I have been receiving more and more emails from of you that on Sundays your local newspapers are omitting inserts.  For me, I’ve been very fortunate because my local Tampa Tribune has had every correct insert in it for at least the past 10 months.  I actually never used to purchase the Tribune.  When I first started couponing about 2.5 years ago, I always purchased the St Pete Times and it had the correct inserts.  I even had one paper delivered to my house each Sunday.  However, it seemed about a year into my couponing experience, the Times started omitting inserts here and there both in my delivered paper and in the papers I would purchase at the store.  I started checking out the Tribune and realizing that at the stores I shopped at for papers, the Tribune more often than not had the correct inserts. 

Many of you ask if I have the newspaper delivered to my house.  I don’t anymore.  I love the idea of getting papers delivered (yes, you can have one newspaper company deliver more than one paper to your home on Sundays!  ;)) but I am too much of a control freak.  I would prefer to go to my local store every Sunday before church and pick up my huge stack of papers.  I like doing this because, even though I’ve come to rely on the Tribune, I will still go through one of the papers in my stack to make sure it has the correct inserts in it.

Here is the thing about Sunday newspaper inserts.. every coupon insert company (SS, RP, GM, etc) in every newspaper regardless of what state you live in determines what markets they want to “advertise” in.  They will distribute more of their inserts in the areas they want to market in.  The other areas, they will withhold or just give a small portion of their inserts to the newspaper distributors.  I’ve done a lot of research into the insert problem and it seems that many newspapers will give delivery subscriptions the inserts first.  Then, if they have any inserts left, they will put the inserts into the papers sold by street vendors and stores. 

When I spoke a week ago at the Addicted to Saving 101 class in Bradenton, a common theme I heard from so many of you is that your local newspapers are not giving you ANY inserts.  There was one woman who would drive to another county just to make sure she was able to get the correct inserts each week.  I left the class really trying to think of ways we can all make sure that we get our inserts on a weekly basis..

Also – as a reminder – every Thursday and Saturday I let you know what coupon inserts to expect in Sunday’s papers.  That way, you know what to look for.  I use the website Sunday Coupon Preview which gives us a head’s up every week.

Below are some ideas I’ve come up with and I would LOVE for all of you to leave comments with your ideas as well since this seems to be a big problem.

1)  If you get your newspaper delivered on Sundays and it is missing an insert, contact your newspaper early on Sunday morning (before their cutoff time) and tell them what is missing.  If they omitted it by error, they should get the insert out to you.
2)  If your local newspapers are continually missing inserts, contact your newspaper company and complain.  They won’t be able to change anything because of one person’s complaints but if thousands of you complain, I know our voice will be heard.  (At the Bradenton class there were just under 350 people.. if all of you contacted your local papers, I’m thinking they might start to put pressure on the insert companies to provide your inserts.  Don’t you think?)
3)  Drive to different stores on Sundays.  I remember going to one store on a Sunday and finding that both the Times and Tribune were missing inserts.  I went to the store right next to it and the Tribune had the correct inserts.
4) When shopping for your inserts, always look to make sure at least one of the multiple papers you are purchasing has the correct inserts.  And, if you are really anal (like me), once you find a paper that has the correct inserts, scan through all of the multiple papers you are purchasing to make sure they all have the correct inserts!  I buy 12 papers a week (some for myself and some for a friend) and there is nothing that frustrates me more than getting home and realizing one of the 12 papers is missing papers!
4)  If you live near a big city, try going to the city to check out the papers.  Often big cities will get more inserts than small cities.
5)  Ask friends and family to save their inserts for you.  If they are not couponing (they should be though right? ;)) I am sure they would love to share their inserts with you!
6)  Considering purchasing full coupon inserts or even individual coupons online.  I have done this before and love it.  Always compare prices. 

Some of my favorites coupon clipping sites: 

• Ebay – you can either bid on coupons/inserts or you can pay a full price using their “Buy it Now” feature. 
• Coupons & Things by Dede – example pricing – two 3/6/11 SS Inserts cost $0.65 each.  Shipping is $2.73.
• The Coupon Clippers

7) What are your ideas?  Please comments with the tips that work for you and your thoughts!