So I received an e-mail this week from a reader titled “Pain In The Neck Couponer.” I was intrigued because most people who read my blog ARE couponers, so to be frustrated with one of our own in the store is fairly unusual. Due to my own coupon usage, I am usually okay being behind someone in line who is using a stack of coupons. I never know if I might pick up a few tips.
But after I read her e-mail I could totally understand her frustration. The basic theme of her e-mail was that she was constantly ending up behind a customer in line at her local store who was trying to use multiple manufacturer’s coupons on one item. So I thought to help with her frustration I would do a short post on coupon stacking.
Coupon stacking is when you can use more than one coupon on an item. And this can be a great money saving tool. However (with some very rare exceptions) you can only stack coupons if one of them is a store coupon and one is a manufacturers coupon.
One great example is Target. Target has their own online coupons- they say Target Web Coupon on the top. They are only accepted at Target. You can take one of the Target coupons and combine it with a regular manufacturer’s coupon. In that instance you can use two coupons on one item.
So let’s say you grab two copies of the Sunday paper. Inside each there is a coupon for $1 off Colgate toothpaste. When you go to the store you can not use two of those coupons from the newspaper on one tube of toothpaste. If you want to use both you will need to purchase 2 tubes of toothpaste.
Some other popular places to coupon stack are Rite Aid, Walgreens and CVS.
Hopefully this will clear up any misconceptions about coupon stacking. If you have any questions just leave a comment on this post and I will try to answer them!
At BJs, it depends on the cashier you get. Their policy is one manufacturers and one store coupon. However, if you get a cashier who does not pay much attention…they will just pass every coupon you hand them through. I have a fried who shops at BJs and scouts the registers to find cashiers who look like they will let her use ALL Of her coupons. I used to have a membership there and was told by one of their managers their policy.
Each individual store has a different number of identical coupons they will take- I would check your favorite stores coupon policy. Most allow three identical manufacturer’s coupons per transaction.
I am curious, Amy mentions stacking @ BJS. How recent is that stacking b/c I shop @ BJS also, its been a LONG time since that has been done. I thought it has been 1 BJS coupon & 1 manufacturer. Thanks.
I have a question, I am relatively new to couponing so there are a couple of things that I don’t understand yet. I get the stacking of manuf. and store coupons, but above in the comments you mentioned using two manuf. coupons for two tubes of toothpaste. So using that hypothetical scenario,can you purchase both of those tubes in the same transaction using both coupons or do you need to purchase each tube in a separate transaction? Or does it just depend on the coupon itself and you have to look at each to see if it says ‘limit one coupon per purchase’. Plus I’ve even noticed lately that some coupons (from P&G I think) say something like ‘limit 4 coupons for like transactions’ now.
You are right- their Rite Aid coupons for some reason say Manufacturer’s Coupon on the top. But they do say something along the lines of “good only at Rite Aid” on them. I don’t have any with me right now to check the exact wording. Thanks for your comment!
No, I used one Sunday coupon + one Rite Aid coupon from their ad. Their coupons say “Manufacturer’s Coupon” on it, but it is their instore coupon because it says Rite Aid on them. It’s an extra coupon insert from their normal in ad coupons.
Did you use more than one Sunday coupon on one item? They are supposed to accept one Rite Aid coupon and one manufacturer’s coupon per item.
I stacked the Rite Aid coupons with my Sunday coupons this week. They accepted both.
An exception may be warehouses like BJ’s. I purchased a 16 count case of dole fruit. I had a store coupon for the item and 4 – $0.75/4pk coupons. I was able to use all five coupons.
Rite Aid had a couple of pages of “manufacturers” coupons in their ad this week. Do you know if they can be stacked?