Coupons typically work for around 3 months. If it's a high value or free product coupon, it might be less. In some cases too, a free product or $ value credit (like if you call Nestle to complain about a product, they might send you "$5 to spend on any nestle products" coupon) will last for a year. Fast food coupons tend to be the shortest - the good ones last for only a week.
There are tips from other bloggers about arranging your binders/boxes/envelopes in order of expiry dates, instead of by products like I do. Maybe experiment and see what will work best for you.
Regardless though, you should spend about a half hour every month just going through the book and clearing out the old expired coupons or the ones that will expire in a few days. I call it my "sad coupon day" - it almost feels like I am throwing out money! My last batch clean out was the end of 2015 and nearly a completely emptying of my entire binder!
There are opportunities to get these coupons used though instead of throwing them out. I've heard of people going out to a grocery store and placing the coupons that will expire soon on top of the products at the store. You could also jump on local Facebook groups and post about what coupons you have available for anyone that will buy that product. There are also things called coupon trains, where a line of people will place unwanted coupons in an envelope and ship it to the next person in line who will take out any coupons they want and replace them with ones they don't want and ship on to the next.
In about this same time, it's also good to have a quick look through the pantry and fridge at expiry dates on your packaged goods and cheeses and such. Maybe that will plan the dinners for that week!
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