I like to use coupons but have often misplaced or just plain forgotten coupons at home and even in my pocket when I’m at the store. It’s not the only way I save money on my family’s grocery bill but it does help and sometimes a good chunk. With just simple coupons and being diligent about using them I save an average of $10 to $20 per shopping trip.

I don’t spend a whole lot of time getting together coupons. I spend about a few minutes a week visiting a few of the manufacturer websites for the specialty products I buy. Sometimes they have coupons and sometimes not. I also visit Eatingwell.com where they have healthy coupons.

I go through the Sunday paper and the weekday papers because every so often there is a coupon for an item I buy. And as more consumers are becoming more conscious of what goes in their bodies manufacturers are making sure there are more and more coupons for organic foods and items available.

There is a monthly free magazine in the health section of my regular grocery store and they always have a few coupons of foods I normally buy.

I also make sure and do the online and phone feedback for stores I regularly shop at to receive the coupons or dollars off codes. And  I save coupons that come in the mail from purchased products (for example I got several coupons from Weleda after ordering a few of their sample items.)

So recently I finally broke down and bought the Couponizer. Like I said I’ve been using coupons for over 10 years and constantly looking for a good way to organize them. I’ve used cheap coupon organizers like the ones you find in the grocery store, more expensive coupon organizing systems from well known catalog companies and seemingly innovative systems purchased from other websites but so far they’ve lacked a few extra features that would have been nice to have.  And even though they often inspired me to put more effort into my couponing the organizers themselves could not live up to the new demands and left me frustrated. So I purchased a Couponizer.

I like things organized (hence the site homemaking organized). And since I was already committed to using coupons it’s best for me to be really organized about it. And why try and create the wheel when it’s already been done. Meaning I needed to go on and try The Couponizer.

I read through what I would get before ordering.

My Couponizer came with the organizer itself, a pair of scissors, a grocery list pad, a coupon savings tracking pad, and an organizing paper mat to organize my coupons while cutting them. This made it easy to swap the coupons out of my old system.

It also comes in a clear carry bag so I can grab it and take the whole thing along. Even though it states that it’s small enough to fit in a purse my purse is not big enough to carry it. I don’t leave it in the car but I do have it in my desk and pop it in the car whenever I go out. Not having my whole coupon book with me has been the result of missing many, and I do mean many, a good coupon deal so this is nice to have it all available to just grab and go.

Now the Couponizer itself is an organizing book. It’s spiral bound with thick plastic outer covers and an elastic band to keep it all together. I think this is the new and improved part. In the past there were a few complaints about the sturdiness of it. It's nice and sturdy now. If you’ve ever had other organizers you know they can break down rather quickly with regular use. The innards are made of shiny card stock. Each section have several pockets to organize your coupons.

The first section are your action coupons or the ones you will use that day.  A section for your grocery list, your coupons you EXPECT you will be using that day and the ones you will actually hand to the checkout person. Now if you have shopped regularly with coupons you know often the item you expect to buy is often not there or not the one the coupon is for so this make sense. You next folder section is for coupons expiring in the current month. And then you have a plastic card holder to hold member type cards.

Your next section is for the regular grocery departments. From Baby to Vegetarian. There are a few more than I’ve regularly seen so that was nice.
The next section was for coupons beyond the grocery store. Entertainment, Restaurants, Retail, and Refund, Rewards. I was hoping for online but I just went ahead and put that info into the Retail section. I will probably use the retail section quite a bit. You know these days many retailers give you percent or dollars off just for providing feedback. I make sure and do this all the time but many times they have been getting lost in my catch all coupon notebook which was too big (I felt) to drop in the car at a moment’s notice.

The last section is to track your savings.  A slot for receipts. You want to save these in case you need to go back and have a coupon applied or something. My husband is really good at this. And then you have coupon a coupon tracker section. This is where you put the coupon tracker pad that you have used to keep track of how much you are saving.

At $19.95 the Couponizer cost a bit more than your average coupon organizer but then it isn’t your average coupon organizer.

I've been using my Couponizer regularly and love it! It makes using the coupons painless. And tracking how much I saved is a nice touch to keep me motivated. My regular checkout guy was impressed. I really thought I didn't have much in the way of coupons my last trip but ended up saving $8.50. Also my regular grocery store often mounts coupons on shelves next to stuff so it was handy to have a place to put a coupon like this.

I like to be ultra organized and this is ultra-organizing for coupons. I do like this organizing system for coupons. It's painless and easy to use. Organized so you don't find yourself misplacing coupons. And efficient which is what organized homemaking strives to be. Get it done right and fast! 

You can purchase it directly from the Couponizer website or if you live in Georgia or Texas there are a few retail locations you can pick it up at. The names and addresses are listed on the website.