Staples Game

I'm not as good playing the Staples (Office store) game as some, but I'm pretty happy with my little deals I got.

Back in November, I went to buy my printer ink at Staples and got a good deal on some SD cards. I earned like $7.13 back on my printer ink, but later figured out I wasn't getting as good of a deal as I would if I were buying it at Office Max.

Anyway, about this time, Staples was having the Free After Rewards batteries deal. I bought (2) at $12.99 each (wish I could have bought more, but I was running low on money at Christmas).

I got a pack of AA and a pack of AAA, which our remotes, video game controllers, flashlights and mp3 players use a crapload of.

After Rewards, they only cost me $1.82 tax.

If I was better at this, I probably would have found a coupon and turned it into a moneymaker. But I'm not crying over paying $1.82 for 2 16-packs of batteries.

Later in the month there was a Free After Rewards deal on 4GB Micro Relay USB Flash Drive at $5.99.

I got (one with each card) and they made great stocking stuffers.
After Rewards they only cost me 42¢ tax.

Then there was the Skull Candy earphones Free After Rewards at $9.99. I also got (one with each card) and they were also great stocking stuffers.

After Rewards, they only cost me 70¢ tax.

Those were some fantastic deals!

So I got my Rewards back, and including the 10% ink Reward, I had a total of $49.10 (one one card).

This week, through today (Feb 4th), Staples has Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security on sale for $55.00 with a $55.00 Rebate, making it Free after rebate.

Rebates are different than Rewards in that Rewards can only be spent at Staples, and if you spend Rewards on a Rewards item, they deduct it from the future Reward. But you can spend Rewards on a Rebate item and get the full Rebate in the form of a pre-paid VISA card that's spendable anywhere.

I paid $49.10 in Rewards, and $5.90 + .41 tax in cash (the original tax was like $3.52 but when I applied my Rewards to the cost, it only taxed me on the remaining amount).

I'll get a $55.00 pre-paid Visa card back, so the Internet Security will only cost me 41¢ after Rebate.

So everything from the batteries to the internet security is Free except tax, which adds up to $3.35.
(Not bad, but since I wasn't really "dealing" when I made the ink/SD card purchase in November, the $7.13 back on the ink is kind of like Bonus money in this instance, so that covered my tax and then some.)

I still have $16.00 Rewards on the other card I'm hoping to be able to find a good Rebate deal before 3/31.