I get these emails all the time...why am I posting different coupons that the ones that you got in your weekly circular?
The answer? Coupons are regional. Companies have a limited advertising budget and want get their coupons in front of the greatest number of potential customers. Many of these choose to forgo the "smaller market" papers and stick to putting their coupons in the "Big City" newspapers. Some even decide to put different value coupons in different areas of the country.
The Walgreens Splenda deal that I posted earlier today is a perfect example of how the inserts can be different. Pictured above is the April 17, 2011 SmartSource insert from 2 different newspapers.
Why do I buy 2 different papers each week? Because The Philadelphia Inquirer, the largest paper in the area, no longer carries the RedPlum insert. If I want to get the RedPlum inserts, I am forced to buy a newspaper for one of the other local small cities.
The insert on the left is from the Pottstown Mercury. The insert on the right is from The Philadelphia Inquirer. Both inserts have the General Mills coupons, the Kraft Homestyle Mac & cheese coupons, the Oreo coupons and more.
HOWEVER, the one on the left (from the smaller paper), does NOT have the Listerine coupons, the Splenda coupons and many more of the coupons listed in my Coupon Insert Preview for the week.
We've had this discussion a few times in the comments of my weekly Coupon Insert Preview posts, because I have started mentioning how many copies of the Philadelphia Inquirer I will be buying in order to get "the good SmartSource" insert. A few of you have said that you were no longer going to worry about getting "the good SmartSource" any longer...and were just going to buy the one that contained the Redplum insert. Those that did that this week will NOT be able to take advantage of the Splenda Deal at Walgreens!
Some of of you have emailed me that the coupons in my Coupon Database don't match the ones that you got in your local paper. With so many possible variations each week of so many coupons, it is hard to ensure that every different value of coupon makes it in to the Coupon Database. Please feel free to use the "Suggest a Coupon" button (pictured below) when you find this happening. The coupon will be reviewed by the team at MyCouponDatabase and inserted in to the database. The more people who do this, the more we help each other!
Dee
You can look here http://www.pgeverydaysolutions.com/pgeds/brandsaver-coupons.jsp for papers that contain the P&G insert and here for Redplum but I can't find a website for Smartsource.
Dee
Dummy http://www.redplum.com/pages/viewarticle.aspx?id=3173. This time here's the link!
Linda C.
I live halfway between two smaller cities...Scranton, PA and Binghamton, NY. I buy both cities' papers each Sunday. The Scranton paper has MORE coupons, but the Binghamton paper has BETTER coupons. For example the Scranton paper may have a coupon that is $1.00/2 while the same coupon in the Binghamton paper is $1.00/1. Strange, isn't it?
Megan
that happens to me all the time as my family an hour away saves me their coupons!
Megan
My family lives in the philadelphia area and saves me her coupon inserts and I live in the Lancaster area and our coupons are different. What I do is visit this blog coupon database and another one that is slightly more local to me by using the 2 databases I get a pretty good read on where a coupon would be.
Julie W.
Doesn't it seem like it would save them a lot of money to just print out the same coupon for everyone...it would be nice if it was the high value coupons too. Just some wishful thinking. I love your coupon previews even though I get the Pittsburgh Post and the Center Daily Times (out of State College) because it gives me a good idea of what I may get it's like estimating in math, close enough to give you a good start (can you tell what grade my son is in?:) ).