Local Sunday newspaper inserts, clipping services, or both?

[osmoticgouger]

I'm very new to the world of couponing, and was wondering which of the two options was generally better.

1) A 26-week subscription to my city's newspaper costs $20.57 (works out to about $0.79/wk), but I think becomes $1.50+$0.32 a week, which seems a tad expensive. I also verified that it does receive the major coupon inserts.

2) One clipping service that caught my interest allowed the order of multiple individual coupons for a fairly low price, and would just have to worry about paying for the shipping.

I'm sure it's more cost-effective to do the latter but I've read many instances that encourage the use of the Sunday papers. I don't own a car so trying to find free sources of the paper (hotels, gas stations, etc.) is out of the question. I do, however, have a friend with a car who I do grocery shopping with that wouldn't mind trying to visit different grocery stores (I've convinced her pretty well about the wonders of couponing, and hoping that she gets in on in it soon!)

Any insight would be great!!

[padmelupin]

I'm still pretty new myself, but I've been getting my one copy of the Sunday paper and relying on trades and/or clipping services for any extras I need. It's been working for me so far! HTH