I managed to buy all of this plus a little more for no money out of pocket at Staples yesterday. I posted before on how I save money with Staples ink cartridge recycling. The recycling program allows me to receive two dollars in rewards for cartridges that cost me about twenty cents. This amounts to a roughly 90% savings on everything I buy with the rewards. That is a pretty good deal but being a tight fisted miser I like to make the deal even better. I try to buy mainly stuff that is on sale and use coupons too. For the purchase above I used a $10 off $30 competitors coupon plus used a Staples 15% off coupon. I think the savings from this reward program are well worth the time it takes to recycle cartridges. We haven’t had to buy toilet paper or paper towels all year plus I’ve gotten lots of other stuff such as a router, ink, and lots of household and office supplies for almost free. Does anyone else out there get almost free stuff by using an office supply store’s ink cartridge recycling program?
I don’t know how I missed your original post about ordering used ink cartridges online and then taking them to Staples. I’ve always taken my own empty cartridges but this is an excellent way to get some things for free. When do the ink rewards expire? Can you save them up to get more expensive things? I just ordered some empty cartridges on ebay so will be joining you in doing this myself.
The rewards are only good for a couple of months so you can only have a couple of them at once. You can use them on free after rebate items and then use your rebate when it arrives and rewards earned since then to buy something. If you earn premier status at Staples you can recycle 20 cartridges a month rather than 10. Premier status isn’t worth it to me but it might work for you.
Clever plan you’ve got there!
I’ve seen something similar with printer and camera trade in programs (Canon has one). Buy a broken camera/printer on eBay and get a new one for a massive discount (but not 90%).
I’ve heard of that one too. There are more programs out there than I can take advantage of.
Wow this is a great tip! I have two cartridges right now I can cash in.
Tina
Hi Andy – Happy New Year.Yes I recycle cartridges (my own) and my daughter in law’s that she gives me, but how do you get them for .20?=Always enjoy the rewards cash)
Regards,
Sharon Warden
You can get them for that price on Ebay and Craigslist.
This is a great idea. Must try it.
Ingenious plan Andy! I was always aware Staples frequently put out in-store credits, coupons, rebates and the like – but always assumed they wouldn’t allow customers to combine coupons with store-credit. Guess I was wrong! I’m going to try this for myself and see how far I get.