Maintaining the Coupon Stash

My coupon stash has gotten downright unruly lately. Before I was able to manage it in just one envelope, but I had to go buy and index card holder and a few dividers last weekend. I’ve seen people with huge binders and these crazy organizational systems and I wonder if people get put off of couponing because they see these contraptions and get intimidated.

I’ve hit a kind of plateau, too. When you first get started there’s this sense of exhilaration when you see your receipt and you’ve saved 50-60% off the total. That savings high gets you through as you try to see how much more money you can save until you get so used to it that it’s not longer a game but a chore. Now instead of getting all excited when I snatch the Sunday newspaper off my lawn I sigh and procrastinate cutting the circulars.

If you’ve hit this kind of burnout, there are a couple of things you can do. First, if you’ve been buying extra newspapers for the coupons, stop for a few weeks and only deal with one. If you’re only dealing with one source, stop clipping altogether for a few weeks and work with your stash. If you’ve been clipping for a few months, chances are you’ve already got more than you need.

You can also try alternate sources for coupons. Services like The Coupon Master and The Coupon Clippers will handle the clipping for you if you select what you want. Coupons.com let you select and print coupons out so you don’t have to dig through the weekend’s newspapers for what you want.

And of course, you can always try stopping using coupons altogether for a few weeks. After seeing what you’re grocery bills look like without savings, you’ll get the urge to coupon again really quickly.

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