New coupon binder

So my coupon organizer was busting out the seams.

I decided it is now time for me to graduate to binder. I looked at several options. Ebay.com has several options.  There are many fancy binders with all of the inserts, dividers and labels. Most run $20-$30 plus shipping. Plus you can get the inserts separately in many sizes. It actually quite overwhelming.  I looked at target and found 30 baseball inserts for $5 and you can get a baseball binder with 540 pockets for $15. I found found binders with zippered covers and accordion file for $10. All of these option seemed good, but I am all about saving money. So I looked up how to start a binder from The Krazy Coupon Lady. Then I looked around my house for things I could repurpose to make my own binder. I found a 2" binder, about 60 page protectors, various colors of cardstock and hot glue gun and glue sticks. I proceeded to make my own inserts by cutting each page protector in thirds leaving the binding intact. Then I inserted a cardstock. This was the most tricky and time consuming part. I found it was easiest to insert the middle section first, then the bottom, then the top. Then I hot glued each section closed on the bottom to make pockets. This worked very well for making the pockets, however I had to be careful not to touch the plastic directly on the glue gun or it melted. Plus the hot glue is not forgiving of mistakes, I have a few upside down pockets.

Then I bought some paperclip tabs at Target, which I used as my dividers for under $3. I liked these because I can move them around if I need to and I could get more for the money. What I don't like about them was that they are a bit large and I have to attatch them to my inserts making it hard to use all the space for my coupons. To lable my sections, I printed out a table of contents from The Krazy Coupon Lady and wrote out each section on either side of the tabs, then attached them to the inserts and entered all my coupons. The whole project took about 4 hours to do. I spread it out over a few days. I love being able to see all my coupons easily.  I have determined I will need a larger binder, but my hope is to wait until the Back To School sales to get a binder at the best price.

I added a few pockets in the front for each store I frequent to put store coupons and coupon policies. I have read in many places that it is a good idea to always have the policy on hand in case of problems.

How do I plan to carry around this monstrous binder? I found a laptop bag/briefcase that my husband won at work. It has plenty of room for my binder, plus it has pockets for my wallet, cards and other accessories. Do you think I may scare some cashiers walking into the grocery store with a briefcase?