Coupons, Groupons, and Daily Deals....Oh My!

I've been so intrigued since I heard of the show Extreme Couponing. I have yet to see an episode but I've seen clips of it and other similar shows. The whole thing confuses me to no end! I am SLOWLY picking up on things I read here and there about how to do it, but it still doesn't seem very doable for me. I did accidentally buy something for free a few months ago...I had a coupon for body wash that was on sale and I got it for free! That felt good!  :) The thing about this crazy couponing is I don't want to buy things I don't need, ya know?! Anyway...I've tried several methods to organize the coupons and I've found the way I do it now is the most effective for my family, so I will share it with you...

For non-grocery coupons, I have a small 3-ring binder that has see-through sleeves and pockets. I have a section for baby needs, baby food, eating out, car, etc... For small coupons, I put them in a see-through business card holder sleeve. (All the sleeves and binder accessories I got from Target).

For grocery food items, I need them to be easily accessible so I can quickly flip through them and see which ones I need. It wouldn't work to keep them in the binder since I would have to pull them all out each time to view them all. My solution is to hole punch them and put them on a ring. I then hang that 'Ring of Coupons' on a hook on my fridge...

Speaking of those little metal ring things...i just love them! I used them this past week on an impromptu project for my brother. I had got him several Groupons and gift cards and wanted a better way to give them to him than just shoving them all in a card. So I came up with this:

17 balloons on the front.  :)   I made a pocket on each page to hold his gifts. I quickly decorated each page and tied some ribbon around the rings. (don't judge my slapshot decorating...I'm sure he through it away after he took the good stuff out.)  :)

 

But overall, I loved it and will definitely use this concept again for future gift certificate givings.  :)


Decorating update:
I would just wait until I was done with the project to post, but since it is only getting worked on during free time and is taking a while, I will post as we go. (And that Len is very proud of his work...so for him, I present you with these pics)

We lined up all the slats we cut to size, then secured the backing-vinyl garden fence stuff. The slats came from our backyard when we replaced a bunch of old slats last year that were damaged. Here's pumpkin cheering us on!!

I am thrilled with how it turned out! It went from a pile of trash to something "beautiful". (Or at least that's what I kept saying! It adds so much to our living room.) Next step is to adorn it with my family values script I am working on...