I get this question all the time and the answer is simple: It Depends!
There have been weeks where I have bought just 1 copy of the newspaper, and there was 1 week where I bought 22 copies of the newspaper! (and plenty of weeks in between where I bought anywhere from 3-10 issues). So how do you know how many copies to buy each week?
As a general rule, I like to think that 1 copy per family member should be your minimum. If you have 5 members in your family, you should be getting 5 copies of the paper each week.
HOWEVER, this rule is not set in stone. There are some weeks where the coupons are pretty yucky, and according to the Coupon Insert Schedule, some weeks where there will be no coupons. How do you find a healthy balance, not buy more newspapers than you need, but not miss the good coupons?
Consider a Subscription: I have 3 subscriptions to the Philadelphia Inquirer...so every week they throw 3 papers on my driveway. This gives me a good starting point and most major newspapers will have a deal every few months where you can get the Sunday paper at a deeply discounted rate. Keep looking for those deals and renew your subscription at the discounted rate whenever possible.
Check out the Sunday Coupon listings: updated by Thursday morning each week, this is a complete listing of the coupons that will be in the Sunday newspapers. Check out the coupons, see which ones you like and make your decision based on that!
Never miss my Coupon Insert Preview posts: every Saturday morning, I post my Coupon Insert preview post, where I detail what I think are the best coupons this week. I let you know how many newspapers that I will be buying that week. I've been told and emailed that many of my readers find this an invaluable tool and that I am rarely wrong!
How many copies of the newspaper do you buy each week? How do you decide how many to buy?
Looking for more Extreme Couponing tips? Make sure that you check out all the posts in my Coupon 101 and Coupon Ethics sections!
Connie Smith Greene via Facebook
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Sara Sheetz via Facebook
last week i bought 4, just depends on what kind of coupons are in the tacoma news tribune around here, we can also get the seattle times which has different coupons than the TNT usually! and I can ge them both for a $1 a piece where i live
Diane Kinney
I only get one copy of my local paper since it carries so few coupons. I was driving to the local Sheetz to get a Baltimore Sun as it was the only place to carry a newspaper with all the coupons. After learning that all the papers are gone before 8AM on weeks with good coupons, I have given up trying to get more coupons via the newspaper. I wish I had access to more stores and more coupons, but living in WV limits what we can get.
Ruth
You can order coupons on ebay and they prices are great. For example, 20 coupons of .75 off colgate toothpaste will cost you around 2.50 or less and most of the times shipping is free. There are only a few coupons that you can use in the coupon insert so this is a good way to buy only the coupons you use and at a great price. The deals are posted on these sites at least 3-4 days before the sales start so you can check the coupons you need and buy them. I just bought 40 Pantene coupons on eBay for 7.00 and there has been a great clearance on Pantene products at Acme, CVS, etc.
Ruth
eBay is also a good way of getting regional coupons.
Pamela Provonche via Facebook
I wish there were a place locally that actually had the coupons in the papers when they put them out. I've complained but it hasn't done anything
Laura C
I almost always buy 6 papers for my family of 5 - we have a paper from a nearby city that doesn't do a Sunday edition so they put the coupons in the Saturday paper which is only 50cents, so for $3 and a drive to 7-11, I get plenty of coupons. I find 6 works for me because that is a manageable number of items to purchase for stocking up, and for those stores that limit 3 like coupons, I have enough for two outings.
Kimberly O
You can buy whole uncut coupon inserts from the Sunday papers at http://www.bulkcouponinserts.com/.
1/22 Red Plum Coupon Inserts $.40 each
1/22 Smart Source Coupon Inserts $.10 Each
1/15 Smart Source Coupon Inserts $.10 each
1/8 Red Plum Coupon Inserts $.35 each
1/8 Smart Source #2 New Year, New You $.15 each
Shipping Cost
1-6 inserts 2.95
7-30 inserts 4.95
31-100 inserts 10.95
101-250 inserts 14.95
250 and up please contact me for a price