Card Sharp

I don’t claim to be the sort of Coupon Queen who gets all her shopping for 3p using coupons clipped from every magazine and newspaper she sees – but I do use Reward Cards. Because of that, I receive vouchers from Boots, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and M&S. For a long time now, I have organised these using a little plastic box from Staples. It stays in my bag, and whenever I get a coupon in the post, or with my receipt in a shop, I put it away safely. Every week or so, I check them, and discard ones I will never use, and move the useful ones to the front to ensure I do not miss their expiry date.

It is neat, tidy and only the size of a credit card. It keeps my purse from getting full of clutter. But the Reward Cards were getting too plentiful.

My purse has three sections – a zip part for cash, a pocket for notes, and smaller pockets to hold credit cards,reward cards, library cards etc. But there were just too many cards in there, and some only got used once in a blue moon. The pursed bulged and strained at the seams. I saw a good idea last year on Karen’s Blog, and finally this week, I got round to adapting it.

I bought some binder rings in Rymans.These cost £1.79 for a box of four, but I know I shall find uses for the other three! I stacked all** my cards neatly – first checking for barcodes and magnetic strips on the back. I arranged them so that any codes or strips were at the bottom [this did mean turning some cards upside down or the other way round] I put an elastic band round, and marked X in the top left corner.

Then Bob kindly used his pillar drill to put a 4mm hole right through the stack. And now they are corralled tidily and accessibly on the ring. It will be easy to remove them individually when needed.

** I should say that all means “All the cards which are not credit cards or bank cards” They are still safely in my purse. These cards are the ones which are of little value to anyone else.

I admit to having three library cards- Leicestershire [County] Leicester [City] and Norfolk Library Service. Shoestring had a lovely post about National Libraries Day on Sunday, ending with this great quote from Alan Bennett

"For a child a library needs to be round the corner. And if we lose local libraries it is children who suffer."