Extreme Couponing Strategy #21 – Use Overage
One of the things I mention often are 2 terms that are very specific to Extreme Couponing. The terms “Money Maker” and “Overage” are often confused because while they are similar they are also different in nature.
A Money Maker is typically something where you Get More in Return than you paid. You “Made Money” on the transaction. Typically this term is used when you’re referring to rewards items. If you have an item producing a $7 reward and you paid $5 out of pocket and got $7 to spend on your next transaction you “Made $2”.
Overage is excess or surplus within the same transaction. This typically occurs when the value of a coupon (or the value of stacked coupons) exceeds the purchase price of an item. In most cases when a coupon is larger than the price of the item you get “Overage” This amount is applied to other items in your transaction. It is important to know the difference between a deal that’s a money maker and one that produces overage because you often need additional items in your transaction when overage occurs in order to absorb the additional savings.
Here’s an Example of an item that gives you overage:
Dial NutriSkin Lotion Costs $1.99
You have a $1 Coupon and there is a $2 Store Coupon on the same item.
The Item Costs $1.99 and you have $3 in savings
That gives you $1.01 in Overage ($3-$1.99=$1.01)
The $1.01 is applied to other items in your transaction
Cash Back and Overage
Most stores will not give you Cash Back on items that produce overage. They either require that the overage applies to other items in your cart or that the coupons be adjusted down to eliminate overage. It is important to make sure you are checking your coupon policy frequently because this is a topic that is changing frequently at most stores so while Walmart (For example) allows overage right now and will give you cash back this might not be the case 6 months from now.
Paying careful attention to the wording of each post will help you determine the difference between these two terms and will also help you better plan your shopping trips. Both Money Making Deals and Overage are ways that you can save money on items you need by purchasing other items. You can use the additional savings from a Money Making Deal, or the Overage from a high value coupon to pick up items like Meat and Produce that rarely have coupons, it’s just one more way to take your savings to the extreme level!
Don’t Forget: You can Download the Stockpiling Price Sheet to see all of the estimated prices you could expect to pay for the basic items we buy each month. There is also a place to compare unit pricing. This is just a guide, but a great way to help you learn the prices of each item.
Make sure you check out our Saving Money Blog and also our How to Coupon Page for more tips, tricks and videos on saving money and using coupons.
View all the posts in the Extreme Couponing Strategies series.
