Money Saver or Time Waster?

About a month ago I made a list of the things that complicate my life. A recurring theme I noticed was the never ending flow of all types of paper-from junk mail to invitations to bank statements to birthday cards. I tackled a box of paper of all types in our office with the help of my husband and decided to move on to a better organizational system for the flow of paper in the kitchen.

I like to save money. Most people do. I go through sporadic periods of crazed coupon clipping. I get them in the mail and the promise of free money becomes intoxicating. The problem is that I end up with lots of neatly clipped coupons and never remember to use them. Unused coupons are nothing more than trash, but because they offer that tempting promise of money, they end up saved long past their expiration dates.

I thought I had a system of organization in place: three magnetic trays attached to the side of our fridge. When I went through the mess I found coupons that had expired over two years ago. Past system of organization=failed! I kept the trays but now I can use one for our gift cards, one to hold my new file system and one, well I am sure we will find something to stuff in it.

Check out the new system. Now, whenever I get that urge to cut, all I have to do is file by expiration date month- then whenever I glance in there and notice it is September and the May-August files still have coupons sitting in there, I can trash them. Anything without an expiration date gets put in the front and gift cards get there own home.

I know the dynamics of organizing coupons, etc. may seem incredibly boring to some, but for me it is one more baby step to living The Skinny Life.

BEFORE AFTER