Prepping for a New Year

I just tallied up my 2010 spending and was thrilled with my savings for the 2nd year in a row. Now I'm getting ready to move into 2011 and I need to get organized for the year ahead.

The first Sunday of the year always has tons of coupons. They are new printables, and 4 or 5 inserts in the newspaper. In order to handle that many coupons and get off to a fresh start, I have to have an system that is cleaned out and ready to go. I use a binder to organize my coupons.

Most coupons tend to expire at the end of a month but a ton of them expire on the last day of the year. After I've made my last shopping trip of the year, I go through my binder and pull out all my expired coupons. Then, I prepare them for shipment to an overseas military base.

Now I have a clean slate and I'm ready to clip, print and load in my new coupons. Bring on the savings in 2011!

If you are new to couponing, please start with my Frugal 101 series for more tips and tricks!