Staples: Free and inexpensive school supplies beginning July 12, 2009

Can Back-to-School sales be upon us already? I thought Summer just started! At any rate, since we're officially homeschooling now, I am certainly going to be taking more advantage of these sales as I've been amazed at how quickly we're going through supplies.

Staples is the place to be this next week if you're looking for school supplies. You can see a preview of the ad for July 12-18, 2009 here. Here are some of the highlights:

::Use the $5/$20 coupon on the front of the ad to further sweeten your deals or turn them into money-makers!

::Bic Fashion Pens are $1. Use the $1/1 coupon here to get them free.

::8-packs of pencils are $0.01--no coupon needed. (Valid July 12-15, 2009 only. Limit 2)

::Bic White Out is $1. Use the $0.50/1 coupon here to get it for $0.50.

::Staples Photo Plus 4 x 6 paper is on sale for $9.99 and you'll get a rebate printed with your receipt which you can mail in for an $8.99 rebate making this $1 after the rebate (Limit 2).

::8 1/2 x 11 Copy Paper is on sale for $3.69 and you'll get a rebate printed with your receipt which you can mail in for an $3.998 rebate making this $0.01 after the rebate (Limit 2).

Money-Making Scenario Ideas

Scenario Idea #1:

Buy 2 packages of Photo Plus Paper at $9.99 each
Buy 2 8-packs of pencils $0.01 each
Use the $5/20 coupon on the front of the ad
Spend $15 plus tax out of pocket
Get $17.98 back in rebates
Free plus overage after coupon and rebate

Scenario Idea #2:
Buy 1 package of Photo Plus Paper at $9.99
Buy 2 packages of Copy Paper at $3.69 each
Buy 2 packages of Bic Fashion Pens at $1 each
Buy 1 Bic White Out at $1
Use the $5/20 coupon on the front of the ad
Use 2 $1/1 Bic pen coupons here
Use $0.50/1 Bic White Out coupon here
Spend $11.87 plus tax out of pocket
Get $16.35 back in rebates
Free plus overage after coupon and rebate

A big thanks to My Frugal Adventures for her help in compiling these Staples deals!

Comments

[Roanna]

Oh, thank you so much! I will have to see if I can get to our Staples about a half an hour away. I could use my coupons to get some great stuff for college!

[Marie]

Oh, what a fabulous deal!! Do you know...will two rebates print for the two packages of copy paper if they are purchased in the same transaction?

[Jen]

Do you know if there is still the higher limit for teachers? It was so great last year to get pencils and other supplies for my whole homeroom! :)

[Jennifer Covington]

Doesn't look like my Staples has the $5 coupon on the front page. I live in Cleveland, Ohio.

[mary]

I believe that the rebate for the photo paper is $8.99 instead of $9.99 so in your first scenario you would get back $17.98 in rebates instead of $19.98 & in the second scenario you would get back $16.35 in rebates.

[Honey]

Hi Marie. This might answer your question. I went to staples last week to buy the 500 sheets of paper for $4.99 with a $2.99 rebate. The info just prints out on your receipt and when you put your info from your receipt on the online easy rebate form, you put in a number from your recipt and their computer will see how many you bought. I bought two (that was the limit) and it gave me a $6 rebate. It is aptly named-it was easy!
Also last week, I found single subject spiral notebooks for .10 and cool composition books for .50.

[Jennifer]

Last year, the manager would do an override on limits for teachers and homeschoolers.

[Liz]

Wanted to also let you know that Walmart has started their back to school supplies deals. I know it seems early but now is the best time to stock up. I've noticed that if you wait until mid-August to replenish, the prices will go up substantially and their stock will be very low.

[jenn]

I am not seeing the coupon for the white out.

[Jennifer]

Just FYI - for some reason the link for the 50c off white out took me to the same three coupons for pencils/pens. I got a 50c off mechanical pencils rather than off white out, so I printed that out anyway, just in case of future sales. Don't know if anyone else is having this happen to them - I used a Mac, going to try it from our PC as well.

[Michelle]

I can't seem to find the .50 cent coupon for the White Out. When I am taken to the coupon printing page, it only offers 3 coupons - pen, mechanical pencil, & permanent markers

[Rachel]

The whiteout coupon is not there.

[Teresa]

I also could not get the white out coupon to come up, so I just searched BIC wite out and it took me to their site, where I clicked on one of the products and was able to print the coupon that way.

[Valerie]

As a homeschool mom you are eligible for the eductors discount card which allows you to purchase "class sets" of 25 of everything.

[Jennifer]

The coupon links aren't working for me either - I get BIC mechanical pencils .50 off. Did anyone find the $1 off pens one??

[Lindsay]

My Staples did not take the coupons. Said may not be combined with any offer.

[Kacy]

I also noticed in Wal-Mart today that they have a whole back-to-school section. $.30 24-packs of crayons, $.30 2-pack of glue sticks & lots of $1+ items.

[Mary]

Jen, they are allowing teachers to get up to 25. I didn't realize they did that and was pleasantly surprised when the cashier said I could get 23 more packages of pencils for a penny each.

[Sarah]

If you want to use the $5/$20 coupon, be sure the cashier rings it up before any manufacturer coupons. The manager at my store said they had to use the Staples coupon last, so I had to get fillers. Then the register made them put in the Staples coupon first after all, and by that point I just wanted to be done, so I pretty much broke even on this deal. Next time I will know better.

[Lynn]

I was really excited about these deals but not so much when I found out the rebates are for your next Staples purchase. Staples is not a store I frequent so it really wouldn't seem like a savings to me if I had to go back and buy something just to be buying something. Could you update that in your blog so another person doesn't get all the way to the store and find that out at the checkout lane. I did get the great pencil deal! Thanks.

[Andrea]

Take your kids with you when you go shopping. I took four of our six and they each went through the line with me and paid for 2 packs each of the $0.01 pencils. The cashier offered to override the limit and just ring them all up at once but the kids were having so much fun I just went ahead and let them pay.

[me]

I was able to get the white out coupon, a coupon for mechanical pencils, a coupon for permenant markers....but not the coupon for the pens!

[Kelsey Wimmer]

Actually you don't have to mail the rebate in. You can go to Stapleseasyrebats.com

[Jennifer Covington]

Just an FYI, I asked at the Staples store in Streetsboro , Ohio, about the $5 off 20 purchase, because it is NOT on the front of my add, and they gave me the discount. They said all you have to do is ask !! IT was VERY EASY !!

[Crystal]

pen coupon is gone now too :(

[Misty]

Don't forget if you're homeschooling or a school teacher, you can go to staples.com and sign up for a teachers card. Then the cheap items that have a limit of 2 will be a limit of 25 for you. We did this last year and it helped cut costs for homeschooling at lot!

Here's my blogpost with a link to the teacher rewards:

http://www.homeschoolbytes.com/homeschool-bargains/staples-teacher-rewards/

Enjoy!

Misty

[Rachel R.]

I have used Staples rebates before, and they have always been in the form of a check or a (Visa/MC-type) cash card. (Prepaid CC.)

[Leah]

Does anyone know the BIC corporate #? My staples refuses to take MFQ and I called Staples corporate, and they said I'm not allowed to use it on sale items, HAHA!! So I want to see if BIC really intended their coupon for that.

[Maria145]

All the coupons are gone :-( :-(

[Rae]

I got the Wite Out coupon on the Wite out site but couldn't find the pen coupon. BUT my Staples wouldn't let me use it anyway because on the coupon it says not to be combined with any other offer and they interpreted that as including a store sale... BOO. Oh well, I still broke even with what I did get.

[Marianne Brown]

Manufacturer coupons cannot be used with the $5/20 coupon. It states that explicitly on the coupon. But there are still some really great bargains.