I’m not an extreme couponer, but I do like to save money where and when I’m able. last year, I kept track of how much money I saved using coupons and it tallied up to more than $3,000 – yup, totally worth the small amount of time invested. You can save quite a bit of money by organizing a simple coupon binder and scanning weekly ad’s.

While unboxing the office, I ran across my old coupon binder. It was a sad state…

My daughter had scribbled on the cover in black ink and it was covered in finger prints from having been grabbed, tossed around, and lugged through various stores…

Oh, and the binder itself had come apart on the inside…

Time for an upgrade!

…And a pretty one!

For this project, I grabbed a few inexpensive binders from target…

To make them pretty, I found full washi tape sheets…

Had no idea these existed, but thankyouverymuch to the genius behind this product! These washi sheets make for a great binder spine cover. I can think of many more ways to use these sheets. For those interested, these were found at target.

First thing I did was remove the original binder labeling…

Then I grabbed a sheet of washi, cut and adhered…

Perfect!…

I  found the easiest way to get the washi tape onto the spine was starting at the top and slowly working my way down, smoothing as I went. This prevented any bubbles from forming underneath…

One done…

And two done!…

Now to label each binder. For this part, I added another piece of blue striped washi tape…

Then added a clear label using my label maker…

With the binder exterior complete, I cleaned up and moved the contents of my previous coupon binder to the interior of the new binders. For the ad binder…

A spot for gift cards too…

The inside of the coupon binder…

I used standard white page dividers and labeled with grocery categories that make sense to me and the way i shop/coupon. These titles are totally up to you and your needs, but here’s my complete list of categories…

In between the dividers, I have 9-pocket sheets for organizing coupons. These sheets are typically used for baseball card collecting, but they work great for coupons! I found a great deal on a huge box through e-bay, but you can find them locally at your office supply store too!

I’m loving these new binders…

when the Sunday paper arrives this coming weekend, I’ll be ready to clip and organize! If you’re a couponer and looking for a pretty way to stay organized, I hope this system works for you too.

Happy back to school!