I have sat on the fence regarding getting a Tablet for over a year now, I simply cannot seem to be able to justify the cost of one, and further to that I cannot decide which to get. I like the quality of an iPad, but I dislike Apples closed system and DRM as I like to be able to copy movies etc over quickly and without hassle when going on trips.
Recently I have decided that I really should pick up a Tablet for travelling as carrying a laptop is a pain, and I do appreciate having a bunch of movies and a bigger screen for internet whilst away from home. At the moment I am still undecided about whether it will be an Android, Apple, or Windows 8 Tablet – but one thing for certain is that I want to pay as little as possible for it, ideally getting it for free.
To do this I am building up credits and rebates from Staples. In December they held a promotion where you could get a free $15 card for every $100 giftcard you purchased, up to $1000. So I took my Chase Ink Bold card to the local staples (5x points on Office Supplies!) and picked up $1K of cards. These cards I cashed out via Kiva – to learn how to do this check out this post: Kiva and Gift Cards
A few weeks later and I have a Staples Gift Card for $150! And not forgetting those Chase Ultimate Reward points – 5000 which is worth about $100 to me.
However, Tablets seem to run at the $300-$600 price range, so I am still a little far away FAR away….
FAR means Free After Rebate – and this is how I plan to boost my credit with Staples, that and Ink!
Every Week Staples Issues a list of FAR Items, for which you pay cash for and they send you a check or credit for future purchases. I only really started going for this last month for actual physical items (in the past I have enjoyed buying 10x copies of AntiVirus for $500 (5x points and the money comes back in a check!)
Last month I picked up a Pack of AA Batteries which cost me $13.96 – and I will always need these batteries so its fine to stock up. I also recycled Ink cartridges. They give you $2 per cartridge, and therefore my current statement is looking like this:
So I am up to $173 of free money towards that Tablet.
But it gets better!
This week I received a coupon via email for $25 off $75, this would be great for my laptop, but unfortunately they are onto me and exclude any cool items like Tablets, Nooks, Kindles etc from this Coupon.
Damn Terms and Conditions!
However, what they Don’t exclude is Binders… yes Binders… these are on the front page of the weekly add from Staples guess what is special about these Binders? FAR!
These binders, are 100% Free After Rebate, up to a maximum of 4 per person and retail at $19.99 each. I buy 4 of these for $80, triggering the coupon that deducts $25. What I have done is added $80 to my Staples Credit to be used for my Tablet – or in other words I have made that $25 off $75 work on things that are excluded from it!
I also dropped in another 5 Ink Cartridges today, for $10, so next month when these post I will get another $90 towards my goal of a Free Tablet.
Not quite there, but up to $263 now and getting very close to swooping into my local staples and picking up my shiny new tablet free of charge!
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