If you are a couponer, whether you are a veteran or a newbie, you are doing your best to get the most for your money. Using coupons certainly helps but understanding how to maximize your savings can make it even better. Stacking coupons is one way to add more punch to your coupon shopping trips. Before you begin stacking coupons you need to understand just what is out there today as it goes beyond just using manufacturer coupons and store coupons. Read on to learn all you need to know about stacking coupons.
How to Stack Coupons the Right Way
To really take advantage of stacking coupons and deals you need to start off with a good sale. If you can use your coupons on a clearance item that is even better! Keep track of sales cycles and you can score some awesome deals. Christmas and holiday clearances are great as are back to school and summer clearances. Just keep your eyes open and you will be surprised what you can find in the clearance aisles.
Go through your weekly sales ads as well to check what’s on sale with what rebates and coupons are available. As always, we bring you the best deals here too. Make a list of sales and what you want to purchase.
Types of Coupons
Before you begin stacking coupons the right way you need to understand the different types of coupons that are out there. The first type is the manufacturer coupons. These can be found in coupon inserts that come in the Sunday paper or you can print them from various sources such as coupons.com, SmartSource, or Redplum. Many companies offer printable coupons on their websites as well.
Store coupons are the next main type. These are offered directly from that particular store. They may be printed at the end of receipt or from a kiosk in the store. Many grocery stores have kiosks that print both manufacturer coupons and store coupons. CVS often prints coupons such as $2/$10 beauty purchase. Many stores offer digital coupons that you can add to your online account and simply scan your phone to use them. Here is a list of some of the stores that provide coupons to their customers:
Drugstores:
- CVS
- Rite Aid
- Walgreens
National Stores:
- Dollar
- Family Dollar
- Kohls
- Petco
- Petsmart
- Staples
- Target
Grocery or Regional Stores:
- Homeland
- Kroger and affiliate
- Local stores
- Whole Foods
Other Stackable Coupon Resources
Target has an app called Cartwheel. It’s digital coupons that will vary and can be used with other coupons. Rebate apps such as Ibotta, Checkout51, and Savingstar can be used with coupon deals as well. Stores have their own rewards too For example, CVS has deals each week where customers can earn ExtraCare Bucks and you can use these just like cash. Walgreens offers Balance Rewards Points and Register Rewards. Rite Aid has a point system as well. Target has sales deals each week that offer gift cards when you purchase a certain number of items. All these can stack with coupons. Some stores, such as Kohls offer online coupon codes that can be stacked.
Putting Stacking Coupons the Right Way All Together
Now that you understand the different types of coupons and resources you can use to stack let’s put it all together and give you some examples. Walmart doesn’t have store coupons but you can still get some great deals by stacking coupons with rebate deals. In this deal, there is a coupon for Suave and an Ibotta deal. Here is how it would work:
- Buy 2 Suave Professional Shampoos or Conditioners – sale price $1.50 each
- Use (2) $1/1 Suave Professional Coupon from a Sunday insert
- Pay: $1.00 or $0.50 each
- Submit: $0.50/1 Suave Ibotta Rebate (Limit 1)
- Final Price: $0.25 each
Next, we might do this deal at Target. In this deal, Prego sauce is on sale and there is a Target gift card deal attached to it.
- Buy 4 Prego Sauces – on sale $1.50 each ($6.00)
- Use (2) $1.00/2 Prego sauces printable coupon
- Use $1/4 Prego Cartwheel Coupon
- Pay: $3.00
- Earn $5 Gift Card for buying 4 Prego Sauces
- Final Price: $2.00 Money Maker
If there had been a rebate on Prego we could have stacked that as well.
Kohls often has great deals over the holidays. This past Christmas they had select small appliances on sale for $15.00. There were rebates attached to them, limit of 5, and you earned $5 Kohls bucks for every $50 you spent. Plus they had codes. Kohls allows to stack up to 4 coupon codes. So this deal looked like this:
- Buy 5 appliances – $15 each – total $70.00
- Use coupon code $10/$50 (HOME)
- Use coupon code CHRISTMAS for 20% off
- Use coupon code FREESHIP for free shipping
- Pay: $52.00
- Submit for $12 rebates – limit 5 – $60.00
- Earn $5 Kohls Bucks
- Final Price: $13.00 Money Maker and Free Appliances
When shopping at drugstores you can stack Extracare Bucks (CVS), Register Rewards (Walgreens) or points (Walgreens and Rite Aid) with coupons.
Saving Big by Stacking Coupons the right way!
So, as you can see there are many ways to stack coupons with store deals, rebate apps, company rebates, online and digital deals. We want to make sure you are able to Stack Coupons the Right Way. One thing you cannot do is to use more than one manufacturer coupon on one item. For example, if you have a $0.25/1 Suave shampoo and a $0.50/1 Suave shampoo manufacturer coupon you cannot buy only one bottle and use both coupons. You would have to buy two Suave products.
Some grocery stores also double coupons which can double your savings. There are certain stores, such as Whole Foods that do not allow you to use a store coupon and a manufacturer coupon. You have to choose which you want to use. Educate yourself on what your store coupon policies are. Print them out and include them in your coupon binder so when in doubt you can refer to the policy. Careful planning can earn you big rewards and have your stockpile growing in no time at all.
