Keeping Your Recipes And Coupons Organized

If you're like me, you use recipes when cooking.  I love to try out new foods and recipes, so I am constantly looking for new ones.  I am also an avid coupon-clipper when shopping for ingredients and other groceries.  I collect cookbooks, but I also like to look online for recipes to try out.  The internet is a great place to search for new things to try for preparing a meal for your family.  I also clip recipes out of magazines as well.

The problem was trying to organize and keep all of these clippings and printouts in an orderly, neat manner.  The way that I came up with was to keep a large three-ring binder.  You can also use a photo album with the transparent film on top of the pages.  In the binder are pages that are either laminated or have a plastic protective cover on them.  I then use the color coded separators that you can get in office supply stores. 

What I did was to come up with categories:  desserts, casseroles, veggies, etc. and those went on the tabs of the separators.  Then the other pages were for placing the clippings, etc.  You smooth over the plastic protective covering on top, and you are all set.  All of your recipes are organized by category, and if you happen to spill something on the page, it wipes right off.

Coupons can be a great tool to help save money.  Keeping them all jammed in the bottom of your purse will not help though.  There are a couple ways to keep your coupons organized and ready to use.

You can use a small index card holder (which you find in office supply stores), or a small pouch with presorted tabs.   A pouch tends to be more user-friendly, because you can simply slip it into your purse before you go shopping. On the tabs, you also categorize what coupons you normally use:  cleaning supplies, cereal, dairy, etc.  Then, when you clip the coupons, simply put them in the right slot.

It's a good idea to check periodically through the box/pouch to make sure that you don't have any coupons that are expired.  When coupons are organized, you are much more likely to use them and start saving some money.