As long as the office supply stores keep giving away free money, I will share the news here! And until someone gives me a better one, I will continue to use the Mad Lib construct to announce them. Via The Travel Sisters, I learned that we have another deal going on this week, through Saturday September 10th. This is in addition to the similar deal that is going on at Staples this week
Solve the Mad Lib
Save _____ (amount) when you buy _______ (purchase amount) in _______ (type) Gift Cards at _______. Refund will be given as ___________
This time, the Mad Lib answers are:
1) $15
2) $300
3) Mastercard
4) Office Max and Office Depot. While previous deals were only at Office Max, the reports that I’m seeing are that now that the 2 are one company with one POS
5) instant rebate
In case you didn’t follow along, if you buy $300 in Mastercard gift cards this week at Office Max or Office Depot, you’ll get $15 off your order. I did not see it in the weekly ad, but there is signage in-store
Maximizing the Office Max free money deal
This is the best kind of these deals since the money comes off as an instant rebate, so in theory, you can scale it infinitely. In practice, the stores quickly run out of $200 gift cards (if they ever have them). Variable load gift cards are supposedly cash only, but YMMV by store. Specifically, I was able to easily buy $20-$200 cards with a credit card. I did not try the variable $500 cards.
Definitely I would recommend using a Chase Ink or other card that gives 5x points on office supply stores. I love the Chase Inks for exactly this reason.
I never know what to do when I show up at the store and they are (inevitably) out of the $200 gift cards. Do I just buy the $100 cards, even though the deal isn’t as lucrative, or do I try stopping back later at another store. I even wrote a poll about this (how much your time is worth) awhile back, and the consensus seemed to be to just buy the $100 cards in the store that you’re in, and not go back.
Doing the math
There’s a limit of 2 per customer, and my experience has been if you buy 3 $200 Mastercard cards (if you can FIND them!), you’ll spend $590.85 (after 2 $15 instant rebates), but then receive:
- $600 back on the actual card
- 2904 Chase Ultimate Rewards
You should also sign up for the EBates 3% cash back deal in-store for Office Depot for some extra savings
Definitely worth a stop to Office Max this week!! Good luck finding any of the $200 cards left!
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
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