You want to get in on the hot coupon action. You read stories like the one yesterday about the lady who bought 51 items for $45.56 using coupons and you think, damn, I want to go to there. The best deals are getting swapped among elite coupon freaks in online coupon forums where they trade the latest coupons, tips and tactics and refine their deal strategies. But penetrating these zones can seem daunting for the novice, especially when they speak in their own coded language. DND9? OOP? WYB? To help out, here’s a big glossary of common coupon terms and abbreviations to help get you started and not come off as such a newbie.

AFC: A Full Cup, a popular coupon website / forum
Blinkies: Coupons dispensed by small, red machines with a blinking light attached to shelves.
B1G1 (or B1GX): Buy One, Get One (or some other quantity) free. Also written as “BOGO”.
Catalina: A coupon dispensed at checkout from a special printer after your transaction is completed.
Coupon Binder: A binder kept by many couponers. It generally contains flexible plastic pages (the type used for baseball card collections) where coupons are stored by type. Other items in a binder might include weekly store circulars and supplements, a calculator, price book, and so forth.
CRT: Cash Register Tape. It’s your receipt, often required for mail-in rebates.
Dead: A coupon deal that has expired.
Deal: Refers to putting together a transaction in a certain way to maximize savings, or a special sale/event where coupon use can maximize savings.
DND/DNT: Coupons labeled “Do Not Double” or “Do Not Triple” at the top.
DND5: A coupon labeled with “Do Not Double” at the top but with a bar code beginning with the number 5. DND coupons with a 5 at the beginning of the bar code will still generally double or triple at most stores.
DND9: Same as DND5 but because the bar code begins with a 9, these coupons will not double or triple.
Doubles: Coupons where the face value is doubled up to a set amount by certain retailers (Harris Teeter, for example).
ECB: Extra Care Bucks. These coupons are specific to the chain drug store CVS and you must use their “Extra Care” loyalty card. They can be spent just like cash on most items (there are a few exemptions, like cigarettes). You earn ECBs in two ways: CVS will run deals on certain items, for example, buy two get $2 in ECBs, which are supposed to be spent on your next visit. You also earn quarterly ECBs, which are based on 2% of your out-of-pocket spending at the store.
Filler: A small item purchased to reach a minimum purchase amount necessary to get a deal or if your total out-of-pocket cost is less than zero (most stores will not allow you to have a negative total).
GDA: Good Deal Alert. This is a heads-up from other couponers that there is an item or sale/event at a particular retailer where your out-of-pocket cost will be extremely low or possibly, zero.
Frees: Items that will be completely free after the coupon is deducted from the cost or on-sale price.
Hang Tag: A coupon hanging around the neck of a bottle (salad dressing, etc).
HCW: Hot Coupon World, a popular coupon website / forum
IP: Internet Printable coupons.
MIR: Mail-In Rebate.
OOP: Out-of-Pocket. Your cost after coupons, catalinas, ECBs, etc.
OOS: Out of Stock.
Overage: This occurs if your coupon value exceeds the item price. Commonly happens when a store runs a sale and the shopper uses a coupon. Overage may or may not be applied to the remaining sales total, depending on the store. For example: CVS runs a sale on M&Ms for $.49 and the shopper has a $.55 coupon; the coupon would generate $.06 overage, which may or may not be applied to any remaining balance to be paid.
OYNO: On Your Next Order. A coupon (most usually a catalina) that gives you a certain amount off your next order or transaction. You generally get these after meeting some sort of requirement, like buying a certain number of products or spending a certain amount of money.
Peelie: A coupon that is adhered to a product and that must be peeled off to use.
Price Book: A notebook kept by many couponers documenting weekly or monthly prices of items they purchase regularly and what the best price is that they’ve found on it. This enables the couponer to track whether the price is going up or down, and what savings they’re seeing if a store puts the item on sale.
Rolling: Rolling savings generated from one transaction into another; for example, using a $3 OYNO catalina from your first transaction to pay for part of a second transaction.
RP: Red Plum coupons that come in the Sunday newspaper, or that can be printed online.
RR: Register Reward. These are specific to national drug chain, Walgreens. Like ECBs, they can be spent just like cash on most items (with the same exemptions) but unlike ECBs, you Walgreen’s doesn’t have a loyalty card that you must use to obtain these. You earn these from purchases only and there are no quarterly RRs.
SS: Smart Source coupons that come in the Sunday newspaper, or that can be printed online.
Stacking: Using both a store coupon and a manufacturer’s coupon on one item.
Stockpiling: Buying up multiple items or large quantities and storing them for future use.
Super-Doubles or SD: Special coupon events where a retailer will double coupons with high face values. For example, if a retailer normally doubles coupons up to $.75, during SDs, they may take double coupons with face values of up to $1.50 instead.
Tearpad: An in-store display with coupons that can be torn off.
Triples: Special coupon events where a retailer will triple the face value of a coupon up to a certain limit.
V: Valassis coupons that come in the Sunday newspaper.
Wine Tag: A coupon hanging around the neck of a wine bottle.
WYB: When You Buy. An action triggered after you meet a certain threshold. For example, “Get 2 bottles free when you buy 3.”

(Big thanks to Lady Siren for these!)

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