I mentioned earlier that while in the long run couponing should save you time, there would be an initial learning curve. One of the most important aspects of this learning curve is understanding the different types of coupons that exist. The coupons that are most familiar to the vast majority of people are manufacturer coupons. These are important because they are the most common type of coupon and the ones you will come across most of the time. These are the coupons that come in the Sunday newspaper coupon inserts and they are most often the type of coupon that you can print off the Internet. These are coupons that are created by the manufacturer of the product (thus their name).

When a grocery store accepts a manufacturer coupon, the manufacturer agrees to pay the store back the amount of the coupon plus a small handling fee (usually $0.07). This means that when you use manufacturer coupons, the store actually makes a bit more money than if you had paid in cash. These coupons are easy to spot since they usually have “manufacturer coupon” printed across the top of the coupon.

What is most important to know about manufacturer coupons is that you can only use one manufacturer coupon per item you purchase in most cases. This holds true even if you have two manufacturer coupons come from different sources. Even with the sources of the coupon being different, you are still only allowed to use one of the manufacturer coupons per item purchased.

For example, if you have a $1.00 off 1 box of cereal manufacturer coupon that you found in the Sunday newspaper coupon insert and another manufacturer coupon for $0.50 off 1 box of cereal that you found in the grocery store, you can’t use both coupons to save $1.50 off of a single box of cereal. You can use both coupons, however, if you decide to buy two boxes of the same cereal since you are allowed to use one manufacturer coupon for each box.

While manufacturer coupons are the most common type of coupon, one of the things that most people don’t realise when the first begin couponing is that there are also a number of other different types of coupons that exist. Understanding these other coupons exist is vitally important because different types of coupons can sometimes be used on the same product (called stacking coupons) which is how it is possible to get some products for free. We will be looking at the different types of coupons besides manufacturer coupons that exist in the next few articles and what the benefits of each type are.

Please feel free to ask any questions that you may have and I will do my best to answer them. This post is part of the Lazy Couponing series. The next step will be learning about Store Coupons.

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