Back to School Shopping in May

Day 20

I am on the e-mail list at Staples, the office supply store. Last week I received an e-mail alerting me that today they would allow me to buy several items for $0.01 with any purchase of $5. The sale started today and I decided to go early in the morning today because I assumed that with things selling for a penny, they might go fast.

When I arrived at the store, I could not find a single one of the penny items. I re-examined my e-mail and saw that the sale indeed started today. I looked for the manager.

 The manager was so nice and he explained that he hadn’t shelved the sale items yet, but he had them in a separate area in boxes for the staff to stack the shelves later that day. So I got first pick!

I purchased paper towels (on sale for 4.99) and zipper seal bags (0.99) for a total of $5.99. These items were things I needed anyway. It is a shame that I did not have coupons for these items to bring my total down closer to the $5 minimum purchase, but I figured that $5.99 was good enough.

Then I loaded up on the items that were on sale for a penny (with $5 purchase). I bought the allowable maximum number of items in an effort to maximize my savings.

Here are the items I got for a penny:

8 pack of bic pens

15 pack of erasors

2 pack of sharpies (permanent markers)

School glue

I bought 5 of each of the items above for a total of $0.20.

I saved $43.60 off retail on these 20 items.

 

These go in the "Stockpile" for now.

 

I may not need them until my kids go back to school in August, but they can go into my frankly tiny stockpile and will be available when I need them.

Being on a stores e-mail list may be more beneficial than clipping coupons.

Deep discounts are what I was hoping for when I started this project.
Today was a BIG DEAL!

 

 

SAVINGS TO DATE: - $ 328.93   (previous total + 43.60 off retail)

 TIME SPENT TODAY: - 30 minutes (At the store).