Extreme Couponing Tip: 7 important things to know about reading coupons

With everything that they pack onto the little coupons, most people won’t read it. Most of it doesn’t need to be read, so you can over look a lot of it. But there are some important things that you need to look for on every coupon before you use it.

1. Expiration Date

This is a very important thing to look at! This is the first thing that you will look at. If the coupon is expired, DO NOT use it! The store will not get reimbursed for it. There are certain places that you can use expired coupons, but those are military and not “the norm” so I won’t go into it here. Just be sure to check the expiration date before you use it. A good way to make sure that you don’t let your coupons expire, is to use a Coupon Binder for the most important ones. That way you are not clipping everything.

2. Type of Coupon

Check to see whither it is a store coupon or a manufacture coupon. If you look at the two examples, you will see where it says Manufacture on one, and Store on the other. This lets you know where you can use it. If it is a store coupon for Walgreens, you can only use it at Walgreens. Manufacture coupons can be used anywhere that coupons are accepted.

3. Amount

This is basic and straight forward. This is just the amount that will come off when the coupon is scanned.

4. Items

This is what tells you what the coupon is good for. This is also VERY important. You want to make sure that you look at the specific item(s) that the coupon is for. If you use the coupon for SIZES that are not included, or a specific type of that brand of product that is not included, then you are using the coupon incorrectly. Another important this is to use the coupons ONLY for what it is intended for. Make sure to get the “Plus” kind it is specifies that, and not the regular one.

5. Quantity

This tells you how many items you have to buy to use the coupon. In the coupon above you see you only need to buy ONE item to use the coupon. In the coupon below, you can see that you have to buy TWO items to use the coupon. Simple and straight forward.

6. Limits

This part can be a little more tricky. On the Gillette Fusion Proglide Power Razor coupon above, you can see where it says “limit of one coupon per purchase”. This means that you can only use one manufacture coupon per razor that you are buying. NOT per transaction, but purchase of that razor. The next part goes on to say “limit of four like coupons in the same shopping trip”. This means that you can only use four of this kind of coupon on your visit to the store. I like to order extra coupons from WizClipz for the items I want to stock up on or know will be hot deals with that coupon. Most of these coupons have limits so be sure to read the first couple of lines of the fine print.

7. Redeemable at restrictions

There are certain coupons that have specific restrictions on where the coupon can be redeemed. In the example below, you will see that it says Exclusive store Coupon. This means that is can only be used at the store listed on the coupon. There are other coupons that say Redeemable at __________. This coupon can be redeemed everywhere unless it says Redeemable ONLY at _________________. Some stores may not take them just because it has another store listed or shown, but they can.

If you want to know more about getting started with coupons view the Getting Started Guide here.