Savvy shoppers always make sure to look for as many coupons as they can before even stepping foot inside the store.
Regularly using coupons is a surefire ways to save hundreds of dollars or more every year on anything from groceries to home goods.
But even if you download every app, clip every coupon, and take advantage of every sale, you could still be missing on one easy way to save.
Handing the cashier every coupon under the sun won’t do you much good if you don’t hand them over in the right order.
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Yes, order matters when it comes to coupons, especially when you forget to read the fine print. Here’s the best way to hand over your coupons to maximize your savings:
Step 1: Minimum Purchase Coupons
You should always give the cashier all your coupons that require a minimum size or amount before anything else. Some common examples of these are “$1 Off a Purchase of $10 or More” or “Buy $15 Worth of Participating Items, Get Another Free.” Most of these coupons will have restrictions written in the fine print that let buyers know the coupon will only be applied after any other discounts or coupons. If you wait to use this coupon until last, your other discounts may cause your total to drop below the minimum requirement—making this coupon useless.
Step 2: Manufacturer Coupons
You should always hand over your manufacturer coupons next, but you may need to plan them in a specific order. Depending on where you’re shopping, the store may double coupons. This is fantastic, but most of these stores will also set a limit on how many they will double. If you have 10 coupons, but the store will only double 5, you’ll want to hand over the ones with the highest values first. You can avoid trying to situate your coupons in line by calling the store and asking about their coupon policies beforehand.
Step 3: Store Coupons
You’ll almost always want to use your store coupons after any manufacturer coupons you have to get better deals. In many cases, if you use a “cash off” manufacturer coupon first, the store coupon will simply adjust the price of the item, and the discount previously applied by the manufacturer coupon will stay applied to the total in whole. However, if store and manufacturer coupons are stacked to make the items free, you could actually end up with an overage that lowers your entire total! Whether or not you snag an overage depends on the store’s policies, but even if you don’t get the extra savings, you’re still getting free items by combining these coupons!
Step 4: Catalinas
You may not recognize the name of these coupons, but you actually see them all the time at the store. Catalinas print out from the “catalina” machine at the register. Cashiers will usually hand these coupons to you with your change after you’ve made a purchase. Any Catalinas for cash off your next purchase that aren’t specific to any products, transactions size, or amount should always be redeemed last.
How do you usually organize your coupons before shopping? Let us know in the comments!
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