Weekly Ad Roundup #2

Friends, Office Depot takes the prize this week for the best deals overall. They have some awesome finds.

Starting this week, I'll only post the cheapest price for each item. Example: if Target has pencils for $1, but Office Max has them for 50 cents, I'll only post the Office Max deal. Hopefully this will make this list a little more manageable!

Office Max:

• 1 cent: 24-pack crayons, 12-inch ruler
• 10 cents: 10-pack pencils
• 50 cents: composition books, 2-pack glue sticks
• $1.50: standard binders
• $2: View binders
• Buy 2, Get 1: Binders, folders, notebooks, Crayola products, copy paper
• Buy 2, Get 2: Expo products, Bic products

Office Depot:

• 5 cents: Folders, protractors, pencil pouches
• $1: Sanitizer, glue, storage bins, pens, pencil boxes
• $2: Single hole punch, name labels, dividers, hand soap
• $3: 2-pack tape, 5-Star notebooks, milk crates, tabs, clipboards, 3-pack Sharpies
• $4: Organizers, staplers, 3-hole punch, pocket planner, 12-pack dry erase
• 20% off for all Office Depot Star Teacher members (Free sign-up at the store, starting August 7th)

Wal-Mart:

• 97 cents: Big erasers, eraser caps
• $1.97: Construction paper pack

Target's deals were not comparable to the other stores this week. They are really focusing on school clothes, so the deals on supplies are not so stellar. They do have $20 dresses, which is really testing my will power this week!

See this post for Staples' deals.

Happy Shopping, and good luck to my friends starting school this week!

-Julianna

Coming Soon... Weekly Ad Roundup!

Hey friends,

Just got internet working in my new apartment. I will upload the Weekly Ad Roundup first thing tomorrow.

Please continue to send me any ideas or updates you may find.

Happy Shopping!
-Julianna

Staples Weekly Ad: Sneak Peek!

Here's a list of the upcoming deals for Staples stores:

• 10 cents: Composition books
• 25 cents: Clear plastic ruler
• 25 cents: "Really Useful box"
• 50 cents: 7 inch scissors
• 50 cents: 5- tab dividers
• 50 cents: 1-subject notebooks
• $1: Legal pads
• $1: Poster putty
• $1: Math compass
• $1: Board erasers
• $1: Protractor
• $2: Dry erase writing board
  
• $2: 10-piece math set (Great deal!)

Click here for all the deals!

Bonus: Staples is offering $5 off your purchase of $25 or more through Saturday, July 30th!

Happy Shopping!
-Julianna

Today's AJC: School Supply Deals

Check out today's edition (July 26th) of the Atlanta Journal Constitution. In the Living section, there is an article on how to get school supplies for less. The article is focused towards parents, but has some tips for us teachers as well.

Happy Reading! -Julianna

Southern Savers

Shout out to Maryn C for this awesome tip!

http://www.southernsavers.com/

Every week, it goes through the ads and includes any coupons that may match up. It teaches you how to coupon and get discounts!

You can also click each of the stores at the top to learn about the deals at each store in more depth.

This site currently has a T-O-N of school supply deals. Check it out!

Happy Saving,
Julianna

Weeky Ad Roundup

Every Sunday, I will try to post the deals from all the most popular discount stores, office stores and pharmacies. Here are the deals for this week!

Note: Deals are from Atlanta-area ads. Click the link to change the ad for your city!

STAPLES:

• 1 cent each: 2-pocket, 3-prong folders. Valid Sunday-Wednesday only. Limit 25 for teachers.
• Free Zebra Z-Grip pens (after easy rebate)
• 10 cents: 12-pack eraser caps
  
• 25 cents: 2-pack Black Sharpies
• 50 cents: Staples copy paper
• 50 cents: 2-pack White Out
• 50 cents: Jumbo paper clips
• 50 cents: Pencil holders
• $1: Check-size zip pouches (good for holding small items)
• $1: Letter-size expandable envelopes with elastic
• $1: Rose Art markers
• $2: Post it flags
• $2: 5- pack dry erase markers
  
• $2: 5-pack Bic highlighters
• Many other deals- check the weekly ad for items over $2

OFFICE MAX:

• BOGO: 3-pack Pentel retractable pens
  
• BOGO: Office Max filler paper (Wide & college ruled)
• BOGO: 5-pack Pentel WOW! Blue or black pens
• Buy 2 Get 1: Expo markers or Sharpie highlighters
• Buy 2 Get 1: Binders and dividers
• 2 for $3: 2-pack glue sticks
• 2 for $3: 2-pack Sharpie pens
• 2 for $3: 3-subject notebook
• 2 for $5: 24-pack Ticonderoga pencils
• 2 for $5: 3-pack Scotch tape
• 2 for $7: Book Sox book covers
• 2 for $7: 24-pack Bic mechanical pencils
• 2 for $7: 5-pack Pentel pens

OFFICE DEPOT:

• 25 cents: 2-pack dry erase markers (Great deal!)
• 1 cent: Manual pencil sharpener
• 50 cents: 4-pack glue sticks
• $1: Office Depot brand paper
• $2: Ruler
• $2: Extreme glue stick (really?)
• $2: Fiskar kid scissors
• $2: 4-pack tape
• $4: Binder clips
• $4: Stand-up stapler
• $4: Post-it Cubes
  
• $5: 3-hole punch
• $5: Storage clipboard
• 40% off: Select pens, pencils, markers & highlighters (See store)
  

TARGET:

• 99c: 12-pack USA Gold pencils or sharpener
• 99c: Select Mead folders, notebooks, composition books
  
• 99c: 12-pack Crayola colored pencils
• 50c: Sterlite pencil box
• $2.50: Mead dual-sided dry erase board or 5-pack magnetic markers

CVS Pharmacy:

• BOGO: Pilot G2 pens
• BOGO: Scotch paper cutter
• BOGO: Georgia Pacific paper
• BOGO: 4-pack Expo markers
• BOGO: 30-count pencils
• BOGO: 24- count Crayola crayons
• BOGO: 24-count Bic mechanical pencils
• 2 for $3: 2-pack Sharpies
• All deals: CVS Card required, free sign-up @ checkout

WALGREEN'S:

• BOGO: Mead 5-star notebooks
• 2 for $1: Filler paper
• 29 cents: Penway or Wexford notebooks
• 9 cents: 2-pocket folders (limit 10)
  
• 19 cents: 12-pack pencils
• 39 cents: 10-pack mechanical pencils
• 39 cents: 100-pack index cards
• 39 cents: 2-pack or 15-pack erasers
• 39 cents: 10-pack sheet protectors (so many uses!)
• 39 cents: 1-inch poly binder
• 39 cents: 5- tab dividers
• 39 cents: index card holder or pencil holder
• 29 cents: Glue or scissors (need coupon)
• 49 cents: Composition notebook (need coupon)
• Many other deals- see weekly ad!

The ad for Wal-Mart was not available at the time of this post.

There are SO many deals this week!

Happy shopping,
Julianna

Last Year's Paper- UPDATE

Shout out to Laura G for this great tip:

Visit your local Office Depot and ask for last year's paper. Every year, Office Depot changes the packaging for filler paper. The current price for "this year's paper" is around $1.50-3 per pack. If you ask for last year's paper, you can get 20 packs for one cent each! You may have to ask the manager because it will probably be hidden in the back.

Hope this works for you! Happy shopping!
-Julianna

Thanks to Heidi for catching my error- the paper deal is actually at Office Depot, and may not work at every store. Good luck! - J

Dolla' Dolla' Tree, Y'all

Another great place for finding teacher supplies is Dollar Tree. In case you've never been (in which case I say- go now!) everything in the store is $1.

Around back to school time, they have a ton of teacher stuff. On my last visit, I bought:

• 25 dry erase boards with markers (non magnetic)
• 3 different bulletin board borders
• A cute owl-themed chart that shows good behavior traits
• Bookmarks to match the owl chart
• Cut out letters (70 in a pack, I bought 3 colors)
• US Map poster
• Double stick tape
• Push pins
• Binder clips

AKA- Lots of stuff! They also have cleaning supplies, cards, wrapping paper (good for bulletin board backing) and more.

There are Dollar Tree stores nationwide. Hope you find one near you!

Atlanta Community Food Bank: Kids in Need

Shoutout to 2010 Corps Member Kyle Wood for this great idea! Thanks, Kyle!

http://www.acfb.org/projects/kids_in_need/

Atlanta Community Food Bank (ACFB) has a program called Kids in Need, where they give free supplies to teachers in low-income schools. Your principal needs to submit the name of the school or organization in order to qualify, but it is definitely worth it! All the supplies are brand new and they have stuff for Pre-K through 12th grade.

Photo from the KiN warehouse, found on their website:


Shopping is by appointment only, Tuesday-Friday from 2:45-4:45pm.

Check it out, and thanks again Kyle!

Shoe Hangers are My New Best Friend

One great tip I got from a fellow new teacher is this...

Over-the-door shoe hangers are amazing, multi-purpose organizational miracles.



Her words, not mine. However, she is right!

Stores like Ross, Marshall's and Big Lots sell these wonders for about $5 a piece. Major stores like Target or WalMart sell them for around $10-15.

Today, I purchased one 24-pocket and one 8-pocket for $10. They come in a lot of colors, especially around back-to-college time when stores have a bunch of these.

Some ideas for how to use them:

• Class mail center: You can roll the paper up and put them inside the little shoe holders.
  
• Behavior management chart: Use binder clips or baseball card holders to put behavior cards inside
• Space savers: Use the larger pocket ones for holding centers materials, file folder games and other resources.
• Supply station: These are often the perfect size for storing extra pencils, glue sticks, rulers, etc. I'm even going to try to put boxes of crayons, hand sanitizer, etc in mine.

Here are links to these at Target. The second link has a "find in store" option to see if this item is available in your local Target!

http://www.target.com/Whitmor-Over-Door-Pocket-Organizer/dp/B001DYMA3W/ref=sc_qi_detaillink

http://www.target.com/Room-Essentials-Over-The-Door-Organizer-Cream/dp/B004LT6S0M/ref=sc_qi_detaillink

What other ways could these come in handy? Happy shopping!

Update: An idea from fellow teacher Anna T.- you can also use these in your home to organize cleaning supplies. Great idea, Anna!

Paint Samples...Not Just for Decorating!

At my local teacher supply store, pocket chart cards run about $5 for a pack of 100. They come in a lot of colors, and have many uses around the classroom.

But what if you could get them for free?

Home improvement stores have free paint samples that are the perfect size for pocket charts and flashcards. Depending on the brand, the samples come in lots of different sizes. I found index-card size (about 3 inches wide) that I'm using for my behavior management chart. I took 25 each in 10 different colors, plus a big chunk of white.



The great thing about these is that they are painted on card stock, so they are pretty sturdy and will last a while. I would be careful to make sure the paint samples are non-toxic or don't smell like wet paint.
I know what you're thinking: that's a lot of paint samples! I felt bad taking so many, so I checked with the manager. I told him I was a teacher and he said it was not a problem at all.

I would love to know other uses that other teachers can think of for these awesome little cards. When I get in my classroom, I will post any other things I can think of! Good luck!


UPDATE: Here are some pics of how I'm going to use these in the room:

These are just some of the colors I found. They are Glidden samples from Home Depot.




I'm using card pockets that I found at Dollar Tree ($1 for 6 pockets). Inside each pocket is a set of colors, one for each level of my behavior management plan (still TBD but I got a bunch of colors just in case). When students have a corrective action, they will go and change their card to show what "color" they are on. I will record their color at the end of the day and send the week report home on Fridays. When students change colors, they will also record their color in a behavior log (easy tracking- make students do it!)

I also thought of using these for Class Job assignments. I will clip these onto the student mailboxes (shoe hanger- see later post) to show what job students have. Here are a few of them.

Those are all the ideas I have so far. Let me know if you think of others!

What Can You Get for a Penny?

These days, it's hard to find anything you can buy for a penny. However, Staples has some amazing deals each week that you can get for only one cent!

Every week, Staples has three items you can get for one cent each. The deals start on Sunday, and I recommend getting there as early as possible as they sell out fast! The normal limit is only two items, but the limit for teachers is 25! The deals this week are 2-pack highlighters, packs of 8 pencils and 100-count index cards. That's right, you can get 50 highlighters, 200 pencils and 2500 notecards all for 75 cents. Last week, the deals were eraser caps, pens and printer paper.

You'll need a teacher ID in order to get the limit, but it's totally worth it. Happy shopping!

PS- The weekly ad comes out on Wednesday for the next week, and you can preview what the penny deals will be.

Greetings!

Hi friends,

As a first year teacher on a budget, I have already experienced how expensive it can be to get a classroom ready for students. In today's economy, we all need to save a few dollars. I've taken my couponing and bargain shopping strategies and channeled them into a place where teachers can share money-saving ideas for our classrooms. This blog will be a place where fellow teachers can share or post deals, coupons, organization ideas and more. I really want this blog to be made up of many contributors, so if you have ideas feel free to share! I've set up an email for my "teacher stuff", so please email me at misshendleysclass3@gmail.com with any ideas you have.

Happy shopping, fellow teachers!

-Julianna (aka Miss Hendley)