Obtaining Coupons: Newspaper Inserts- Part 2

Finally a *real* blog post. I'm sure some of you are nearly falling over! I think I'm finally starting to feel a bit more caught up with life and it's a wonderful feeling. But then I look at my date book for the next two weeks and can almost feel overwhelmed again. Anyway...on to the subject at hand.

The last Obtaining Coupons post that I did was about getting coupons through newspaper inserts. Reader Beth shared in the comments how she gets some of her inserts for free and it got me thinking that I really should do another post dedicated to that- ways of getting the newspaper inserts for free.

Here are some ways that you may be able to get those lovely newspaper inserts without paying a dime:

1. Dig them out of your local recycling centers bin. Reader Beth and many other folks I know do this and often they have great success. True, some of the coupons might be expired, but not all of them will be!

I would love to be able to do this, but unfortunately, I have not been able to find any recycling center bins in this area. Seems strange, but it's true.

2. Ask friends and family to save their inserts for you. This is such a simple way to get more copies and more often than not if those people aren't already using the coupons they are more than glad to share them with you.

3. Ask your newspaper carrier for extras. While not all newspapers allow their carriers to do this, from what I understand many carriers have extra inserts that they can do whatever they want with. It never hurts to ask!

4. Post a request for them on Freecycle. First off, let me advise you to check and make sure that this is "legal" on your local Freecycle. Some areas are fine with it and others are not- ours being one that is not.

However, back before ours didn't allow posting anything related to coupons, I did this and have a dear lady across town that saves her inserts for me. I just drop by every couple of weeks and get them when I am in that area. She only uses 2 or so coupons from each week so I still have lots to use! It's been a wonderful way to get more coupons.

5. Check the newspaper at doctors offices, the library, motels etc. Several months ago when Vince and I went on a little weekend getaway we stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast. Sunday morning I was browsing through their stack of newspapers and magazines and found a treasure trove of all kinds of newspaper inserts! I could hardly believe my eyes. There was probably 2 months worth of inserts (and several for each week) just laying there with the papers. So as my husband laughed, I collected them all and tucked them away in our suitcase.

What creative ways do you use to get extra newspaper inserts free?

Did you miss the other posts in this series? If so, here are links to them- Contacting Companies, Websites, Coupon Trading Store Emails & Fliers, and Newspaper Inserts- Part 1.