about the Sunday newspaper

Now that I've posted a coupon preview, I should probably make a few comments about the newspapers available in Iowa.  Obviously, I am in the Cedar Rapids area, so my local newspaper is The Gazette.  Every Sunday, I buy one copy of The Gazette so that I can get all the local ads, and obviously one set of coupons.  That being said, I always get multiple copies of The Des Moines Register because there are more and better coupons available in it usually.  Some Sunday, buy a copy of each and sit down and compare them, you will be shocked at the difference between the 2 (Maybe not this particular Sunday, though since the P & G is always exactly the same with the exception of that The Gazette won't have Covergirl coupons in it).  The coupon previews I post are going to align much more closely with The Register than they will with the Gazette.

Where do I get my Des Moines Registers?  I have found them at Hy-Vee, Casey's, and Kum and Go here in town.  Every Kum and Go in the state of Iowa, does the following "deal" and I try to get as many free this way as possible:  When you put at least $15.00 worth of gas in your car, you get a free Des Moines Register.  Take 2 cars and pump in separate transactions, you'll get 2 free papers.  I know the Kum and Go in Marion has gotten pretty picky about going back and forth doing $15.00 transactions, so we usually just do one paper per car per day anymore. 

Why do I want multiple copies of the paper?  I've previously mentioned that the key to couponing is really stockpiling.  When an item goes on sale at a rock bottom price, you want to have enough of that item to get you through until the next time it hits its rock bottom price.  For this reason, you will want extra copies of that coupon.  On a Sunday where the coupons just don't thrill me at all, I may buy 2-4 copies.  On a good Sunday, I'll buy 4-8 copies.  On an exceptional Sunday (usually January coupons), I'll buy up to 12 copies of the paper.  Sometimes the coupons will be just so-so, but there are just one or 2 coupons that are really exciting.  On those weeks, I'll buy a smaller number of papers, but head over to ebay to obtain extra copies of that one or 2 coupons that I really want a lot of.  Depending how "HOT" those coupons are, you can typically get around 20 copies of those coupons, already clipped, for around the cost of one or 2 whole newspapers.

Now that I've said all that, I would not recommend that a person brand new to couponing run out on Sunday and buy 8 copies of the newspaper.  Early on, I'd keep it at 2-4 so you are not getting completely overwhelmed.  Build up to more newspapers as you get the hang of using coupons. 

When you are in the store getting your newspapers, take a peek inside to make sure the coupon inserts you are expecting are in there.  If you pay $2.00 for a newspaper that hasn't got any coupons in it, you've just wasted $2.00. 

And just one last note, there typically aren't coupon inserts in the Sunday paper if a major holiday falls during the week. If it is the first Sunday of the month, there may be a Proctor and Gamble insert.