"Where do I get MORE Coupon Inserts???"

Make Nice Like Good Little Boys and Girls

So besides buying an insert in a Newspaper at approximately $1.50 a pop and getting 1 insert up to 3 if it’s a good week. If you are anything like me, I LOVE the inserts but feel so bad about all the newspapers I’m left with. I hate wasting it so I give it to family but often times I’m still left with a lot of them.

How do you go about getting more inserts without all of the newspaper mess and possibly for FREE???

 A few ideas:

Visit your local recycling plant

I’ve heard that this place tends to be one of hidden treasures and by treasures I mean INSERT PANDAMONIUM lol Apparently you can find A LOT here. I haven’t tried this yet but I found my recycling center and it’s super close! :) So check them out! You might have one close by and you didn’t even know it! Make sure the plant recycles NEWSPAPERS.

Recycle Dumpster Dive

Ok, now I have yet to personally do this but I have read quite a few times that people have had a lot of luck. Some have even asked their neighbors while others just plough right in. They wait for trash day and have at it. Now there’s no need to do this if you don’t want to or you feel too weirded out by the idea of going head first into your neighbors recyclables or even a convenient store recycle bin. You COULD just ask your neighbors if they are not into couponing to kindly give the inserts to you. Often times you will find they are happy to!

Play nice with your mailman

Now my particular mailman apparently always leaves everyone just the front page of Red Plum and keeps the coupons (which irks me to no end and after much attempts to correct that issue it’s never been fixed). When I called the post office to see how I could go about getting an insert intact (I spent 2 years patiently awaiting and seeing that I NEVER got a full Redplum insert delivered), the same paperboy came back to give me a new one.

His version of "new" was writing my apartment number on it and ripping up, JUST the first page again, and sticking it into my mail slot. Which bothered the bejesus outta me even more… but mostly for the fact it was only the first page again!

COME ON THE FIRST PAGE AGAIN?!!! Couldn’t you at least have brought the whole thing and ripped that up so I could see you actually DELIVER WHOLE INSERTS! GEEZ! lol  Glad to see people doing their jobs lololol He’s lucky I work when I get mail, because I would have gladly waited outside of my steps to see if he would give me the front page again lol.

(Two people probably fighting over inserts as the Paperboy passes lol)

I’m not that crazy to fight for ONE insert but, mail men: if you see a tenant really does want theirs give that person THEIR MAIL. So SOME newspaper guys are obviously already helping someone else out (which is plain rude to steal from others and then be a complete jerk about bringing a new insert the next day)

BUT there are GOOD and HONEST mailmen that have a ton of LEFT overs that aren’t for a particular set of houses on his route. My mother has a stellar relationship at her job with a mailman there so she posed the question about left over inserts he has at the end of his route and he says they don’t do anything with it. So my mother asked if he could bring them to us. He asked us if we needed a set amount. The answer “All the ones you can spare!” Guess what? The mailman has agreed that he will bring all of his left over inserts to us! Costing us NOTHING. If this also happens to you consider making him or her a nice thank you box every month or so with a few items from your coupon bounty! They’ll appreciate it tremendously and you will continue to maintain a nice relationship of give and take! Both of you win :)  So on the up and up, God blessed me with getting inserts other ways without dealing with a rude mail man and in the end I’m going to make out better than just ONE insert - I WIN :)

Convenience Stores

I heard some convenience stores will also give them to you for free after midnight. It doesn’t hurt to ask! If they do agree to let you have them, every once in a while give them a couple of your coupon bounty items as a thank you!

Buy Newspapers

Worse comes to worse newspapers are still a good way to ENSURE you get inserts just check before you buy it to make sure they are in the paper! Your savings are still going to outweigh $1.50+ for the newspaper cost so no worries!

Check Local Areas
If you happen to be around these areas check for newspapers! Starbucks, Doctor’s offices AND libraries :) SOME libraries even have a coupon exchange box where you drop off your unwanted ones and substitute them for someone else’s discarded coupons! One man’s“trash” is another man’s treasure!

EBAY

I’m hooked on EBAY for coupons. Although you don’t get them free you can get A LOT of coupons at a fraction of the price of the newspaper. AND there are people who pre-cut them for you! So it’s less time consuming on your end. I currently have two sellers that I’m going to buy from on a very consistent basis. Reason being after all the coupons I purchased, the two sellers were FAST with shipping, had AMAZING prices on bulk inserts and were SUPER SUPER friendly. It was a pleasure doing business.

The one seller mentioned if you wanted any baby or pet coupons to your winning pile of Coupons (pre-cut and about 100+ each lot)to contact her and she would gladly add them. So I sent her a nice email stating I had a beautiful furbaby cat and if she had any cat coupons she could add to my pile both I and my fuzzbucket of love would appreciate it immensely. She responded by stating that she would gladly give me ALL of the cat coupons she had! And SHE DID! Cat coupons galore came on top of my winning coupon lot. She didn’t have to do that but she was SUPER sweet and did. That DEFINITELY made me a customer for as long as she’s selling!

My other seller had an awesome deal on 15 P&G inserts with free shipping so I bought from them. (Not to mention my Ebay bucks rewards brought down my total to under $3.00!When I received the packet they had added 12… I repeat 12 free inserts from previous weeks that still had a VERY GOOD AMOUNT of coupons that still had time to expire (all the way up to 6/2013). Talk about how happy I was! It was a surprise and took me aback on how sweet people can be! I contacted my seller to say how much I appreciated the generosity and that I was looking to buy coupons regularly from them. Turns out it was a wife and husband team, the husband responded and in conversation mentioned his wife had an account on Ebay and that both were linked together. If I didn’t see something on one I could find it on the other! So I have the feeling this is going to lead to a beautiful coupon buying friendship.

Don’t get me wrong all of the sellers I dealt with have been AWESOME. However I struck accord with a few that I thought really would work well with my coupon buying and personality. So when you buy on Ebay: keep in mind sellers that made you happy or you were pleased with and consider them in the future!

IMPORTANT:

EBAY Etiquette!
If you buy an item, please PAY FOR IT. I read so many seller’s descriptions on items stating MANY people have not paid after they bought the items resulting in opening Ebay dispute cases. One mother had a case every week for the past year!!!! If you run into a paying issue, INFORM THEM. They are willing to work with you!

Don’t give a seller grief about shipping price.

Just bid or buy another lot from someone else. In the store if something costs more than you are willing to pay or is higher than another retail chain you don’t automatically go crazy on the closest cashier about outrageous prices. You simply leave it and buy it elsewhere (at least NORMAL people do). So same here. Just because it’s the internet doesn’t mean it isn’t someone’s BUSINESS. Treat them with respect.

LEAVE FEEDBACK, even if your experience was less than perfect.

If you got a great item, take 5 seconds to leave a nice note for other potential buyers and to increase their seller scores! Especially if they left YOU feedback positively increasing your buyer reliability score. It’s the nice way to say THANKS for a great product and service.
IF… AND PLEASE FOCUS IN ON THIS ONE. IF you had a bad experience (and it does happen) contact the seller FIRST to resolve an issue. Do NOT leave negative feedback immediately. Negative feedback cannot be erased! It can be mutually withdrawn but it is a mess with Ebay as the mediator to correct the bad rating.

How do I know?

As a previous seller of items I’ve had similar issues with lack of feedback and on ONE occasion a negative which was mutually withdrawn JUST because the BUYER added extra information to the item after it SHIPPED!!!!! I never sold outside of the US, however a person in the UK really wanted the item. So I BENT my typical selling practice to accommodate him. I sent it out quickly, only to receive a negative feedback stating I hadn’t put it listed as “gift” on customs so he had to pay a little bit more money to get the item. Mind you, I got his email the day AFTER the item shipped. Had he messaged me first with what happened and the cost he incurred I would have GLADLY refunded him that. BUT I got that nasty mark on my score. I refunded him IMMEDIATELY and was adamant he should have come to me first. He apologized and started the process to withdraw that nasty negative rating. It is now listed as a mutual withdraw. However it was a long dragged out process that could have been resolved QUICKLY and with less stress on both ends if communication would have been used. My score is 100% with 200 feedback as both a seller and buyer. I pride myself in that, so do others!

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Please just communicate with your seller - things can be resolved and after trying if STILL nothing gets fixed THEN leave the negative. TRY FIRST! Trust me we WANT your business we WANT you to be happy. Not everyone in the world is out to get you, I PROMISE! :)

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CLIP IT, USE IT, LOVE IT... GOOD LUCK! <3