The other day my 4 year old was making paper airplanes. He dug through my scratch paper and came to me with a sheet of internet printed coupons, this is the conversation we had.
4 yr old: Mama are these coupons expired?
Me: Yup on 1/31/10.
His eyes light up
4 yr old: Can I make a paper airplane with this paper then?
Me: Sure, thanks for asking.
I was hugely impressed.
First that he even grasped the concept that an expired coupon was not important to his mom.
Second that he asked to use something.
Did you know there are ways to recycle your expired coupons?
Sometimes I print on the back of my expired coupons, thus the coupons being in the scratch paper pile.
The coolest thing you can do with your expired coupons is send them to the Overseas Coupon Program.
Did you know that you can send them to US Military bases? Yup, they can use them for up to 6 months after expiration dates. It will cost you the same as if you sent them to your neighbor.
Check out this site Overseas Coupon Program.
About Monica
It all began on October 8th, 2008. Cathy and Monica started this coupon blog to help friends and family learn about their new money saving hobby couponing! Since then they have taught thousands of women (and men) 
I used to live overseas and would routinely use the expired coupons. This is a great program! Thanks for posting. =]
Where do I send them? Like a physical address? I have family and friends overseas fighting for us or rebuilding the other countries. I have one friend who’s entire family lives on a base in New York. “Overseas” but all the the military base’s commissary addresses are here in US. Leaving me lost on where to send these coupons.
Lee-
You will have to submit the form and adopt one the the over seas bases here: http://www.ocpnet.org/Base%20List/BaseList1.htm
Thanks for encouraging people to donated expired coupons. We are an Air Force family who has lived in Germany and now England for the past 8 years. We are currently stationed at a geographically separated area which means we make monthly/bi-monthly drives to the nearest US base a couple hours away to stock up on groceries. Otherwise we shop on the economy which ios expensive. Thanks to coupons sent overseas to our commissaries and Family Support Centers, I am able to say anywhere from $50-$100 per shop which is a huge blessing for our family of five.
Many thanks to all who send coupons!!
Curious if or how you do this if you use the insert filing method? I wanted to donate my old coupons but I just went to the site and it had these instructions (below). I get 5 papers a week and file by whole insert. This process would take me hours! Any anyone know why we would have to total them and do all this? Seems more labor intensive than it should be, I would think it would deter people from donating….it does me, unfortunately.
1. Cut the coupons.
2. Sort them by “food” and “non-food”
3. Total the batch by dollar amount.
4. Place each batch in a separate envelope or baggie “food’ in one, and “non-food” in the other.
5. Send a report to OCP.