Your Sunday Paper: Is It Worth It?

It depends on your location and whether or not you actually read the entire paper.

If you live in the middle of nowhere, and are only getting the paper for coupons and ads, it may not be worth the price (unless you are getting it delivered for $1 or less) I signed up to receive our local paper, The Kitsap Sun, for $1 for the weekend papers delivered for three months. This sounded like a great deal to me at first, since I wouldn't have to use any gas to get our paper and could plan out my shopping plan of attack from the comfort of my own home. Plus, we use newspaper in the winter for lighting the fireplace, so I could save it for then.

But after a few weeks I realized the coupon selection was much more limited than when we used to get the Seattle or Tacoma papers. Some weeks I was barely breaking even for the $1 with just one or two coupons that we could use. I was finding myself more and more relying on trading or buying people's time to clip coupons online.

So when I received notice that it was time to renew (at a higher non-promotional rate, at that) I decided it simply wasn't worth it. I could view the Rite Aid, Walgreens and Fred Meyer ads online. And since I was getting my coupons online, I might as well put the money for the paper towards that.

Today, when we went to our bank, I noticed that Fred Meyer already had the advance copy of the Seattle Sunday paper out! I flipped through it, and sure enough, there's the normal amount of coupons - at least 3 times more than what I was receiving in the Kitsap Sun. Tomorrow I will verify when my last Sunday paper arrives, but I'm pretty sure it's nowhere close. Even better, I'm getting the coupons and the ads a day early by purchasing it at Fred Meyer, so I can be at Rite Aid before all the FAR items are gone (my biggest pet peeve living in a smaller area is that stores are not very well stocked up for any sort of promo!)

Yes, I am using gas to get the paper on Saturday, but I figure I can start to do some errands on that day to combine a trip. (Plus, some weeks there may be coupons I can use at FM before the sale ends that Saturday!) The Sunday Seattle paper does cost $1.50 at FM, but if you bring your own bag it comes down to $1.45 - 45 cents more than having the Kitsap Sun delivered to us, but the extra coupons more than make up for the difference.