Record Of Special Events: Coupon Tip - Making Sure It’s Always Available

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Coupon Tip - Making Sure It’s Always Available

Here’s a practical tip that is unbelievably simple and effective. Keep your coupons in your car. The reasons are quite obvious, but when I saw my wife do it, I thought she was a genius and should patent the idea (if we weren’t married already, I might’ve proposed on the spot).

Being the clueless husband that I am, it took me months to realize that my wife always had a bag of coupons with her. I mean, always. She would have the clip outs when we were shopping for groceries, and she would have the coupons while we just happened to drive by a supermarket and wanted to buy a bag of chips.

When I asked her why the car and not anywhere else, she responded with these reasons:

I Don’t Change Cars - The bags change, the outfit rotates but you are always in the same car. Even if you have multiple cars, it’s always the same car going to the same places anyway for one reason or another.

There’s Always Room - Some of my friends put them in their wallet but how many coupons can you keep in there? The car’s got so much room, why not use it? What I do is use a clear plastic folder that allows me to put as many coupons as I want in there.

Out of the Way - Another disadvantage of putting it in the wallet is that you have to deal with it all the time. I always see people fiddling with all those papers whenever they need to take out cash. Putting the bag of savings in the car compartment keeps it out of the way until I need them.

Other Notes About the Coupon Folder

We organize the coupons inside since they tend to add up overtime and some also become invalid (they expire), which will have to be thrown away..
We don’t have different sections so it doesn’t take a long time sorting it out. We try to keep the same type of coupons in the same vicinity. For example, we stick the restaurant coupons in the front and put the grocery coupons at the back etc.
Whenever we see coupons, we clip them right away and put them in the folder just in case we need them.
We bring the coupon folder with us when we buy groceries regardless of whether we need it or not. If we don’t, we will eventually forget that it’s in the compartment at all. Also, it doesn’t give us an excuse not to use it (like if we are lining up and we feel like we don’t have time to go get it from the car).

What About You?

As I think about it, this idea is so obvious that there must be millions of you doing the same thing. What are your experiences and are there any other tips you can share?

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