At Home with Tech

Would you like to operate your home printer for free? As in not paying for another ink cartridge ever again? Well, you can… if you own a Discover credit card and you like to shop at Staples…

We all know how painful it is to plunk down big bucks to keep feeding your home printer. Whether it’s a simple model, or a higher end photo-printer, you’re probably spending hundreds of dollars a year replacing those damn ink cartridges.
(My Epson photo printer gets really hungry spitting out photos of my five year old.)

A while back, I found a way to get my ink cartridges for free.
(I have your attention, do I…?)

Here’s how it works…

Discover This!
The first step to my ‘secret strategy’ is to use my Discover credit card and earn cash back on my day-to-day purchases.
Yes… lots of credit cards give you cash back or other rewards. So what’s so special with Discover?

The reason I like my Discover card so much is its cash-back plan can be redeemed through a variety of store gift cards. And one of the stores I like to frequent for my tech supplies is Staples.

…And yes, Staples sells printer ink cartridges.

Party at Staples
So I go about my life…. using my Discover card… building up my cash back… and then I simply go online to my Discover account and order a few Staples gift cards.

When they come in the mail, I drive down to my local Staples store, do a little shopping and pay for my ink with the gift cards.
They can also be redeemed through staples.com.

Technically, I haven’t spent a dime!
(How easy is that?!)

But it gets better…

20% Bonus
Signing up for a $25 Staples gift card only costs you twenty bucks.
(What?)

That’s right…Discover gives you a $5 discount on each Staples gift card.
(In fact, Discover offers discounts with many other store partners, but the deals vary.)

I don’t see it so much as a discount… It’s more of a gift!
Discover is actually giving you 20% on your cash-back dollar!

I’d say that’s a pretty sweet deal.

That was Easy
If you follow my little economic ‘dance,’ you can create your own 20% sale on printer cartridges (or whatever else you buy) at Staples.
And then, you get it all for free.

So where’s the catch…?

Well, of course, you’ve got to spend money on your Discover card in the first place to build up your cash-back balance.
Thus, technically, ‘Barrett’s ink-scheme’ isn’t quite ‘free.’

But I’d say it’s really close!
(It’s all a matter of perspective…)

And I can’t tell you how great it feels when I pick up my ‘free’ ink cartridges at Staples…
(I highly recommend it!)

File this one under the category of Q.E.D.
(Quite easily done!)