When you are getting started couponing, it can be hard to know how many papers to purchase. I’ve always suggested purchasing at least 4 papers. This is because when items go on sale buy one, get one free you will have enough coupons to get 2 deals.
I have also heard people suggest that you get one paper per person in your household plus an extra paper. So if you have 4 family members, you would buy 5 papers.
How many do you purchase and why?
If you are new to Couponing, you might want to take a moment to read more in my Getting Started Couponing series.
{ 88 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t buy papers anymore. I just buy the coupons I will use from mycouponhunter.com. I spend about $3-4 a week instead of the $6 I was having to spend on papers.
We subscribe to our Sunday paper. We do our grocery trip on Sunday mornings so I like being able to clip a coupon if it’s needed right away for the day’s trip. Then if there are coupons I want more of I pick up an extra paper at our local Kum & Go gas station. They offer free papers with a fuel purchase of $15 or more, so at the most I get 2 papers. Then I usually ask my mother-in-law to save her coupons for us for my 3rd set.
I wish ours still did that. It seems that deal comes and goes.
LOL Karen! Was that pun intended?
I have a paper guy who sells me whatever he doesn’t sell for 10.00. Its usually between 15-25 papers. it works out well because if i were to buy them it would be 1.75 each!
wow, that’s awesome!!! I wish I could find someone to do that for me!
Wow! Me too! I better find someone with a paper route and make friends ;)
We get two Sunday papers delivered to the house–one under my name and one under hubby’s name. I bought the 2nd subscription on Groupon for a steal!
Normally I buy atleast 2 and then my mom usually buys 2, since she is not quite as into couponing and doesn’t need the baby items, like diaper and wipes coupons, she always gives me her extras, so it works out well for both of us. So it cost me $1 a Sunday paper at Dollar General x2, so $2 each week for papers, not too bad.
I get 4 papers now.I also have someone who collects all her neighbors unused q’s.So usually 6-8 papers worth.
i only buy two a week because i cant dont want to part with more then $2 for the paper for something im soupoused to be doing to save money. (couponing) But between all the online pritable coupons and my two papers a week i make out good. I have only been couponing a couple months and i have chest that always has stuff in it. Its not overflowing but its good for me for now its big enough to allow me not to have to spend money on soaps,diapers, tp ect as well as allows me to share with my friends and family. And thats enough for me for right now. good luck :)
i buy two, my mother-in-law gives me her inserts and we do coupon swaps at church. I usually end up with 4-6 sets.
We subscribe to the Sunday paper. I check the coupons before leaving for church and if there are good ones I pick up an extra copy. I rarely get more than two total.
I get a subscription to my local paper which only has a few coupons (cheaper). My husband occasionally will surprise me with a paper (imagine I used to be so high maitenance!). I really only like to buy coupons I know I will use.
we have home delivery and I check out the coupons first.. Ussually buy 2 more but sometimes 4
There are 3 of us so I buy 3 papers! :0)
It depends. I get one paper delivered, and then if the coupons are pretty decent I will go to teh dollar store and buy a few more copies . If they aren’t that good, I just use a coupon clipping service to get the coupons I need. This doesn’t always work, as they are sometimes sold out of what I want/need, but my paper usually doesn’t have what I want anyway. (gotta love living in the middle of nowhere!)
I subscribe to the Sunday paper, so thats one. I also purchase a minimum of 6. We are a family of 7, so my theory is, if I had to buy toothbrushes for everyone in my family, I would need 7 coupons!!! But…if it’s a good coupon week, I’ll grab at least 3 additional.
I buy 4 papers per week. I do buy more on the super coupon weeks.
I know people that buy 10-15 papers, but I’ve thrown too many coupons away before a good deal came around to be able to justify that kind of cost. I get one with our subscription, and usually buy 3 more if there are at least 2 inserts. Then, my parents sometimes give me there inserts. That seems enough for my family of 4 and ensures I never clear the shelves for a coupon deal.
I only purchase 1. I have a daily subscription and got it on discount plus a $25 gc to Kroger and a discount card to local restaurants when I got it. A couple weeks ago, I found out who my carrier was and called him directly. He told me that he just tossed out the extras, now on Monday mornings at the front door is whatever he has left! This week it was 9 extra sets of ads, the week before 6.
I usually buy 6, but I am shopping for my family of 5 and I also ‘coupon’ and shop for my mom and dad as well. So I am shopping to feed 7 people. If there are really good coupons that will go with a current or upcoming sale I will order some more of specific coupons from a clipper or ask around and see if anyone still has their inserts.
I buy 2 papers per week, unless there is the P&G brandsaver and then I buy 4 because the 2 I normally buy don’t carry the brandsaver. A woman at my mother’s work also gives me her umwanted coupons.
About 4 months ago, I started to sell the local Sunday paper out of our Flea Market booth. I have the $$ advantage for the lower price, and I can usually get extra coupons. I will however, purchase at least 6. But, again, it depends. I will not purchase any if there aren’t any coupon inserts.
Usually 2. If it’s good,4. Sometimes 3 when hubby buys me one. I like even numbers though. I buy for 6 people but don’t always find good coupons. I really don’t need anymore toothpaste, brushes, depderant, etc!
I have home delivery for 1 and my mom gives me her inserts each week too. If there is a really good deal, sometimes I’ll go to Walgreens and buy 2 more. Always need even numbers though since I am in FL where Publix has true BOGO so I get a lot of good deals when I have coupons for both BOGO items.
I try to buy 2 each week!
I buy one on Saturday night, after I go thru it I decide if it is worth it to get more. Totally depends on the coupons.
I subscribe to the Sunday paper and I also take my dad’s coupons form his paper because he doesn’t really use them. I am planning on trying out the coupon services online soon!
Most weeks I get the extra inserts late sunday night or technically monday morning from a friend that has a paper route. But if she has none left then I go to the store and buy 2 coppies of the paper. Which I have only had to do 3 or 4 times in a year and a half. Last week I ended up with 24 copies of the inserts Free.
I subscribe to the Sunday paper, so it’s ony 1 insert & sometimes it’s hard to calculate the deal.
I usually buy 3 ,one for each different county we live in/near because they have different ones inside. If they are really good I will go back to get another one I want the most. Then sometime that week I will go to the library that has coupon exchange which helps my supply greatly! with that and coupons off the internet I am usually stocked pretty well! :)
I get one copy delivered at home on Sunday. I will buy anywhere from one to three extras if I determine it’s a good week for coupons. I also usually get two other sets from friends/family.
I live in Northeast Georgia and the local paper has cruddy coupons. Their RP usually only has ads for commemorative coin sets and fuzzy slippers. The Atlanta Journal/Constitution has great coupons but they aren’t sold in my area. I have to drive 30 miles to get to a store that sells them! I rarely buy papers. If I happen to be “in town,” I will buy the double-pack of the early edition paper at a convenience store on Sunday afternoon for $3. I usually do very well with printables. I’ve never used a coupon clipping service – yet. I read on another blog where someone took her free, extra (unwanted) items to work and set them out for her co-workers but asked that they give her their unwanted coupon inserts in return. I’m considering trying that! Seems like a good idea!
I usually buy one local and one big city paper. Evaluate the coupons then go back for more. The local paper is .99 at my Walgreens and the big city paper is $2. So if the coupons are the same… occaisionaly they are I want more of the local paper at the cheaper price. If the big city paper has lots of good big $$ coupons on things we always use I will spend more and by more of it.
Ed note:
The P& G coupon stuffer is usually on the first Sunday of the month (occasionally the last).
Check out the places locally that sell papers for less than face value.. ie dollar store, Walgreens and Walmart are the ones I know of.
I buy 10-12. We have seven kids and my mom living here so we get one per person unless there are great coupons that week.
I have a subscription, one sunday paper per week. It’s just my husband and I and we live in a 2 bedroom apartment, and will soon downsize to a one bedroom. That doesn’t leave a lot of room for a stock pile, so I have three shelves in our laundry room dedicated to toiletries and any extra space I can find in our kitchen. We usually have MORE than enough coupons and get our stockpile built up enough that we have to try to eat things before they expire.
I buy one and then order coupons I want more of. There is a place in my city to order from so it only takes me a day to get the coupons.
I have subscription to our paper. Then my mom gives me her coupons. I use coupon hunter for any extras for a specific deal.
We buy 2 of each, since there are 2 “major” newspapers in our area. Our local Wal-Mart sells them for half-price ($0.50-$0.75, depending on if the paper is running a special or not) after Sunday, and always has plenty of stock through at least Wednesday. The different papers often have different coupons, and 2 of each ensures my Publix BOGO deals will always be covered…although I hate the odd paper that is randomly missing a particular coupon insert!!
I usually buy 2 papers at least, but if it’s a week with Pampers coupons I will buy at least 4. It really just depends on the coupons in the paper how many I buy.
I only buy one paper, but I also get the coupons from my mother-in-law’s paper. And most of the inserts are also found in some of the local free papers, like the Jewish Journal, so I pick those up regularly as well and get more inserts without paying for ore papers.
I subscribe to 4 home delivery papers. Here when you buy the local paper from the store it doesn’t carry all of the inserts. They only have all of the inserts with home delivery so I feel like I’m getting cheated if I have to go buy a paper at the store and it only comes with 1 insert but my home delivery came with 3. :)
I buy two papers on Saturday when I can get the early Sunday edition for super cheap. I then get my moms coupons from her Sunday paper she has delivered and my sister brings me the coupons from her office.
I get 4 papers a week. If they are really good then I will get 6 instead, however if there is only 1 insert I usually order them online to save some money. I only get papers in even numbers so I the coupons match up with all the bogo sales.
Was just getting one delivered but called and they will reduce the price for up to 4 papers, so getting 4 papers for basically the price of 1 if I went and bought it at the store.
I used to buy 3 papers a week & would dumpster dive occassionally for more coupons. Now I buy my coupons from a girl who clips for me. I get 2 sets & any additionals I want & they’re all clipped for me. I love it!
I buy six each week and if there is something I absolutely want more of I order from a coupon service or buy more papers depending on how many good coupons were in there. Some of the clipping services I’ve tried take too long to get them out so I would love to see who everyone thinks are good.
I have one delivered, usually buy two more, and my mom mails me her coupons. Today I went dumpster diving and got 5 more newspapers worth along with about a dozen kids books that someone had thrown away!
We have 1 Sunday paper delivered to the house. I also get any coupons that come in my mother in laws mail. My son (frugal as can be at 17) brings home from school a bunch of inserts leftover from his teachers and bus-aides.
Four. I get them for $1 each.
I now have a subsc. thanks to dh -I’ve learned to listen to the bloggers and pick up extra papers when they note coupons on things I know I will buy-I have purchased three papers + my subsc. before and loved the bogo deals with them–Thanks for the tips
No matter what the coupons are like, I buy a minimum of 2 Sunday papers. If the inserts have some really great coupons, I’ll buy anywhere from 2-8 extras…but no matter what I always buy in quantities of 2. That’s so that I can take advantage of the BOGO deals properly (by having 2 coupons for each BOGO deal)
I get 6 papers. 5 of them are delivered to me and 1 is my grandmother’s :)
The rule that I was taught is one for each person in your family but an even number. Since there are 5 of us in the family – I get 6 papers.
I buy 4. Thanks, I didn’t know about couponhunter.com. Going to check it out before I buy anymore!
I have been getting only one but now I might get 4.
I just went down from 6 to 4. I have a family of 5 and 6 was just too much and too many for what we could use in our stockpile. 4 seems to be working out a lot better and I still have a VERY full food storage room!
I usually buy a double editon for $3.00. For our household of 2 that is plenty!
i usually buy 4 papers and look online for other coupons
We are a family of 6 and I buy 4 newspapers. Our stores run out of papers pretty quick so i’m thinking of getting 4 subscriptions. There have been times that i have gone to 4 stores before i find one with any papers left. :(
I get 1 paper, then buy any extra coupons I might need online. Most of the time, since it’s just my husband and myself, we only need 1 paper.
I have the sunday paper delivered to my house…but my parents save the coupon inserts out of theirs and I pick up my in law’s sometimes too.
I have 10 papers delivered each Sunday. I also get 2-3 inserts from co-workers also. Then the following weekend I dumpster dive (well my 17 yr old does) and we end up with more coupons. We were able to get 135 inserts from the 1/2 papers this past Sunday 1/9! I share the coupons with friends and family so they are able to be used.
I just have 1 delivered. I’ve thought about going and buying more if there are coupons I like, but never done it. It always seems like I’m not interested in the coupons that are there or they’re for things I’m not buying. (Maybe because I went coupon crazy when I started a year ago and have a years supply of toothpaste!)
I buy four papers because the limit at my store for sales and like coupons is four. I know I will hardly ever get to the store more than once in the sale week.
I usually pick up at least 3/wk. But it depends on the week. When there are really good coupons in the inserts, I get more.
I don’t buy any papers. I am a nurse at a nursing home and my residents save their coupons for me. Every week I come home with anywhere from 4-8 sets of coupons for free!
I have the Sunday paper delivered. I just get one copy. The coupons generally aren’t that great and i don’t use enough of those to warrant extra delivery. If i want another after i know what is in it, i just go to Wegmans and get however many i want. My son also helps his grandpa on a paper route delivering to stores on Saturdays and if there are extra, he’ll snag some for me. My mother in law usually saves hers for me too when she can. I wish i got the coupons some of you all get. Ours stink. You gotta buy two or three to save a buck.
It depends on what coupons are out there, some weeks I only buy one paper (my mom gets a paper and gives me coupons so I always get 2 papers) other weeks- like this one! I will buy a lot of papers this week I bought 17. Our local paper carries all the inserts and only cost $1 for the sunday edition. Since this week had the big $5 Maalox and $6/2 Motrin/Tylenol coupons I figure I was making a lot of money with each paper I bought!
We are a family of 7, and I started about buying 8 per week. I now buy 4-6, depending on what’s in the coupons. PG weeks I always buy 6 because I find that I always get lots of freebies out of those. I also like to buy 6 on GM weeks, a local store will run great cereal deals and it often results in cereal for about a quarter a box.
I’m buying from the dollar store, so mine are a buck, BUT I was just explaining to hubs why I needed a subscription. Our newspaper will deliver as many as we want to the house and they have a sale right now that allows me to get only Sunday and holidays for 20/year. Big Savings over my current 4-6 per week. :) Maybe I’ll track down my delivery person once we get going and get the leftovers :)
We get our regional paper delivered daily (including Sunday’s) for about a $1 a week and the MIL gives us the coupons she doesn’t use. If we find a week with exceptional coupon items we’ll ask more of our family or friends or get a deal with the grocery store.
I only buy one paper on Sunday’s and my neighbor gives me their coupons. This seems to work for us here in Florida since we don’t have double coupons and our B1G1 is really B1G1.
I buy three. Our grocery store doubles up to $1.00 coupons and you can only use three of the same coupon in a shopping trip.
I buy 2 Florida Todays and 2 Orlando Sentinals. They usually have diff coupons so that way I get a lil variety and at least 2 of each coupon for my Publix BOGOs. Although last week there weren’t any in one newspaper and one of the others had the coupons left out! So I wasn’t very happy about that & I definitely plan to always check & make sure the coupons are there and are worth the price before buying the newspapers now.
I currenty have 3 delivered to the house and am looking at increasing it to 6. I live in an area that our local paper is $2.00 for the sunday paper only but I am close enough to Los Angeles that I can get the LA Times for 19 cents a copy delivered!! I found an online coupon for the paper to be delivered at under $10.00 a year. I cant beat that anywhere
We are a family of six and I buy 2 sets of inserts each week. That usually seems to be plenty. Every once in a while there might be a coupon I wish I had some extra of but it doesn’t happen often enough to make me buy more papers. If there are several coupons I need extra of I can always order from a clipping service.
We had a great deal for 6 months of home delivery – so I get one at home. They deliver the coupon section on Saturday so I can see if it’s worthwhile to get more. Usually I get four (in addition to the one at home) because the stores in my area have limits of 4 or 5 like coupons. It also has the added bonus that each of my kids gets their OWN comics section :-)
I’ve started buying 4 “double copies” from Kroger – it’s a dollar extra for the 2nd paper, so I wind up paying $12 for 8 papers. Not great, but it’s already made me money off the deals.
I refuse to pay for coupons…kinda defeats the purpose. I get all the sunday inserts I can handle from the local animal shelter. They get lots of donated newspapers for the animals and they don’t use the inserts.
I went to a coupon class at the newspaper and for everyone in the class they offerred $1 for a SUNDAY newspaper. It was a great deal! So we ordered 4 newspapers for a year. So now I don’t have to worry about buying papers for a year.
I buy 19 papers at 50 cents each and have one delivered. My stockpill is very big and I have been couponing for 2 months. My extended family shops here every weekend and I send a box to Afganastan every week so I need that many papery.
wow! I haven’t found a deal less than $1 a paper. Although I did find a website where it was $20 for 10 copies of the weeks inserts.
I always get at least 2 papers for the first Sunday of every month and then ask my neighbors if they aren’t using their coupons if I can have them. And if I really want more I go to either Giant Eagle or Acme the following Monday and they have their left overSunday papers for 75 cents each. But the first Sunday paper is usually the best- it has more inserts and that is when the p&G usually comes out too.
I buy 4. I live in an area that I have the pick of 4 newspapers. I buy 4 with the best coupons. The nice guy now knows me by name. Every time he asks me which papers have the best, also he asks me tips to tell his wife.
When I find excellent coupons I go couponthingsbydede.com. I buy the extra ones that I need. They are usually here in 2 to 3 days.
I don’t do couponing but, i have seen in the past lots of coupons in the local recycle centers. and the best part is they are free. go there on a sunday or wed after the deliveries have been made and they just toss what they didn’t use….now i’m talking about the big dumpster like centers that they have in certain parking lots or the rec center. each city has a different site that you can use.
I usually do 10-12 papers, but I share coupons with my family. I found that I can preview what items will be in the inserts through http://www.sundaycouponpreview.com
This site emails at least twice a week on upcoming items. If they look good, then I buy my 10, and if not I buy less about 5. This site also gives the schedule of what coupon inserts are available through out the year.
I always wonder about this. I try to buy 2 papers. I also know I can get coupons online now from SmartSource. Sometimes, the spanish version of my paper is available for no charge, and they have coupons in them! That is a big money saver! Thanks for the tip!
We usually buy 3 becuase our stores around here still double up to 3 like coupons. However we also get the inserts from my grandma’s friend who owns a party store up North. Whatever she doesn’t sell she gives us the inserts. We also coupon swap with co workers and friends so sometimes we end up with 3 of a coupon adn sometimes we literally end up with 20 of one coupon.