Staples Ink Cartridge Recycling Rewards Program Update

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I’ve written about the Staples ink cartridge recycling rewards program a couple of times before.  I detailed both how I make money with the Staples ink cartridge recycling and how I get free stuff from Staples.  I still participate in the Staples ink cartridge recycling program but they have changed how the program works so I’m posting how the changes affect one’s ability to make money from Staples ink cartridge recycling and get free stuff from Staples using the ink cartridge recycling program.

Staples Ink Cartridge Recycling Program

The basics of the ink cartridge recycling program is that Staples will pay you $2 in Staples Rewards for each ink cartridge you recycle with a maximum of 10 cartridges recycled per month unless you are Staples Plus or Premier customer in which case you can recycle 20 cartridges a month.  This means you can get $20 in Staples Rewards a month if you are a basic Staples Rewards customer or $40 a month if you are a Plus or Premier member.  The rewards expire the month after they are issued for base Rewards members and Plus or Premier members ink recycling rewards are good for twice as long

You might be thinking that you don’t have 10 ink cartridges a month to recycle.  Used ink cartridges can be bought cheap on Ebay or Craigslist.  A good price is about 20 cents a cartridge.  That leaves you with a profit of $1.80 for each cartridge you recycle.

When Staples has good sales on toilet paper or paper towels or something else I actually need then I use my rewards to purchase these products.  If I just use the rewards to buy products from Staples then I am getting the products at about 90% off.  One can make even better use of their ink cartridge recycling rewards though.

What I consider the best use of recycling rewards is to use them to buy free after rebate items. When I use the recycling rewards to buy free after rebate items I actually make money.  Free products are nice but cash is even better and gives me more choice on how I want to spend my money.   Since I can and do receive more cash back then I pay for the ink cartridges I recycle, the products I buy with the recycling rewards are basically free.

Staples Ink Recycling Rewards Changes

I’ve been using this program for almost three years and it had been working fine.  Unfortunately, Staples has made some changes to their ink cartridge recycling program that has caused me some problems.  Starting on March 15, 2013 a rewards member can only receive ink recycling rewards if the member has spent at least $30 in ink and/or toner purchases at Staples over the previous 180 days.  The minimum purchase requirement is net of coupons, taxes, and shipping charges.

This requirement is a bit of a pain but the recycling program is still a good deal.  Since I can earn $120 in recycling rewards in 180 days if I have to spend $30 on ink I still come out $90 ahead.  If you actually need the ink you purchase then the entire $30 shouldn’t be deducted from the $120 in rewards.  A more accurate calculation would be to subtract the premium you pay for ink at Staples compared to what you would pay for the ink elsewhere.  In that case you are probably only losing $5 or $10 due to the ink purchase requirement.

If you do not need ink at all then there is another method to keep from losing the entire $30 ink purchase.  You simply buy a popular ink and resell it on Ebay or Craigslist.  Since the ink won’t sell for as much as you paid for it and you also have to pay fees you will lose more money using this method.  If you are lucky enough to sell the ink on Craigslist your loss could be just $10 or less.  If you are selling the ink on Ebay you will probably end up losing $15 or so.  If you don’t think reselling the ink is worth the trouble you can just be nice and buy ink for someone you know or possibly donate it to a local charity.

The other good change that Staples made was that Plus members get to recycle 20 cartridges a month. Before only Premier members could recycle 20 cartridges a month and other rewards members were limited to 10 cartridges a month.

These changes shouldn’t have caused much problems for me but so far they have been quite a pain.  I bought $30 of ink to satisfy the ink purchase requirement but didn’t realize that my recycling rewards counted as a coupon and thus reduced the amount of my purchase.  After I realized the rewards counted as a coupon I made an additional purchase to meet the ink purchase requirement.

I contacted Staples customer service and asked if they would award my April rewards as a courtesy since I didn’t realize the rewards counted as a coupon and the Staples employees assured me my ink purchase would meet the purchase requirement when I asked.  After some resistance, the customer service agent did issue my rewards and I figured everything would be fine for the next six months.

Unfortunately, when it came time for my May recycling rewards to be issued they were not issued.  I contacted a customer service agent through chat and she kept trying to insist that my April rewards were my May rewards.  After I repeatedly pointed out that this was not the case she eventually referred me to their customer service number.  The telephone customer service agent was much more helpful even though she initially stated that I had not met the ink purchase requirement.  After pointing out my two ink purchase transactions that were listed in my rewards account she agreed that I had met the purchase requirement and stated that she would issue my rewards.  She also promised to notify another department that I had met the ink purchase requirement so that I wouldn’t have any future problems.  We will see how that goes.

If I continue to have to contact customer service every month to receive my rewards then I’ll most likely give up on the rewards program when I run out of my current supply of ink cartridges.  If I get really aggravated I might just sell the rest of my ink cartridges.  I hate to give up the free money but with the time and aggravation needed to get the rewards I’ve earned issued the past couple of months the rewards are no longer “free” money.  Prior to the changes I would have recommended the ink cartridge recycling program as an easy way to get a little extra money but until they have all the issues with the change straightened out I can’t recommend the recycling program.

Do any of you use the Staples ink cartridge recycling rewards program? Have you had any problems since the change?

May Savings Rate – 13.67%

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May was not a very good month on my progress towards financial independence.  I was hoping that I could still decrease my safe withdrawal rate slightly every month even without my tax job income, but my SWR actually got worse, it went up to 55.15% from 49.50% the month before.  The high expenses for May sent my average monthly expenses quite a bit higher and thus made my SWR worse.  The small amount of savings I managed for the month wasn’t nearly enough to offset the increase in my average monthly expenses.  I’m determining my SWR by tracking my trailing 12 months of expenses divided by the amount of my investments.  Since I don’t think the preceding 12 months accurately reflect my expenses going forward I am using my monthly expenses starting in November 2012 to set the average so having a high expense month makes a big change in the average right now.  Unfortunately, June will also increase my average monthly expenses.  Starting in July I should start knocking the expenses back down again.

My goal is to save 50% of my income each month and I didn’t come close to meeting that goal in May. I made $1462.34 and managed to save $200. That amounted to a 13.67% savings rate.  My May expenses were actually higher than my May income so managing to save any money was good. The only reason I was able to save a little was because I had extra money from the month before that had not yet been allocated to savings. Unless I get an unexpected windfall I won’t be saving any money this month since I had another large car repair and will only make a small income.

The 4% SWR translates into having 25x your annual expenses in savings or 300 months of expenses in savings. I have 21.75 months of living expenses saved now. It was a little over 24 months of expenses the month before.   I don’t like going backwards on this goal but I will most likely go backwards on this goal again in June.  I should start making a little forward progress in July.  I won’t be able to make substantial progress though, until I return from my hike and find a new job.

May Income – $1462.34

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Here is a breakdown of my income for May.

Online Income

 $223.74

Interest

$2.00

Dividends

$18.86

Cash Back

$38.43

Sell Stuff

$2.40

Jobs

$1176.91

Total

$1462.34

My May income was not good. Since my tax job ended in April I knew my income would be going down but I was hoping it would be a little better than this.  My income was actually less than my expenses which is not sustainable for long.  The job income was about what I figured it would be.  Even though I got full time hours at my part time job for a couple weeks the job pays so little that the additional hours didn’t help much.  That job is ending this month.  I do like that job but since it pays so little it shouldn’t be hard to find another job that pays more when I get back from hiking.

My online income was a little better than it appears.  The total was reduced quite a bit to pay for moving Bank Bonuses to the BankBonuses.com site.  I’m hoping that move will make me money in the long run but it is costing me money right now.  Overall, my sources of passive and/or alternative income didn’t amount to much.

My income prospects for this month are not very good. I need to sell a lot of stuff before I move out of my apartment.  That should result in me making quite a bit more in the selling stuff category.  Unfortunately, the job income will be down and the other categories will be about the same.  When I get back from hiking increasing my income will be my first priority.

 

May Expenses – $1658.21

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for May.

 Household $392.05
Entertainment

$62.21

Transportation

 $743.46

Food

$112.31
Debt $5.00
Phone

$26.81
Health

$120.97
Electric

$19.64
Internet

$15.96
Travel

$159.80

Total

 $1658.21

My May expenses were much higher than I’d prefer. I missed my goal of keeping my monthly expenses under the minimum wage level of $1274 a month  for the first time this year.

My food bill was almost down to my $100 goal. Since I’m moving at the end of this month I plan to eat all of the food in my apartment. I’m also planning on doing quite a few restaurant mystery shops so my food total should be below $100 for this month.

My transportation expense were the budget buster. I spent a little over $600 in repairs.  The bad news is that my catalytic converter is going out so I will have another big repair bill soon. My usual repair shop quoted just over $1000 to replace the catalytic converter. I’m going to shop around to see if I can’t get a better price.  The replacement of the catalytic converter probably won’t be done until after I’m back from my hike. The good news is that my gas bill was under $100 even with a trip to SW Missouri. I’ve done pretty well on cutting back on the unnecessary driving.

I also spent $159 on a plane ticket to Harrisburg, PA to start my hike. Even with that expense I would have been close to my $1000 goal if I hadn’t had all the car repairs.  All other expenses should be about the same this month. If I don’t go ahead an replace the catalytic converter I should get back under the $1000 mark again.

How to Stretch your 5% cash back

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These days it is possible to get 5% cash back on a lot of your purchases. One of the ways I get 5% cashback on my purchases is by buying things in the rotating 5% cash back categories offered by my Chase Freedom and Discover it® card. Right now the Discover it® card is offering 5% cashback on home improvement purchases and the Chase Freedom card is offering 5% cash on restaurants, movies, and Lowes until the end of June. Both of them have a $1500 limit on purchases that will earn the cash back but since I’m not a big spender that is more than I would normally spend. It is still possible to get the full advantage of the 5% cash back offered though.

The methods to stretch your available cash back are fairly obvious but they didn’t actually occur to me until I read about them in a forum. The first method to stretch your cash back is to buy a gift card at a store in the current 5% cash back category. For example, since restaurants are in the 5% cash back category I could buy some $50 gift cards at McDonalds, Burger King, etc. for however much I think I’d spend at restaurants in the next few months. I’d want to make sure I didn’t spend over $1500 so I’d get the 5% on all my purchases. I don’t spend nearly that much at restaurants in a year so I wouldn’t have a problem with staying under the $1500 amount. I do use this strategy, but I usually just pick up a couple of gift cards before the end of the quarter and don’t worry about getting the absolute maximum amount of cash back.

Another method also involves buying gift cards. The difference here is that you are buying gift cards for stores that are outside the current category. For example, the Discover it® card is currently offering 5% cashback at home improvement stores. This isn’t beneficial to me since I don’t own a home and don’t really need anything from a home improvement store. To still earn a little cash back I’ve been buying $50 gas cards at Lowes. Even though I’m buying a gas card the purchase is still categorized as a home improvement purchase I still earn the bonus cash back. I’m only saving $2.50 with each purchase but it only takes 5 minutes and Lowes is on my way home from work so I think it is a good use of my time.

If you are shopping online you should go through a online cash back shopping portal like Mr. Rebates. Depending on the merchant you can earn even more than 5% cash back.

These are only some of the strategies to stretch your 5% cash back. These are the simplest strategies but if people are interested in reading about more strategies I will write about them.