look at that. But whatever your
store is, your grocery store, your big box store like Target or Walmart, you might want
to have something separate for that. Then, last but not least, I like to have an envelope
that I'm using for the coupons that I'm pulling to use at a store that day. So I put my shopping
list in there and I put any coupons that I plan on using in this envelope. I usually
put a brightly colored piece of paper in here. I put all the coupons I'd like to use that
day in front of that piece of paper. Then as I'm shopping, finding my deals and pulling
my coupons, I will put the coupons I'm using behind that piece of paper. That way I don't
have to sort through them again when I'm up at the cashier and any coupons that I have
not used, I won't accidentally hand over to her and cause a problem at the register. I
like to use that piece of paper just to sort them out for myself. That might be something
you might be interested in doing as well. So, that's all the categories. I would also
suggest if you're just starting out and you don't want to clip everything, to save your
whole inserts that you reice from your Sunday paper. I store mine in these little magazine
holders. I have one for Smart Source, one for Red Plum, then I have miscellaneous inserts
which is like my P&G and General Mills ones and stuff like that. That way, I'm not missing
out if a blog post comes up highlighting a specific coupon. I will save each insert,
write the name and date of each coupon, file it away. Then if I see something on Grocery
Coupon Network or any other blog that references a coupon, I can very easily go and find it
and clip it and put it in my envelopes or put it in my hot deals envelope or upcoming
deals. That way I'm not missing anything but I don't have to clip everything, which saves
a lot of time. So this might be something that you're interested in doing as well. I
hope that this gives you an idea of sorting with envelopes. Oh, you know what, one more
thing - one more thing that I really like - this method is really easy to sort your
coupons once you get them. This is something my kids actually enjoy helping me with. When
I go to clip all my coupons and them sort them, I will put all my envelopes out on the
table here kind of like a deck of cards, and then I will give my kids my coupons and we
will sit there and put the coupons on top of the envelope that it goes on. This is just
as an example. You can still see the categories and line them up. This makes it really easy
instead of flipping back and forth through your coupons. Then, when we're done sorting
everything, we'll just stick them in there and then I will pick up all the envelopes
in the same order again. This makes it really fast, really easy and my kids get a real kick
out of it. They're eight and ten and they really enjoy helping me with it. So that's
one more thing. So that's it. That's all about couponing with envelopes and organizing with
envelopes and I hope this information is helpful to you.