How To Read Coupon Matchups: There is a multitude of places you can find matchups and free coupons online, such as coupon matchup sites. For instance, digital coupons from your mobile phones are a great way to get coupons for stacking and get your maximum savings.

One app that’s great for this is the coupons.com app. You can find it in Apple’s app store or Google Play, and all you need to sign up is your phone number.

Not only can you get digital savings from coupons.com own app, but you can also get new coupons or free manufacturer coupons for major retailers, like, General Mills, by going to their website.

All you need to sign up is some personal information like your email address. Then you can print coupons. The best part is they have the best printable coupons for any specific item at your local grocery stores.

You Might Also Like: How Does Target’s Cartwheel (Now Target Circle) App Work? Here’s A FREE Tutorial

A traditional newspaper is also a great way to get all your grocery store coupons. They are the largest source of manufacturer coupons and paper coupons from all your favorite giant corporations.

There is also many a Facebook page for couponing that makes for a great resource,

Before you go shopping, check the expiration date on your coupons to make sure they all have a valid date. You should also look up your retail stores’ coupon policies and their coupon acceptance policy to see if they take identical coupons or your free printable manufacturer coupons.

The last thing you want is to have complications at the time of purchase.

 Matchups are where people match a coupon, different mobile apps offers, electronic coupons, or other great deals and offers (or many at once that we call “Coupon Stacking”) to a sale or purchase price.

That makes it an even better deal! That’s what we call a matchup. Plus, there are even coupon matchups for free items.

As many places as there are to see matchups on different products such as toilet paper online, there are just as many different ways to write them.

Many of them are written with abbreviations used to help write them up faster. On average, when I used to do matchups on this site I might write up as many as 30 a day, and that’s not counting the lists of matchups we did for one local store.

The abbreviations help get the information out there faster. So, for you, the reader, it can be confusing if you don’t know the abbreviations or “Coupon Lingo” and don’t know how we think when writing the deals up.

Pretty much every day, I am asked a question about a coupon matchup. So, I thought I would take some time and share with you How To Read Coupon Matchups.

How To Read Coupon Matchups

(I no longer write deals on this site, and I wrote the following when I was writing them – but, the information holds true, still.)

Now, I have been couponing and writing deals for years, so I think nothing of something that might say:

Hunt’s Ketchup 8oz –  $1 w/in-ad coupon (Limit 3) wyb 3
-$0.50/1 Hunt’s Ketchup exc. trial/travel 3/23 SS (exp 4/16/14) – use three
FP ala 2/$1.50 or .50 each YMMV

Or

Crest Complete, 3D White or Pro-Health Toothpaste $2.99
– $2 ECB, limit 2
– $1 Crest BE toothpaste
– $1 Crest Sensi-Relief toothpaste
– .50, – $1/2, – $2/3 (PG 6/1)
– $3 off $15 mouth care CVS coupon machine
– .50 Coupons.com
FP ala FREE

But, to a new couponer or one that hasn’t been doing it very long – they often will ask me, “Where’s the coupon?”

We sometimes forget that some people are learning and don’t know all of the Coupon Lingo.

Let’s get started. On the first deal:

Hunt’s Ketchup 8oz –  $1 w/in-ad Q (Limit 3) wyb 3
-$0.50/1 Hunt’s Ketchup exc. trial/travel 3/23 SS (exp 4/16/14) – use three
FP ala 2/$1.50 or .50 each YMMV

Let’s break it down.

8 ounce bottles of Hunt’s Ketchup are on sale for $1 each but, only with the coupon that is in the store ad (w/in-ad Q)
you can only buy 3 at the discounted price (Limit 3)
and the discounted price is only $1 when you buy 3 (wyb 3)

That’s the first line.  On to the second:

Use the $0.50/1 coupon found in the Sunday newspaper Smart Source (SS) Coupon Booklet from the week March 23 (3/23) with an expiration date of 4/16/14 (exp 4/16/14)
this deal excludes the trial or travel sizes of the product (exc. trial/travel)
and make sure to use 3 of them for this deal to work (use 3)

Third line:

The final price (FP) once you follow all of the above directions will be as low as (ala) 2 for $1.04 or $0.52 each.  However Your Mileage May Vary (YMMV) because your store may not have it in their ad.

There are a lot of different abbreviations we use to make a deal shorter, and as time goes on, you’ll get the hang of it!

You can always refer to the Coupon Lingo page I have set up with the abbreviations. That will help you “interpret” the deal until you get used to it.

You Might Also Like: FREE Printable Coupon Grocery Shopping List

So, let’s try the second one, because everyone writes their deals differently:

Crest Complete, 3D White, or Pro-Health Toothpaste $2.99
– $2 ECB, limit 2
– $1 Crest BE toothpaste
– $1 Crest Sensi-Relief toothpaste
– .50, – $1/2, – $2/3 (PG 6/1)
– $3 off $15 mouth care CVS coupon machine
– .50 Coupons.com
FP ala free

So, this one is for a CVS coupon matchup.

There are 3 products that are all on sale for $2.99
When you purchase one of them you’ll get $2 back (at checkout) in Extra Care Bucks (ECB), you can only do the deal 2 times and get the $2 Extra Care Bucks twice (limit 2).

The coupons that have underlines mean they are printable and if you click on them you can print them out.

So, for this deal there are several coupons that will work – BUT NOT all together.

You choose which one you have and want to use.  The first 2 are $1 off 1 printable coupons for the products listed on those lines.

The next one is saying there is a coupon in the Proctor and Gamble Sunday Newspaper Coupon Booklet from the week of June 1st that you can use – but, it can be a $.50 off one or a $1 off 2, or a $2 off 3 – depending what came in your newspaper (coupons are regional and have differing amounts often).

The next coupon is one that you might have gotten already or may still be available at your CVS when you scan your CVS card at the Red Coupon Center at your store that prints out coupons.

The next one says that you can click and print a $.50 coupon that is on Coupons.com.

Finally, the final price is as low as free depending on which coupon you had and used.

One last deal – this is how I write mine, so you know for this site how they are done:

Hunt’s Ketchup, 8oz –  $1 w/in-ad Q When You Buy 3 Limit 3
use $0.50/1 Hunt’s Ketchup 3/23 SS (exp 4/16/14) (excludes trial/travel sizes)  – use three
Final:  $0.50

You should be able to read that one easily . (Hint: Q is short for coupon)

I hope that I was able to help you understand better and that I didn’t confuse you more. I know though that it will most definitely get easier as time goes on to read these matchups.

If you have more questions about couponing, be sure to read my Grocery Shop For Free info and get started!