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!

How to get 400-ct Post-It Pads for $0.50

Post it notes are not the cheapest thing we buy for our classroom, but they're important school supplies that are useful in many ways.  Here are some of the ways I use Post-Its in the classroom.

--Write comments and feedback for student work without having to write on their work (which some schools frown upon)
--For pre-literate students who are still in the drawing/labeling stages of writing, write down what they said their story is (exactly as they say it) and place on picture (front or back) so that you remember the story or for bulletin board purposes.
--Give to students to make notes about their reading during Readers' Workshop.
--Use in Math Workshop when making bar graphs with the children - each square = one unit up on the bar.

So how can you get Post-Its for $0.50?!  Follow these easy steps:

(1)  Go to the 3M site and print their coupon page.  Coupons are good until 9/6/09 and you can print as many as you want (a lot of online coupons have 2-coupon limits).  I printed 5.

(2)  Cut out the middle coupon for $0.50 of any one Super Sticky Post-It Pad.  It's up to you if you want to spend, save or discard the other two coupons on the page for Pot-It Flags.

(3)  Go to any Office Max during the week of 8/23 - 8/29, where 400-ct cubes of Post-It notes are on sale for $1.00.  Buy as many as you have coupons for.

(4)  When you get to the register, give over your coupons!

Since Post-It packs run between $2.75 and $3.75 (according to the Office Max ad), if you buy 5 pads you are theoretically doing a B1G4 with a small discount!  Wow!

**Note - if Office Max tries to decline the coupons, remind them that they are manufacturer's coupons, so Office Max will be reimbursed for the money you saved by the 3M Corporation.  Ask politely for a manager if the salesperson tries to block your transaction - it's a perfectly OK transaction and you shouldn't have any problems!

Office Max Back to School for Pennies Deals week of 8/23 - 8/30

I am having trouble viewing the Office Max weekly ad for my area, but they did update their Back-to-School for Pennies section to give some decent offers.  As you can see, Office Max is currently running the same penny folders deal that Staples is running; however, Office Max limits 6 per purchase while Staples' limit is 20 for regular people and 25 for teachers.  That said, if you ask the manager nicely they might be willing to give you some overrides.  I'm not sure if Office Max extends their limits for teachers, but Office Depot was so helpful when I was there yesterday that I would not be surprised if they did.

Looseleaf paper is also on sale--$0.20 for a pack--but I can usually get that from my administration so I'm not going to be buying it.  I stocked up on scissors the past two years at Staples, but the $0.20 for a 2-pack of scissors is a great deal.  The best deal in my opinion is the $1 Post-It cube.  Post-Its are almost NEVER on sale, and this is a good deal.  If you could find a $1/1 or $0.50/1 coupon, you could get these for FREE or Almost Free!

By navigating away from the main page of Penny Deals, I found two offers that, while not "for pennies" are still enough to make me want to swing by an Office Max this week:

I have seen almost no good sales on Elmer's White Glue.  Glue stick sales are everywhere (and I got some at Office Depot yesterday) but white glue is my class's glue of choice.  While not an amazing offer, Office Max's B2G1 Elmer's Glue sale is decent if you can find a coupon.  If I find any, I'll make sure to post.  It's really frustrating that glue is so hard to come by this summer!

But the offer I'm really excited about this week is on the same level as the half-off Expo Markers at Office Depot yesterday that got me so pumped up..... Half-Off Mr. Sketch Markers!  Yahoo!!!  The 18-pack was pictured, and these usually cost around $14, so to get them for around $7 is truly exciting.  These are my preferred chart markers.  The kids aren't allowed to touch them (they get Crayola, which I find bleed on charts and smudge with my left-handedness).  Mr. Sketch have a crisp line, don't bleed and take longer to fade when you hang your charts than other markers tend to.  They smudge much less with my left-handedness (if I'm cautious, they don't smudge at all!) and the colors are really vibrant.  I use these every day all year long and they're a huge expense.  So guess what I'll be stocking up on this week?

Next post will be a rant about my terrible experience at Staples this afternoon.  I'm so mad at them!!!

Potential Office Max

Tonight I was watching the premiere of Project Runway (best. show. ever!) and I saw a new Office Max penny commercial.  

If you don't feel like watching, I'll tell you what the specials listed were:

One cent boxes of crayons (damn!  I paid 25 cents!)

One cent rulers (I have enough)

One cent pencils (I saw them on the commercial in my area but NOT on the YouTube video.  weird)

One cent spiral notebooks (I already got some at Staples but would get more)

I'm not sure if these are general updates or if I got a preview for next week's sale (this week's goes on until 8/22) but it's good to keep on the lookout for these things!  :0)

What's the deal with Recession Penny Sales?

I became a teacher in 2007.  The summer before I started teaching, I found out about Penny Sales and my life was forever changed.  I stocked up!  My first summer I got rulers for either a penny or a nickel (can't remember, but I got about a million), two-packs of scissors for 5 cents, white Elmer's glue for 5 cents a bottle, the coveted paper folders for a penny each, 12-packs of pencils for a penny, individual pencil sharpeners for 5 cents, 24-packs of Crayola crayons for 15 cents, and all sorts of other good stuff.  My second summer, I got the pencils, folders, glue and sharpeners again.  I also got crayons again, but they might have spent 20 cents on them.  I got some other things that I'm not remembering, but I know for a fact that both summers I STOCKED UP.  Remember that even though there are strict limits on these deep discounts, teachers get up to 25 as their limit (instead of like, three).  You can bring friends to hold baskets and get back on line to do several transactions, or you can shop several times over the course of one day or a few days.  Some cashiers will override any limits and let teachers get away with overages (within reason) if you beg and flirt a little.

But what's going on this year?  I have been striking out at Penny Sales this year.  So many of my favored items are either not on sale at all (I'm looking at you, folders!  I get 90 of these every year so I can color code things, and there's a big difference between 90 cents and the $13.50 that they'd cost at 15 cents, which is the full price).  Other items have turned up, but at less of a discount.  These are still awesome deals for parents buying school supplies for children, but are kind of hurting my pocket.  

Here are the deals that are currently running:

STAPLES, who started the penny sales (to my knowledge) are really falling down on their deals.  There are still some good opportunities, and of course I'll take them, but I'm hoping they ratchet things up a notch in the last weeks of August.

-This week they have 25-cent marble notebooks.  This is awesome for parents, but not so good for me.  I have 12 students, so to get them each one book is $3.  My kids need 5 books (school rules) so that's $15.  If half the parents buy their kids books (which is what happened last year) I can get them all notebooks for about $7.50.  I'll do it, but last year it cost me less than half that.

-They're also offering computer/typing paper for $1, which is an AMAZING deal.  I am running out to do this tomorrow, but it's on a rebate.  Rebate limits can't be extended for teachers (not sure why) so I can only get 2 reams of paper.  I'm not sure if I can just keep getting on line, either, since Staples rebates are filed for online.  Maybe I could beg some friends to file for my rebates for me, but that feels so moochy.

-Packs of pens and hilighters are on sale for $1.  This is an OK deal but I'm going to hold off for now in the hope that they or someone else run them cheaper in the next 2 1/2 weeks.

-Other penny sale items I've gotten that have expired include 6-packs of spiral notebooks for 6 cents (I got 2 packs for 12 cents and have to figure out what to use them for, since marbles are preferable... maybe homework notebooks?) and... that's it.  I haven't seen the pencils, so maybe I missed them when I was on vacation, but those usually repeat.  Also... where are the folders?!?!?!

-Remember that Penny Sales Expire on Wednesday of the week they are listed.  New sales will still be released on Sunday.  I like to check staples.com in advance, but I often just walk in.

Office Max started running commercials about a week ago for their "back to school for pennies" sale.  Cute name.  Except that it's so hard to tell from the website what, exactly, is on the sale.  Unlike Staples, they don't seem to list the penny sale on their Weekly Ad, which is frustrating.  Because I haven't gotten to an Office Max to check out what they're offering, I can't complain as hard as I did about Staples, but I know from seeing the commercials that they weren't mentioning anything that made me want to rush out to an Office Max.  Maybe I'm biased because there is a Staples 5 minutes from my house and Office Max is a 20-30 minute train ride away.  I am going to try to get out to an Office Max this week to scope out the sale situation.  Hopefully they won't have been hit by the recession the way Staples has!

In other news, the best deals I have found so far this year have been at Target.  This post is getting unwieldy, so I'll address that in my next entry.  

Teacher Appreciation Days/Weeks/Months

Have I mentioned that I love free stuff?

The month of August means a lot of things to teachers.  We leave town.  We try to cram in as many days at the beach as possible.  We lament the end of vacation.  We start stocking up on supplies.  We maybe get together with other teachers to plan.  We start having those awful back-to-school stress dreams that all teachers seem to get in August.  

Fortunately, several retailers sweeten the dog days of August with Teacher Appreciation celebrations.  Staples is probably the most well-known, but Office Max and Office Depot seem to be getting in on the action, too.  

(1)  Staples has been doing their Teacher Appreciation Day for 6 years and this will be my 3rd Teacher Appreciation Day.  The New York date for this event is August 22 (this Saturday, kids!) starting at 9:00 am (I get there early).  Some states have had their TA Day already, but I had trouble finding out what the swag was online.  It seems there was a reusable shopping bag (so trendy!) filled with notebooks and other supplies.  For the last two years I got plastic expandable file folders, dry erase markers, sharpies, pens, a legal pad and some postits.  It's nothing major, but it's nice to be appreciated, no?

This brings me to an (embarrassing) story from when I was a brand-new teacher.  As a NYC Teaching Fellow I was due to start teaching in September and had (somehow) managed to sign up for a Staples Teacher Rewards card even though I didn't have a DOE ID yet, so I was eligible for Teacher Appreciation '07.  I woke up early and super excited, marched into the store all proud with my Rewards Card, claimed my prize and... went home.  It was a little anti-climactic, but I was so excited.  I picked up a cup of coffee and the newest Brookyn Parents newspaper and went home to bask in my new teacher glory.  August was a wonderful month that year.

(2)  Office Depot Teacher Appreciation Day is - horror of horrors! - the same day as Staples TA Day in New York!  Fortunately, Office Depot is celebrating for a full week, from 8/16 - 8/22.  All week there are 10% discounts storewide for teachers, but the cool stuff is happening on Saturday.

First of all, I love free stuff, but I love free food most of all.  The fact that on Saturday, 8/22, Office Depot is giving away free breakfast AND free giveaways for teachers puts them a notch above Staples in my book (though I'll reevaluate when I get my swag)!  The plan is for me to hit Staples right by my house (and the train station) upon opening at 9:00 and then get right on the train to go to Manhattan to be at Office Depot at 10:00.  It'll be stressful, but I don't think Office Depot will run out of materials because it sounds like they're making a day of things.  Staples, on the other hand, really just gives away a package and some discounts, so I think I'll be able to do both.  For others who need to multi-task, The Office Depot event is from 9:00 - 11:00 am.

 (3) I missed the Office Max Teacher Appreciation Day this year (did any of you get there?) on August 9th.  I didn't know they held one, or I totally would've been there... maybe.  The truth is, this deal was not that exciting to me.  All attending teachers were given a reusable Office Max tote and given 15% off of "everything you can stuff inside."  Okay, first off, I love free anything, but 15% is not that great a discount to make me rush over to Office Max, free bag or none.  I can do much better at Target or Staples Back to School sales, or even at the new Office Max Penny Sale than 15%.  While it might've been nice to get the discount on things I need for myself (does Office Max sell plan books?), this is not a stock-up event, and the giveaway was not enough to get me out of bed and onto a train.  If they were closer to my house, maybe.   

Also, I can imagine the madhouse.  I love sales, but I have trouble with big crowds of people pushing each other to get the best deals on different items.  While I like to think that the Cheaper Teachers out there who went to this event conducted themselves with dignity, I just picture the melee that seems to be attached to the "stuff this bag" discounts I've encountered.

Anyway, that's all for now.  Next post will discuss the Staples and Office Max penny sales, which are OK this year, but not really doing it for me.  Are they worth it?  I'll let you decide.