Because I knew that there would be four inserts today, I thought it might be a good day for an experiment. I bought my usual — two copies of the Columbus Disptatch — and added one copy of our local paper. I went through the inserts page by page and compared the quantity and value of the coupons. I was pretty surprised at what I found.
I’ll give you the results insert by insert:
SmartSource Insert #1:
Local Value: $11.60
Columbus Value: $39.55
SmartSource Insert #2:
Local Value: $30.09
Columbus Value: $151.70 (plus Chuck E. Cheese’s coupons on the back)
I didn’t add up the RedPlum values, because the front covers gave them away.
Local Cover: Over $50 Savings Inside
Columbus Cover: Over $65 Savings Inside
P&G Brand Saver – Same for both papers
Since I did spend an extra $1.25 on my newspapers this week, I’m happy to report that I found a $10 pharmacy gift card coupon on the front of our local Kmart ad. It was for new or transferred prescriptions, and I can use it at CVS if any of us have prescriptions before June 6. So, that might help me recover my $1.25. I also found two Lowe’s project starter coupons ($10 off $50 and $25 off $250). We may use the $10 one and pass the $25 one to my parents.
Some people think I’m crazy for spending $4.50 a week on two Columbus papers when I could get two local papers for $2.50. However, this week’s experiment showed me that I’m getting coupons worth $164.56 more by spending an extra $2.00. Odds are good that I’m going to use at least some of them! In fact, as I glanced through the Columbus inserts I found some great coupons that weren’t even in our local paper. I know I’ll be saving more than the $2.00 extra that I spend each week. This small town girl is sticking with the big city newspapers from now on!
