I walked to the Post Office in the snow on Saturday, because it was still too sloppy to get out in the van. I also knew I should have some coupons, so I really wanted to get that mail so we could go shopping at some point during the weekend.
I opened my coupons first. Went through and picked out the ones I can't use, for whatever reason. Some are items we don't use, some are too close to expiring (I'll use one or two before they expire, but not the rest), etc. So I had the coupons sorted before I even opened the binder.
I cannot tell you how pleased I was with this binder. It's sturdy, and has a LOT of pockets, so you can carry the included calculator and coupon cutter and pen. It has accordion files attached to the inside, so you can file inserts, ads, lists, etc. The three ring portion actually comes out of the binder. Not sure how that would benefit someone, but it probably will. I just haven't figured it out yet!
The binder is loaded with baseball card pages, which some people may find a little small. However, because there are 9 per page, there are 180 openings. Being able to have that many coupons in that few pages, means there's no problem closing the binder even when it's fully loaded, as mine was (and will be, I have more coupons coming).
The lovely lady who sold it even offered to customize the dividers for me. It having been so long since I couponed, I told her to use her standard categories. So the dividers are:
(Italics indicate additional add ons to that divider that I made, for specific categories that I wanted)
Dairy, Cold Items, Boxed Meals and Sides
Canned/Condiments, Breakfast, Portable Foods, Beverages
Snacks
Frozen, Baking, Salad Stuff, Misc Food
Pet Care/Baby Items
Pharmacy
Personal Care/Beauty
Household Products
So when we went shopping, I took the binder. You don't want to be without your coupons while shopping, in case you find some unannounced deals, clearance items, etc. If I had had a free baby seat, it would have fit perfectly in there. Since both of the baby seats were taken and I didn't want a third cart, I balanced it on the bag pile (when I go out I have the baby bag and the dispatch bag). That worked really well. I could flip through the binder quickly and determine if I had a coupon that matched an item I wanted.
With the calculator, I could quickly determine which deals were better. For example, I think I had six or so different types of deodorant coupons. I could quickly determine which products would be cheapest with the coupons I had.
My favorite part is that the binder zips closed. So if I drop it, I'm not playing 300 coupon pick up. I have had that happen in the past when using a regular notebook.
Here are some binder pics so you can see what I'm talking about.
I highly recommend this binder!
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