A coupon is a ticket or code that gives you a discount on something you want to buy. When your family uses a coupon at the grocery store, you might save 50 cents on cereal or get two pizzas for the price of one. Restaurants offer coupons for free appetizers or desserts. Online stores provide coupon codes that you type in at checkout to reduce the price.

Coupons work because stores hope that getting a discount will encourage you to try their products or shop at their location instead of a competitor's. If you use a coupon to try a new brand of cookies and love them, you might keep buying them even without a coupon later.

Early coupons were literally cut from newspapers or magazines. Some people become serious couponers, carefully collecting and organizing dozens of coupons to save hundreds of dollars on their shopping trips. Buying something just because you have a coupon can waste money rather than save it.