Borders Teacher Rewards Card

Did you know that Borders gives a 25% off discount on books and music for teachers, as well as 10% off educational DVDs?  Because I didn't!!  This is a way better deal than the Barnes and Noble Teacher Rewards (20% on books, DVDs don't apply, I'm not sure what the deal with music is).  It's too bad that so many Borders are going out of business.  I only know of a few locations.  But next time I pass by one, I will certainly stop in and get a Classroom Discount Card.

You need to present photo identification and pay stubs or a teacher's photo ID in order to qualify when you fill out your application.

Customer Review: Office Depot Teacher Appreciation Day

I got to Office Depot a little after 10:00 am for Teacher Appreciation Day.  From the get-go, it was much better than the Staples celebration.  I walked in to people cheering and saying "thank you" (seriously - not a lot of cheering, but some fuss every time a teacher walked in the door).  I signed in and was encouraged to apply for an Office Depot Teacher Rewards Card.  The card got me 10% in store discount for the day (I was fuzzy on the details, but it might always give that reward!) and 5% rewards for the day.  Every quarter, Office Depot mails a gift card to rewards teachers with 1% of their spent value back.  Cool!  Considering I have a really hard time figuring out how to claim my Staples rewards, this is pretty awesome.

After I was given my card and my gift pack, I was encouraged to sign up for a financial consultation to take place next week.  If I show up for my appointment, I get a $50 Office Depot gift card!  If I actually take whatever ghetto financial services they offer me after my consultation, I'll get another card for $75 on top of that!  I'll probably go for the $50 card but I know I won't be signing up for financial services.

I was then handed the "Taking Care of Business" year-long coupons for teachers booklet, which had a lot of high-value coupons that last for one month (from September - August, so none were usable today) and a 10% off purchase of $50+ coupon.  Since I already had a 10% off $40+ coupon, I saved the new coupon for another day.  Another 10% off $40+ printed as a Register Reward when I made my purchase, so I got $20 in cashback savings just for showing up!  

Then I was invited down to a continental breakfast (and proudly passed on donuts and bagels, having only coffee and sticking to my back-to-school diet!) and helped by a wonderful employee to find everything I had written down on my list (based on sale items).  He threw me a couple of freebies and overrode the store limits to help me get enough of everything I needed for my classroom.

There was also a different raffle every 15-20 minutes, but unfortunately I didn't win anything.  Some of the raffle items were electric sharpeners, electric staplers, gift cards and a backpack full of goodies.  Every teacher got one free raffle ticket when they came in, and all drawings were from the same pot.

It was a lovely experience and I had fun.  I hung around for all the drawings, even though I was done shopping, and I chatted up some other teachers.  It was really well organized and everyone was super helpful and nice.

As for my gift bag, in addition to the coupons, teachers were gifted with:

--1 reusable tote bag ($1.00 value)

--1 plastic folder ($0.39 value)

--4 #2 pencils ($0.50 value, estimate)

--1 Crayola erasable colored pencil (sample from company - no value)

--2 Expo dry erase markers ($2.00 value)

--1 mini legal pad ($0.50 value)

--1 DVD-R ($1.00 value)

--1 3M poster stickies ($1.69 value)

--1 Fold-It Ruler ($2.00 value)

Total value was about $8.50, which is less than the Staples gift, but when you factor in breakfast, coupons, rewards and 10% full store sale, it was a much better deal for a teacher to go to Office Depot than to Staples for Appreciation Day.  Everyone at Office Depot was absolutely lovely and I'm glad to have discovered this store for school supplies.

What I did for Teacher Appreciation Day

Check out what I scored for Teacher Appreciation Day!  You can't see everything in the picture, so of course I'm willing to give a breakdown of the scene (which, for the record, took forever to set up, so I hope you appreciate it!)  

*OD indicates Office Depot free gift for TA Day

*S indicates Staples free gift for TA day (I went to 2 different Staples, so I got doubles of everything)

$OD indicates that I purchased the item at Office Depot.

From left corner, moving down:

Two purple milk crates $OD

4 packs of Ricola Minis $OD

10 "Very Useful" small storage cubes w/ tops (5 packs) $OD

2 Plastic Pencil Boxes *S

5 Steno Pads *S 2 eco-friendly 2-packs / *OD 1 single

Fold Out Ruler *OD

2 Boxes of 12 pencils *S

2 Herbal Essences conditioner samples $OD (hey, they were a quarter each, I couldn't resist!!!)

2 packs 50-ct Push Pins *S

2 packs 100-ct vinyl-coated paperclips *S

Post-It Note dispenser *OD

5 packs of 3M Poster Stickies 4 packs *S / 1 pack *OD

From just left of center, heading down:

2 Staples Tote Bags *S

Sight Words Bingo $OD

Money Tray $OD

4 larger-sized (7 l) Very Useful Containers with lids (2 blue, 2 clear) $OD

5 packs of 4-ct glue sticks $OD

6 packs of 12-ct pencil top erasers technically $OD, except they were FREE.

2 Chapsticks

Center, foreground of photo:

3 packs Expo Dry Erase Markers (2 10-ct with whiteboard eraser / 1 16-ct) $OD

2 highlighters, 2 pencils, 1 pilot Varsity fountain pen, 1 Expo marker, 2 mini-mechanical pencils with squishy grip things *S highlighers and mechanical pencils w/ grippys / *OD pencils, Expo marker and Varsity Pen.

2 folders paper folder *S / plastic folder *OD

DVD-R *OD

From far right, heading down:

Office Depot Tote *OD

White Sentence Strips $OD

Multicolored Sentence Strips $OD

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Aaaannndddd for the totals!  Drumroll please:

All Office Depot purchases cost me $79.00 out of pocket.  I got two coupons while I was there (one Register Reward and one tear-off as part of TA day) for $10 off future orders.  If I apply those savings now (as theoretical, since they function like cash-back) I spent $59.00.

Going over my Office Depot receipts, if I had bought this merchandise at full-price without my teacher's discount, I'd have spent $185!  That means that I SAVED $126!!!  If I estimate the costs of the free merchandise from both Staples and Office Depot, I probably saved closer to $150!

Future posts will detail my experiences at both Teacher Appreciation Days (and the Old Navy T-Shirt sale!) and give a little bit more information about where my biggest savings were and what the best (and worst!) parts of each day were.

Barnes and Noble Educator Discounts

It's easy to sign up for the Barnes and Noble Teacher Rewards program.  Here are the basic steps:

(1)  Go to the a nearby Barnes and Noble.  Bring either your union card, department of education ID or two recent pay stubs.  Also bring a photo ID (whatever you usually carry).

(2)  Hand over these materials and say you want an Educator's Rewards card.

(3)  Receive card!

(4)  Shop with a 20% discount on most items (some get 15%).  Magazines, stationary and some other items don't get the discount.  Technically everything you buy on this discount card should be used in your classroom... but if you buy a few books for yourself and pretend, I won't tell anyone.

I've been using my Barnes and Noble Educator Rewards card since I started teaching, and I save a lot of money using it, both for business and pleasure.  But I just found out that you can also use your Educator's Discount card at BarnesandNoble.com!  Here are the basic steps:

(1)  Make sure you already have an Educator's Rewards card.

(2)  Go to the Barnes and Noble Educators' Website.

(3)  Create an account linked to your email address and punch in your Membership Number in the appropriate box.

(4)  Orders may be screened to make sure you're buying classroom appropriate materials.

I realize that I'll save a lot of money ordering books for the classroom on B&N using this discount; I used to order online from Amazon, but I'm upgrading.  As far as I know, Amazon doesn't offer teacher-specific discounts (though I'ma go google that and see!)