Stacking coupons with sales: a plain-English guide

The shelf price. This is the price on the tag or in the weekly ad. At some stores the sale price is a member price that only applies when the store knows who you are. Raley’s, for example, says Member Prices apply automatically at checkout when you enter your Something Extra number, while its personalized and digital offers may need to be clipped.

Coupons. A manufacturer coupon is offered by the brand that makes the product. A store coupon is offered by the store. Digital coupons can be either. Raley’s, for example, has Something Extra offers (its personalized coupons) and More Coupons (savings offered by manufacturers), and both have to be clipped.

Rewards and cash back. Some programs give money back after you buy, instead of taking it off the price. Kroger’s Cash Back Offers are one example, and Kroger’s rules for them differ from its coupons (more below).

When an item is on sale and you have a digital coupon for it, the sale price rings up first and the coupon comes off after. You don’t do anything special. The coupon just has to be on your account before you buy, and you have to buy what the offer asks for.

The trick is timing. Coupons usually last longer than a single week’s sale, and each coupon shows its own expiration date. So clip coupons as soon as they appear, then buy the item in the week it goes on sale, as long as that’s before the coupon expires.

Watch the fine print. Some coupons exclude certain sizes or versions of a product. Meijer, for example, says its coupons exclude travel and trial size products.

This is the part people mean when they ask whether a store “allows stacking.” The answer depends entirely on the store, so here’s what a few say on their own pages:

• Publix: savings are limited to one manufacturer coupon per item. If a paper coupon is accepted for an item, the digital coupon isn’t used and stays in your account for later.
• H-E-B: only one coupon, digital or paper, per qualifying item. If you present both, the paper coupon applies and the digital one goes back to your account. H-E-B says it does not allow stacking coupons and does not double or triple them.
• Kroger: Digital Coupons and Cash Back Offers can’t be combined, and are limited to one per item.
• Walgreens: a single-use coupon can be redeemed once, either digital or paper, but not both.
• Meijer: coupons can’t be doubled or tripled.
• Vons, Andronico’s, Kings and Balducci’s: manufacturer or store coupons can be combined with Personalized Deals offers, in store and online, subject to the terms of each coupon.

Some stores also say you can use several coupons in one shop. CVS says that if all the purchase criteria are met in a transaction, several coupons can be used at once, and if only part of the criteria is met, the coupon with the highest value may be applied. Raley’s says that, unless the coupon’s disclaimer says otherwise, you may redeem multiple coupons at a time. That’s about using several coupons in the same trip, not necessarily on the same item.

The safe rule of thumb: expect one coupon per item unless your store’s policy clearly says otherwise. Our store pages collect each store’s own rules, with a link to the page each one comes from.

If you still use paper coupons, don’t bring one for an item you also have a digital coupon for unless you mean to use the paper one. At Publix and H-E-B the paper coupon wins, and the digital one stays on your account. That can be useful: the digital coupon is still there for next time. At Walgreens, a single-use coupon works once, digital or paper.

1. Clip early. Load your store’s digital coupons as soon as they appear. If your store caps how many you can hold at once (Kroger and Meijer do), clip the ones you’ll actually buy first.
2. Check the weekly ad. Look for items that are on sale and also have a coupon on your account. Those are your best buys.
3. Check the dates. Make sure the coupon is still good on the day you plan to shop.
4. Read the offer. Quantity, size and variety all matter.
5. Identify yourself at checkout. Card, app or phone number, whatever your store uses.
6. Check your receipt. If a coupon didn’t come off, customer service can usually sort it out.

Step 1 is the one that takes the time, and it’s the one OttoClipper does for you. It’s a Chrome extension, with a free plan, that clips the digital coupons on your store’s own website, at 100+ stores, so step 2 is just reading the ad. The store still applies its own rules at checkout.