March 13, 2010

Coupon Abbreviations

AY means All You magazine. This magazine is sold only at Walmart or by subscription. It is full of great coupons and has them all listed on one of the first pages. If you utilize the coupon look up Coupon Tom, you will see this abbreviation there also. 
BLINKIES means manufacturer coupons that are in little machines attached to the shelf in stores. The term blinkie refers to the flashing red light on the sides of some of the machines. Some stores are moving away from the ones with the lights. The new ones are a little harder to spot, so keep your eyes peeled!
BOGO means Buy One, Get One Free, either referring to a coupon or a sale. This is sometimes shown as B1G1. If it says B2G2 - you buy two and get two free etc.
BTFE means Box Tops for Education
BXGY means a coupon or sale which requires you to buy one item to get a different item free.
CATALINA means a coupon that will print from a machine at the register when you purchase items that "trigger" it. It can be for money off a specific item (either a store or manufacturer coupon) or for money off your next purchase (essentially coupon money!) Catalina Marketing is the company that makes & maintains these machines and that is how they get there name. I often shorten this to "CAT".
COUPONING I use this word a lot. Yes, I know it isn't really a word. Coupon is a noun, and the "ing" tries to turn it into a verb...blah...blah...When I use this word it means the act of using coupons. I sometimes refer to shopping as "going couponing". You probably will too!
GM means General Mills, once in a while they will put out a coupon insert in the Sunday paper for their products. It may also be used to refer to the company itself.
IP means Internet Printable, coupons you can print off the internet (legitimately of course!). I usually refer to them as printables.
IVC means Walgreen's Instant Value Coupon (these are found in the monthly coupon book near the front door with the sales fliers)
K means Kellogg's. They usually release a coupon insert in August for "back to school". May also refer to the company itself.
MFR or Mfr. means manufacturer i.e. mfr. coupon, mfr. discount etc.
MIR means mail in rebate. One of my favorites, you'll see this one a lot here!
OOP means out-of-pocket. What I've spent in "real" money after coupons etc. but before factoring in Catalinas received back.
OVERAGE This is a great word, music to a couponer's ears! This can occur when you are able to use a coupon that is more than the price of the product. The difference gets applied to the cost of the rest of your items. For example, If I buy something for $1.75 and I have a $2.00 coupon I may get .25 in overage. This is not a guarantee, or a right. A store is WELL within their rights to adjust the coupon down to the actual selling price. Be happy when you get it, be silent when you don't!
OYNO This one means on your next order. It means a coupon you can use like cash on your next transaction or shopping trip. These are most often part of Catalina Deals (more on those in a little bit).
PEELIES These are little "stickers" that are stuck to products and contain coupons. They are meant to be used for the products they are attached to. PLEASE DO NOT BE A PEELIE STEALER! If you purchase a product with a peelie on it but have a higher value coupon already, that is ok too. Simply keep the peelie for next time. It is NOT ok to take peelies off of products you are not purchasing.
P&G means Procter & Gamble. Generally I refer to this in terms of their coupon insert that comes out (usually) at the beginning of the month in the Sunday paper. This may also mean the company itself.
PP means participating products.
Q is short for coupon. I use this one a LOT!
ROLL another favorite word! This simply means using a Catalina (or Register Reward-RR from Walgreen's) to buy more Catalina or Register Reward triggering products.
RP means Red Plum coupon insert which is found in most Sunday papers.
RR means Register Rewards. These are a "catalina" coupon that print out only at Walgreen's and can be used like cash on your next order. As a general rule, RR's do NOT roll. That means if you buy a product, get a RR and use it to pay for the an identical item you will NOT get another one. We will go over this one again in more detail later.
SS means Smart Source coupon insert which is found in most Sunday papers. Sometimes you will receive two different Smart Source inserts in the same week. The one that is on top when you open your insert packet is referred to as SS1, the second will b referred to as SS2.
STACK or STACKING means to use more than one type of coupon to buy a single product i.e. a store coupon + a mfr. = stacking. NOTE: You can stack a mfr. and a store coupon together, you can not stack two mfr. or two store coupons together on one item. If this is used when referring to a Catalina it means you can do the cat deal more than once in a single transaction. For example if your store was having a Buy $25 in participating products, get $10.00 OYNO and the deal "stacks" you could purchase $50 in PP and get $20.00 ONYO. Some catalina deals stack and others don't. Never assume that yours will. If I know for sure that a deal stacks I will let you know.
TEARPADS means a coupon that you "tear off" a pad. These are often found near in-store displays. Don't be greedy, take a couple and leave some for others.
WYB means when you buy
YMMV means Your Mileage May Vary. This simply means that a deal may or may not work for you. Often used when discussing a deal that involves clearance items, or temporary price reductions etc. Also, refers to deals at stores which may have different coupon acceptance policies than yours. For example, if I find three Targets in my area that have an item on clearance, and I tell you how to get an even better deal using coupons, I may add that YMMV. Just means I can't guarantee the Target store where you shop will have the same item available at the same price.

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