What is overage?

This is a word we extreme couponers love. Overage.

Overage is when you have a coupon (or coupons) for an item that are worth more than the item itself. The overage is the extra leftover. Some stores will allow you to have that extra to use toward other items in your transaction, others will reduce the value of the coupon to the amount of the item.

Opinions vary on this topic, but in my humble opinion, you should get the full value of the coupon used, because the retailer will be reimbursed full value no matter how much the item purchased costs.

There are several ways to get overage. The best way is to find a store that has a very good coupon policy, like Publix. Because the more types of coupons a store accepts, the more opportunity there will be for overage.
1) An item is on sale and you have a coupon for a larger value than the item.
i.e. Cheerios are on sale for $1.00 a box. You have a coupon for $1.50 off one box. What happens to the $.50? Overage, if your store allows.
2) You have a manufacturer coupon and a store coupon for the same item. When used together at a store that allows stacking, it adds up to more than the value of the item.
i.e. Cheerios are $1.00. You have a manufacturer coupon for $1 off one and a store coupon for $.50 off one box. When used together, you have $.50 overage.

I believe that overage should be given for any items you purchase that the item is less than the coupon. Unless the coupon states "minimum purchase", then the manufacturer knows what they are doing when they put out their coupons. Sometimes I think people think the manufacturers are just oblivious. They're not. When they do not "exclude trial sizes" on their coupons, they understand people can use them on trial sizes. And often, that is their plan. They want you to try their product for free so that you will then like it so much, you'll purchase it full-size and full-price. They are not stupid!

As I said, opinions vary, but since this is my blog, and mine is the only one that really counts (heh) Overage should be given on all coupons that do not disallow it.

A good example is the $6 pork coupon. This coupon states that you can save $6 off of any "the other white meat" when you buy Kingsford Charcoal and another {participating item}. There is no minimum requirement. If this coupon stated "Save up to $6 on the other white meat, value of coupon not to exceed item value" then I would say absolutely not. No overage should be given. But it doesn't. So I am happy to use this coupon at a store which allows overage.

The thing we have to remember is that the average shopper does not use coupons. The occasional shopper uses a few coupons (probably saving up to ten dollars per transaction). It is a very rare shopper that does what we do. So at the end of the month, when the retailer turns in their coupons to the clearinghouse for reimbursement, there is plenty of pork sold to cover everyone. The $20+ of overage I am getting is way outweighed by the hundreds or thousands of dollars in pork sold by the retailer in the month.