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Q: I want to start saving money with coupons. I don’t buy a Sunday paper, but I think I’m going to start. I’ve noticed that serious couponers purchase more than one paper each week. Is that really cost effective? Will I really save enough money to make buying multiple papers worth it?
A: In a word: YES. I purchase anywhere from 3 to 6 papers each and every week. You may recall the coupon insert comparison that I wrote last month comparing coupons from two papers in my circulation area: The Philadelphia Inquirer (big city paper) and The Intelligencer (small town paper).
While I concluded that The Philadelphia Inquirer gets better SmartSource coupons many times, I still buy The Intelligencer most weeks because it comes with a Red Plum insert. I’m just not willing to give up that Red Plum for a few better coupons in the Inquirer. And the thought of buying several of each paper every week just makes my head spin.
So let’s see if you can actually make up for purchasing those papers each week.
Most coupons have an expiration date of roughly 2-3 months after they are published- some longer, some shorter. This gives you plenty of time to use up the coupons. When you purchase multiple copies of the paper, you will have multiple identical coupons. This is how you build a stockpile of different products. When you find an item on sale AND you can pair it with a coupon, you will be able to use your multiple coupons to buy multiple products.
I want to show you how just one trip to the store can pay for your papers.
Price I paid for 4 papers last Sunday @ The Dollar Tree: $4 ($1/each)
If you don’t have a dollar store that sells papers near you, you might pay upwards of $2/paper. YOU CAN STILL SAVE ENOUGH TO MAKE IT WORTH IT!
Yesterday I headed to Acme. Acme doubles coupons. I clipped the following coupons from last Sunday’s (4/18) SmartSource insert:
So in just one trip to the store here is a breakdown of the savings:
Sargento Cheese coupons: $.75/1 that double to $1.50/1 times 4= $6
Lawry’s Marinade coupons: $.50/1 that double to $1/1 times 4= $4
Total coupon savings: $10
Boom! Paid for the papers with a whopping $6 profit!
I was then able to add to my stockpile, paying just $1.96 for everything you see below!
Worth it?
In my opinion, YES!!!!!!
I buy 1 newspaper a week, get 1 from my mother-in-law and I get the rest from my paper recycling. I can get anywhere from 6-12 inserts in a week. It depends on how many times I go a week really.
That is really cool, Jess. I need to look into that around me and see if there is a center that has inserts!
It’s cheaper to get a Sunday only subscription to the paper…I get 52 weeks of Sunday paper for $40 delivered right to my door
That’s a great price!
Excellent post about the savings vs. cost of the paper! I’m lucky enough that I was able to get a 6 mos subscription with daily service & 5 Sunday papers for only $50. Definitely worth the money.
And somewhat off topic, can I just say that I am soooo jealous of people who live in areas that double coupons. There is only 1 store that does it here, they only do it a few times a month, & you MUST have the doubler coupons from the paper….& they only put 3 of those in the ad. If I lived in an area that routinely doubles (or, dare I say, triples!) , I’d probably do a backflip. :)
Ooooo! That’s so sad you don’t have stores that double!!! I stopped shopping at Giant b/c they limit the number of like coupons that they’ll double per transaction… that’s why I now tend to shop at Acme or Superfresh- they double unlimited!
MC my mom does the coupon shopping for us… some how she always has double coupons that she gives us, hmmm I wonder what she does…. LOL…. xo’s
LOL Sneaky GiGi!
We do a coupon exchange with my family and friends. It works out well because we all don’t use the same products (for the most part) so we end up with duplicates anyway. I will have to check out getting more then one paper though. I never thought about doing that!