Sunday, September 13, 2009

Most Back-to-School Sales are Over!

Now that school has started all over the country, most office supply stores have stopped offering good deals and steep discounts on back-to-school goods.  Since parents and teachers are now forced to buy the supplies they'd put off buying all summer, there's no need to be kind to us and offer a deal.

Office Max is the exception, as they're still running their Back-to-School for Pennies special this week.  The deals aren't incredible, but there are some good things to pick up if you're already there.  Rulers for $0.10 and 12-packs of Sharpies for $5.99 stand out the most, as do the $0.25 binders (nice, bold colors, too!).  There is also an offer for 50% off lamination for those of us who (for some strange reason!) don't have personal laminators yet.

I hope everyone has had a smooth, exciting back-to-school and promise that I will try to update more frequently.  It was a crazy week and I didn't get online much, but I'll be back with the deals in no time!

Monday, September 7, 2009

Cheaper Teachers are Cheaper Eaters!t

Hello, lovely readers.  Here in NY today is the last day of vacation before we return to school.  Even though I was there last week for 3 days setting up my classroom, this is the last true day of summer before life begins again.
So what am I doing this lovely Labor Day?  Hanging at the beach with my fabulous friends?  Going out for a nice, relaxing dinner and a handful of drinks?  I wish.  I'm cooking for the week.

While I am not always the most disciplined in planning menus, I have determined to save money on meals eaten at work this year.  One easy way to do that is to cook in bulk on the weekend so that I have inexpensive, healthy food to bring with me for lunch.

So, in the spirit of the Cheaper Teacher, I thought I'd share what I'm making, what it costs me and how long I can expect to eat off of it.  This is just a sampling of what I've made so far, and I'll update other lunch ideas as I go.

Easy Quinoa Salad:  I loooooove quinoa.  If you don't know what it is, you're seriously missing out.  It's a simple, versatile grain that can be used in place of rice, couscous or other grains.  It's extremely high in protein and contains no gluten, so it's great for both vegans (like me!) and celiacs.  I get quinoa in the bulk bin for about $3.00/lb, but if you're lucky enough to find the Goya bags of quinoa, they're about $2.00 for a 1 lb. bag.  The bulk quinoa is organic, the Goya is not.

I used 2 cups of dry quinoa, which is a little more than half the bag of bulk quinoa, so it cost about $1.50.  Quinoa multiplies like CRAZY when you cook it - it made about 8 cups cooked.  I cook it in water (free) at a 2:1 ratio and throw in a veggie bullion cube for good measure ($0.10?  I don't even know what the breakdown on bullion is, but it's almost free).

Then I throw in whatever veggies I have in the fridge.  I love this recipe because everything goes in this salad and you can use up what you have left over from other recipes.  I threw in a few carrots, a zucchini, an eggplant that was in danger of the trash chute, three plum tomatoes, a handful of stringbeans, a few olives, some red onion, a wilting stalk of broccoli and some  shredded red cabbage. I also squeezed the juice from one lemon A lot of these veggies came from the CSA, so I didn't pay for them out-of-pocket but through my joining fee.  I would estimate that this is about $5.00 worth of veggies if I'm being extremely generous with price - since I use such small quantities of each, I can't imagine it was more than that.  But let's just estimate high.

For no more than $6.50, this recipe yeilds 26 1/2 cup servings - if you eat two servings per lunch, you get 13 meals (lunch, dinner, snack, whatever) for the price - or about $0.50 per meal!

Big Old Pot of Beans:  A 1 lb. bag of Goya beans runs me about $0.89.  Make the whole bag at once and you get about 8 cups of cooked beans.  You can eat these as a filling side to something else, straight as they are, refried in tortillas, on tostada shells, whatever.  Final Cost - about $0.11 per serving!

Gotta get back to cooking - more to come!

Saturday, September 5, 2009

These Crazy LeapFrogs Keep Getting Cheaper!!!

I know I told you of a great way to get Leapfrog TAG books at K-Mart for $1.80 each... but what if I told you a way to get TWO FOR $0.60?

If you go here you can print a $4.00 off Leapfrog Product coupon.  These coupons are unlimited, which means you can print as many as you want... but you won't need that many, because K-Mart (where the books are on sale for as low as $4.80) offers a $5.00 coupon (the kind that prints from the machine by the register) when you spend $5.00 on LeapFrog products!

So here's what you need to do:

:::Pick 2 LeapFrog TAG books at $4.80 each.  Use 2 -$4.00 coupons.  Pay $0.80 each, or $1.60 for two books (a little less than you'd've paid for one using the $3.00 off coupon I posted about earlier.
:::Your cashier will hand you a $5.00 off LeapFrog purchase coupon that the register generates.
:::Go find 2 more LeapFrog TAG books.  Get back on line.  Use the $5.00 off AND the $4.00 coupons.  This will knock the price of one down to FREE with a $0.20 overage and the other off to $0.60 ($4.80 - $4.00 - $0.20 overage from other purchase) - Two LeapFrog Books for $0.60!
:::Another $5.00 coupon will print.
:::Repeat from the 3rd step until you have all the titles you want.

I would suggest printing about 6 coupons, which leaves you the opportunity for up to 5 transactions.  If you already printed the $3.00 off coupons, you may want to save ink on your computer and pay the extra dollar on some transactions.

You may also want to have a friend on line a few people behind you with more titles to keep things flowing - you grab 2 books and so does s/he.  You get on line, he lets about 5 people between you.  When you pay, hand off your $5.00 coupon and go get 2 more books.  Get back on line.  Your friend can hand you their $5.00 coupon while they get more books.  This could significantly speed up the process.

I have heard that to use rolling coupons like this you may want to try to get on different lines to make sure no one stops you from making multiple transactions.  I've also heard that some cashiers will let you make 2 or 3 transactions at one time, which means you can just keep handing over 2 books and using the $5.00 coupon that prints!

Best. Center. Ever.

Friday, September 4, 2009

More Leapfrog TAG Amazingness


Holy Almost-Free Leapfrogs, Cheaper Teacher!

Remember when I showed you that Leapfrog TAG Reading Systems were on sale at Target for $25.00 (down from $50), and with a $10.00 off coupon, you could get the system for $15?  And how I ran out and got 2 to create a center in my classroom?

Well, the price on the TAG System at Target is down again - this time to $12.48!  With the coupon, that brings the cost down to just $2.48, which is an incredible savings from the $50 original price.

Couple this with the K-Mart sale I told you about earlier in the week on books for the TAG System, which can get the books (retail $12-15) for $1.80 by using a coupon and shopping the clearance section, and you've got one sweet deal.  How sweet?

Imagine you want to create a center where 4 children can work at the same time.  You want to give each child a selection of 3 books and have pre-programmed the books into the TAG pens.  4 pens X $2.50 each = $10.  Each TAG comes with one free book, so you'll need to buy 8 books (either duplicate titles or different titles: if you buy different titles, each child could have up to 9 choices but if you buy multiple copies of the same title you avoid fights).  8 books X $2 each = $16.  Total cost = $26.00 plus tax (in NY, that would come up to $28), which is roughly $8-10 LESS than I paid for my two TAG systems when I bought them the first time!!!

While Target does not offer price adjustments, I have this plan worked out for getting some money back on my Leapfrog systems I bought just recently:

:::Go to Target and bring my receipt for the LeapFrog TAGs I bought recently at $15.00.  Also bring two $10-off coupons for the TAG system.  Do not bring the old TAGs with me.
:::Go directly to the toy aisle and check for the TAG at 12.50 clearance price.  If they have it, buy FOUR.
:::Get on line and pay $10 for the TAG systems.
:::Leave the store.  Put 2 TAGs in my car or ask a friend to hold them (if I'm not in the car).  Return with the 2 new TAGs and my old receipt.
:::Return 2 of the TAG Systems and receive a $30 refund.  
:::Since I spent $10 on the 4 new TAGs, I have gotten 2 free TAGs and $20 back at the new price.
:::Go to K-Mart and spend the $20 back on TAG books.
:::Create TAG Center!

Have fun!!!  :-)

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Free Clorox Wipes for your nasty, germy, dusty classroom!


Sorry for the weird image, but the Clorox site is weird about letting you steal their logo from the pictures!

Clorox is giving away free disinfecting wipes to teachers.  They mail you a coupon for a free item instead of the item, so it's a full-size, not a trial-size.

Enjoy!

SmileBox Teacher Toolbox ($40 value - FREE)

I'm exhausted from setting up my classroom all day (it looks like Calcutta in there!) but thought I'd give you an update about this cool bit of technology I just found called SmileBox.  Except I'm tired.  And lazy.  So I'ma let the website tell you instead:

"Smilebox is an easy and creative way to safely send photos, videos and personalized information to your students and parents in a secure way. It’s perfect for newsletters, overviews of teaching units, performance and field trip recaps, classroom activities and more!  As a member of the Smilebox Teacher’s Toolbox program, you will receive a FREE annual subscription to our premium Club Smilebox service (a $39.99 value). This gives you unlimited access to more than 900 Smilebox designs. You can choose from thousands of music options or add your own music, email and blog your creations full screen without ads, print any page, burn your Smileboxes to DVD or save them as jpeg images for a photo frame. More designs are added each week. You will also receive special offers and a newsletter with great ideas on how to use Smilebox in your classroom."

I looked at the site and it seems to be a cool, easy way to communicate with families (or at least the families that have internet access, which is sadly not as many as I'm sure we'd all like) and to make archives of stuff you do in class.  I'm also thinking that if I could find an ethernet cable long enough I'd set up some SmileBox photoalbums to put in the hall on Parent-Teacher Night for the parents to look through while they wait their turn with me.  Let me know if any of you end up using the site!

*Note:  I registered on my home computer, but the program isn't entirely webbased and you have to download content, so I'd suggest registering from your school computer and downloading at the same time. 

$11 worth of Lysol Coupons


Hey, Cheaper Teacher.  You nasty.  

Fortunately, Lysol is offering $11 worth of coupons on various products to help you clean your skanky classroom.  With Swine Flu expected to make a second go-round in the fall, you'll probably want to stock a few of these products in the classroom.

For the record, I'm not trying to add to Swine Flu hysteria.  I had Swine Flu in the spring.  It sucked, but not as much as everyone makes it out to suck.  But teachers would do well to avoid germs.

Enjoy!