For many years Cub Foods has accepted manufactuer coupons for up to 90 days past the expiration date. It's a nice service that Cub offers. I don't recall any other supermarkets with a similar policy, but I do hear from some of Cub's customers who occasionally tell me that X location only accepts expired coupons that are up to 60 days old or that X location no longer accepts expired coups. Usually that's just an untrained employee, not a real change. Keep in mind that the policy applies only to manufactuer coupons, not store coupons from Cub.

Another option for expired coupons is to give them to a military family. Coupons are accepted up to six months after expiration at military base commissaries or post exchanges.

If you don't know of a family in the military, you can also mail coupons directly to military bases around the world. Go to the Overseas Coupon Program site where addresses for nearly 20 bases around the world are listed.

Here are some guidelines for mailing coupons, according to Stan Brown at SavingsAngel.com:

Coupons must be clipped and sorted into food and non-food stacks. You can even separate out product categories if you want, such as baby products. Do not send full inserts. While the coupons do not need to be expired, try not to send any coupons that are more than two months expired. There is a lag time between when they actually arrive on base and are distributed. This work is handled by volunteers, so the easier we can make this for them, the more likely we are to create successful savings.

Please do not send:
• Coupons that are ripped or have vital coupon information trimmed off - such as the expiration date, barcode, or redemption address.
• Store coupons. If the coupon says, "redeemable only at Target", for example, the military family will not be able to use it.
• Coupons for regional products. This often includes products like milk, and regional produce growers.
• Food stamps
• Restaurant coupons

Please keep your stacks divided using different envelopes or zipper baggies. No rubber bands or paperclips.

An extra $100 per month saved for a military family can make a big difference in their budget during their time of service and sacrifice.

Note: Coupon "donations" are not tax deductible. If you have any other suggestions to make the military program run smoothly or have recent experience with Cub's policy, please comment.