{free backpacks this week}

If you’re a parent shopping for back to school, you’ve probably found yourself trying to make backpack decisions.

Do you buy the cheaper backpack available at Walmart or one of the drugstores, or do you “splurge” on a nice backpack and buy one that actually has a chance at lasting through the year?

Well, I have a solution for you!  Each year for the past several Office Max offers really good quality backpacks for $0.01!!  That’s an incredibly good deal!  I can tell you from experience that these backpacks are tough and unless your child throws it under the school bus, it has a really good chance at lasting the entire school year.

We purchased these backpacks for our daughters 2 years ago when Office Max was running this same deal and we STILL have them!  They’re a little more dirty than when we purchased them, but other than that they’re in perfect condition.

The only catch with this deal is that you have to have the money to spend upfront on your backpacks and then you will receive a reward back into your MaxRewards account.  For example, you might pay $39.99 upfront for each backpack and then receive a reward of $39.98 back into your account.  The rewards are not issued immediately, so you WILL have to wait a month or so to see that money back.  But if you can spare the money right now, this deal is definitely worth it!

Your reward can then be used on just about anything else in the store.  I think I ended up using my reward on printer ink, paper, and k-cups for my Keurig.  Sounds like a win-win situation to me!  🙂

The one thing I’d like to caution against is letting your reward expire.  See, when stores offer promotions like this, they do so knowing that a large majority of people are going to make the upfront purchase and then completely forget to redeem their rewards later.  So, the store essentially never loses any money on this deal.  But those of us who are savvy frugal shoppers love taking advantage of deals like this one because we know that we won’t let those rewards go unused.

There are still backpacks available online and I’m sure that you can still pick up backpacks in stores as well.  Check it out this week!

Happy Saving,

Melony