Extreme Couponing Requires Extreme Organization: The Search for a Coupon Binder

I heard a lot of buzz about the TLC show Extreme Couponing before it aired last night. I started following the Twitter chatter when the east coast feed was on. It seemed people had mixed reactions about how the show portrayed people who take 'extreme' measures to save money. Watch the teaser clip aired on ABC to see how TLC defined extreme. So much of TLC's programming is designed to be attention getting so I took the show with a grain of a salt but here's my quick two cents on the show:

*Some of the people featured have hoarding issues. Period.

*Junk is still junk no matter how good the deal was (who needs 150 Butterfingers?!).

*Saving money is important but it shouldn't be your life. Blowing off the people in your life to clip coupons and shop is unhealthy.

*Having such a large stockpile you feel the need to insure it is also unhealthy (seriously, watch the clip) 

*If you have 30 year's worth of toiletries in your garage, please donate some to a shelter, food bank or to foster families. Look at it this way: you probably got it for free so with the tax write off it will be a money maker!
*Not being able to enjoy the rooms in your home because they are full of groceries is unhealthy.

*Spending 70 hours a week on something you are not earning a salary to do is silly.

*The 40 jars of spaghetti sauce you just had to have might have been someone other family's affordable dinner.

Despite TLC's ratings ploys I was still inspired. I thought I was doing a good job with our grocery budget but those people made me feel like a total amateur! I've had Tyler grab coupon inserts from  recycling bins, but only on our street. One woman on the show, Joyce, puts on her toning shoes and walks her neighborhood every week gathering unused inserts. I wonder if my other neighbors would label me crazy if I started doing the same.

This is just a small part of my stash

While I was watching, I Tweeted that I'm in search of a coupon binder. I use two accordion files now and it's not convenient anymore. A few of my followers chimed in that they were looking for a coupon system too so I went through the frugal blogs in my reader and pulled links for post where the authors have given detailed info on how they organize their coupons. Here's what I found:

Erin of 5 Dollar Dinners
Frugal Coupon Living
A Thrifty Mom
Couponing 101 (vlog)
Keeping the Kingdom First (vlog)
Life as Mom 
Money Saving Mom
Save at Home Mommy (Charlene sells a complete binder system on her site)
Savings Lifestyle
Stretching a Buck 

The binder method seems to be the most popular and I think it's the one I'll go with. I looked at some supplies during back to school and I should have pulled the trigger.

I'm spending too much time flipping through my coupons and I don't have a good system in place for my extra inserts. The last time I went shopping I saw laundry detergent on sale and remembered seeing a coupon in my inserts. I had pages spread out all over the store shelves while I was looking. It was messy (but I found two!).

One of my goals for 2011 is to do even better with cutting our grocery budget. Getting organized with my coupons is definitely a good first step.

Do you have a good system I can follow? Did you watch Extreme Couponing? What did you think?