Have you noticed all that coupon fine print on the coupons you use? Ever wonder what it all means, and how you can use them to maximize your savings?

white desktop with green wallet and green colored pencils with text overlay "how to read coupon fine print"I use coupons like money.

The more coupons I use, the less money that I have to take from my wallet.

In other words, coupons supplement my income.

Since I'm super into coupons (and a money geek), I decided it was time to talk about what all that coupon fine print means. What does “limit one per household” mean versus “limit one per person”? Do stores lose money when they accept coupons?

How did coupons start?

When I started to research all-things coupon fine print, I got even more fascinated in the subject.

Let me share with you what I've found + have learned from experience!

A Brief History of Coupons

It turns out, coupons have been in use for over 110 years, starting with a handwritten ticket for a free glass of coca-cola in 1894. Over 8 million free glasses were given out during that inaugural coupon campaign!

Dare I say that coca-cola became a mainstream product because of coupons?

Clipping coupons became mainstream in the 1930s with the Great Depression and peaked by 1965 with 50% of households using them.

That's really interesting, considering that a Nielsen study that took place in the midst of the recession (September 3, 2009) found that only 35% of US households use coupons.

And while historically people who needed help with bills used to use coupons and the affluent found them to be below them, the affluent are now the biggest class of coupon users.

Coupon Fine Print

There is a lot of fine print on coupons.

Before I put in all the research to find out what some of the nitty gritty means, I used to only look at the date to make sure it was not expired, the face value to see if I can get it doubled or tripled, and the product size to avoid any issues at checkout.

But what about the rest of that fine print?

How Do Store Coupons Work?

It turns out that stores treat coupons like money as well…because they are.

Large retail chains collect millions of dollars worth of coupons each week and have devised a system to get their reimbursements from the manufacturer, who ultimately pays for the cost of the coupon campaign.

Here's what the process looks like:

  • Typically chain stores will send their coupons via mail to their headquarters after counting up their cash drawers (they include the value of all coupons collected in their count of cash).
  • At headquarters, the coupons remain separated by store, and are shipped to a third party clearinghouse for sorting.
  • The sorted coupons are then sent to the manufacturer with an invoice.
  • The clearinghouse is paid a shipping and handling fee as well as a certain amount of money per coupon for their sorting work.
  • The store is reimbursed the value of the coupon, plus a shipping and handling fee by the manufacturer (typically 8₵).

While researching this, I was amazed at how much processing and handling is involved with redeeming coupons. According to a white paper published in April 2007 by ScanAps,

“Coupons are the only cash instruments that are still counted, processed, settled and cleared manually. From the time a consumer submits a coupon to a cashier in the store, an average of eight pairs of hands physically touch every coupon before it is finally shredded and the retailer is reimbursed.”

I was also shocked at all of the different types of fraud involved at each point of this eight-hand process.

Pssst: Check this article out for my in-depth look at common types of coupon fraud, and individuals/groups that have incurred jail time + penalties for their crimes.

It's estimated that coupon fraud costs businesses, collectively, between $300 and $500 million per year.

Even so, do stores lose money on coupons?

Do Stores Lose Money on Coupons?

Coupon fraud aside, if stores accept coupons, do they lose money?

Let's turn back to the coupon fine print to answer this question.

Look at any coupon, and you'll see similar language to this:

“Retailer: We will pay you the face value plus 8¢ handling for each coupon sent to [address]”.

So, as long as the store accepts coupons according to their terms, then they will still bring in money when people use them on a product.

Coupon Wording Examples

Have you taken a look at your coupons lately?




The new coupon fine print can be summed up in a few categories:

  • limits on the number of coupons used
  • limits on the number of transactions made
  • prohibiting auctions of coupons
  • prohibiting use of coupons for products you intend to resale
  • limiting cashiers paying you money

Limit One Coupon Per Household

You'll see the following language on some coupons now:

“Limit of one coupon per household per day”

This is a usage limit and it means that only one of each type of coupon can be used per household each day (meaning, if you use a $0.35 coupon to purchase Colgate toothpaste on Monday, then your kids/spouse/live-in mother -in-law cannot use the same coupon again until Tuesday).

Basically, it's trying to combat couponers who have several (or 50) of one type of coupon from using them by handing them out to his/her family members who then can do separate transactions.

Speaking of transactions…

Limit of one Coupon Per Purchase: This does not mean per transaction, but per item. In other words, you may use one manufacturer coupon per product. If you have five products and five manufacturer coupons, you can use all five coupons in the same transaction. Please note that you can still use a store coupon in addition to your manufacturer’s coupon for one product.

Void if Copied, Sold, Exchanged, or Transferred: It turns out that there is a lot of fraud with coupon use from consumers, cashiers, stores, and clearinghouses (see below for the role of clearinghouses in all of this). One of the ways that consumers fraudulently use coupons is by scanning them and making copies on glossy paper that look like the originals. This is so prevalent (costing retailers and manufacturers an estimated $300-$500 million per year) because the barcodes on the Sunday paper coupon inserts are generally not unique. Another question with this fine print is whether or not it is legal to sell your coupons on sites such as eBay? See below.

Cash Value: Most coupons state that they have no cash value, or have a cash value of 1/20₵. It is illegal to sell something that has no cash value. So how do people and auction sites such as eBay get around this? Clipping coupons and selling them takes time, and so people actually sell their time as a service rather than sell the actual coupons themselves. EBay coupon auction listings typically include a statement that specifies that the coupons are free and the bidder is paying the seller for the service of procuring, clipping and compiling the coupon sets. Checkout eBay’s policy on selling coupons.

Do Not Double: Most coupons have instructions to not allow the doubling of their coupon. However, if the coupon barcode begins with the number 5, and your store doubles or triples coupons, then your coupon will act accordingly. If the coupon barcode begins with the number 9, then it will not double.

Retailer: The rest of the information on the coupon is directions for the retailer on how to redeem the coupon for reimbursement. This will include an address, the amount of shipping and handling or processing fees they will receive, etc. See below for more information on these terms.

What Does Limit of 4 Identical Coupons Mean?

If you see “limit of 4 identical coupons” in your coupon's fine print, then keep reading. You need to know if this means limit of 4 identical coupons per visit, per day, per transaction, per customer, or per person.

Lots of different options here!

What Does it Mean to Limit One Coupon Per Purchase?

Per purchase is different from per transaction. A purchase is each product within a transaction. The transaction is everything that is on the receipt you're given in the end.

So, what it means to limit one coupon per purchase is you can use one coupon per product in your entire transaction.

Limits on Number of Coupons Used Per Transaction

Your transaction is everything that is on one receipt.



You'll see many coupons, such as P&G coupons, that now have the following coupon fine print:

“Limit of 4 Like Coupons in same shopping trip.”



Ensure® released a coupon that states,

“Limit 1 coupon per transaction.”

Limits on Number of Transactions



In order to counteract this, some coupons are explicitly stating how many transactions per person are allowed with a type of coupon. For example, Scotch-Brite™ issued coupons for $1.00 off sponges with the following fine print:

“You can only redeem one coupon per day.”

Another way to say this same thing that you'll see in coupon fine print is:

“Limit one coupon per visit.”

Prohibiting Auctioning of Coupons


As mentioned previously, eBay even has a policy that allows for the auctioning of coupons (you can only sell up to $100 or 25 valid, unexpired, original coupons per month). I bet there is a lawsuit in the works for this from manufacturers, as eBay clearly states this policy on its website.



Prohibiting Use of Coupons on Products Intended for Resale


“Coupons not authorized if purchasing products for resale.”

Limiting Cashiers Paying You


Scotch-Brite’s ™ coupon now expressly prohibits this. It states,


Funny Coupon Fine Print

Did anyone else get sick and tired of hearing about all the sales and clearances during the Recession?

I never thought that statement would come out of my mouth, much less from my keyboard, but sales and clearances are being overdone. Most stores began using these on a daily basis, and so they've kind of lost their glamor.


This practice has obviously been around before, but it seems to be everywhere since the beginning of the last Recession.

“Sale” and “Clearance” are used so much that unless you are having one of these, you can’t even compete among consumers — these words have become a cost of entry to the marketplace.

Since products and services cannot possibly be on sale or on clearance all the time, stores are finding ways to use these buzz words to attract consumers, but restrict their profit losses by adding in robust fine print language (check out other supermarket tricks for how to get consumers into their stores, and spending more money).

Not only that, but some funny coupon fine print — that is super restrictive and kind of ridiculous — came out of this time period as well that I'd like to share with you.



Have you seen any new language lately in your coupon's fine print?

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8 replies
  1. Aurora
    Aurora says:

    I hadn’t noticed the new coupon language, but it makes total sense. Scott and I watched the Extreme Couponing show with Momma J this past weekend, and were shocked! So much crappy food, and I can’t imagine how they can even use it all before it goes bad! We were saying after the show that even if we wanted to (we don’t!) we couldn’t do it simply because of the kind of food that’s typically available for that kind of shopping. There are plenty of good deals on healthy food that aren’t “extreme” 🙂 I agree the new terms are in response to the show and all the new “extreme couponers” out there that have been inspired by it. Could you imagine being a grocery store clerk these days and dealing with all these extreme coupon wannabes? yikes…

    • Amanda L. Grossman
      Amanda L. Grossman says:

      Hi Aurora!

      I am glad you caught an episode as well–it is appalling. I am wondering what is going to happen to that one woman on the show who committed fraud (multiple times in the one shopping trip) on camera.

      This show also puts a bad face on couponing as far as the naysayers who don’t use coupons because “coupons are not for healthy foods”. There is so much junk food on this show that it just perpetuates that stereotype. We eat pretty healthy, and save a decent amount of money off of our grocery bill.

      Thanks for your thoughts! Hope you guys are well:).

  2. Momma J
    Momma J says:

    Good Morning!

    I just watch Extreme Couponing for this first time this weekend when I found it OnDemand. I couldn’t believe the extent to which these people go to get free stuff and that they have entire rooms of their house set aside that look like grocery stores!
    I did comment to my family that I’d love to stockpile enough toiletries for a year (shampoo razors, soap, etc), then use them and do it again next year, but these people were buying mass amounts of junk food too. There was very little, if any, fresh food! Their poor children.

    I believe these people are called “hoarders”.



    • Amanda L. Grossman
      Amanda L. Grossman says:

      Good morning Momma J!

      I am glad you caught one of the shoes. I am in complete agreement with you–they are hoarders. A lot of them have back stories where they went without food for awhile, or had major losses in their lives and times of major insecurity. I believe they do this as overcompensation.

      It would be nice for a year supply; my goal is about six months supply of toiletries. However, you won’t see me doing anything illegal to do that. You can do it just by clipping your own coupons and following the sales (as you well know!).

      Thanks for your thoughts!

  3. cashflowmantra
    cashflowmantra says:

    Why would a manufacturer care if 70 people each bought 70 bottles of mustard or one person bought 70 bottles of mustard? Who would use that much mustard anyway? Seems like the manufacturer would then sell an additional 69 bottles of mustard to the others who might need it also.

    • FruGal
      FruGal says:

      Hello! Great question–coupons are issued for a variety of reasons. If it is to move inventory, then you might question the reason why it matters. However, some coupons are issued to target certain households, or to spread across to as many households as possible. When people hoard these coupons, the end result is not what the campaign was meant for.


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