Cheap and Effective Organizer

I was looking at using a small expandable mini-file for shopping card organization after reading this article at lifehacker.com. I really didn't feel like going out to a store and spending money on something that I could easily replicate on the cheap. After a couple minutes of searching, I found a great way to keep gift cards: Cheap CD/DVD sleeves of which I have hundreds.



Just spread them out so each one is visible and pop them into a cheap CD Sleeve. The clear plastic window allows you to quickly see the contents. Keep one for membership cards, one for gift cards and coupons, or whatever else you could think of. Perhaps this could be used for business cards or coupons as well. Toss them in your glove box or laptop bag and you'll be ready to use them whenever the need arises.

Getting The Most Out of Gift Cards

I always forget how much money is left on gift cards that I've used. I've tried using a pen to write on the back, but it's very hard to write and read with a normal pen. Then today, I realized that using a sharpie to write on the front of the cards is much easier to write with and very easy to quickly see what your balance is. Just another reason to always carry a sharpie.


That's the actual card number. If you can use that money before me, You win.