Tipster Tuesday: FREE, $1.00 & $2.00 School and Home Office Supplies at Staples This Week

Go to Staples for some fantastic deals on school and home office supplies. Prices are good from 3/15-3/21. (Limit 2 per item- except as specified for Delta Elite pens. While supplies last. In store only.)

PENS, PENCILS, HIGHLIGHTERS AND CRAYONS
FREE AFTER EASY REBATE- Staples Delta Elite retractable ballpoint pens, black 2/pack (5.29-$2.30 instant savings -$2.99 Easy Rebate= FREE (Limit 1 rebate per customer)
$1.00 BIC Ultra Rround Stic Grip ballpoint pens, medium, black, 12/pack
$1.00 Pilot FriXion Ball gel pens, fine, assorted, 3/pack
$1.00 BIC Atlantis ballpoint pens, medium, assorted, 4/pack
$2.00 Staples gel stick pens, medium 12/pack
$1.00 Staples assorted mechanical pencils 12/pack
$1.00 Ticonderoga pencils 12/pack
$1.00 BIC Brite Liner assorted highlighters, 5/pack
$1.00 Crayola crayons standard, 24/pack

PAPER, PADS, PHOTO PAPER, INDEX CARDS, ENVELOPES
$1.00 HammerMill CopyPlus copy paper, 500 sheets/ream
$1.00 Staples Accel 4.25″x5.5″ fat book, 200 sheets (this is a spiral bound paper notebook)
$1.00 Writing pads, perforated, letter size, white, wide ruled, 3/pack
$1.00 AFTER EASY REBATE- Staples photo plus 4″x6″ paper 60/pack (this is paper for printing your digital photos on)
$2.00 Staples ruled index cards, 3″x5″, white, 500 pack
$1.00 Staples Pull & Seal #10 Envelopes, 25/pack
$1.00 ALL 12/pack Staples clasp envelopes

POST IT’S, TAPE, GLUE STICKS
$2.00 Post-it 1/2″ unprinted tape flags, 4/pack
$1.00 Scotch Magic tape dispenser, 3/4″ x 850″
$1.00 Staples glue sticks, 4/pack

3 HOLE PUNCH, SCISSORS, STAPLER, BINDER CLIPS
$1.00 Staples binder 3-hole punch
$2.00 Westcott 7″ soft-handle scissors
$2.00 Staples black full-strip stapler value pack
$1.00 Staples soft grip binder clips, medium, 12/pack

GET MONEY BACK WHEN YOU RECYCLE ANY INK AND TONER AT STAPLES
Get $3 back in Staples Rewards (per cartridge) when you recycle any ink and toner (limit 10 cartridges per customer per month). Visit StaplesRewards.com for full program details.

Target 3/15 – 3/21

Deals below from The Centsible Sawyer

Did you know you can “stack” manufacturer’s coupons with store specific coupons. This week this makes for some free or almost free snacks for kids from Target. Target in Jersey City accepts printable coupons by the way. Generally stores do not permit more than 4 of the same coupon per transaction. Most printable coupons only allow you to print two coupons per computer (hit the back button to print the second time). I was able to print 4 of each Target coupon.

Multigrain Goldfish Cracker $1.79ea (final price $0.79)
Print $1 off Target coupon from A Full Cup (you must register to print)

Mott’s Apple Sauce $1.77 (final price $0.22)
Print $1 off Target coupon from A Full Cup (you must register to print)
Print $0.55 coupon from Mott’s

We noticed this week:

Free $5.00 Target GiftCard with purchase of 5 selected Quaker items.
Quaker Oatmeal Squares Cereal 16-oz is 2 for $5.00. Buy 5 cereals for $12.50 get $5.00 Target GiftCard. (after GiftCard price is $7.50 for 5 boxes or $1.50 per box)

Cheap Chicken (organic & super-fresh)

And when I say super-fresh, I mean this is not for the faint of heart. Super Chicken of Hoboken (4th & Jackson) is filled with cages of live chicken and poultry, much to the fascination of young children. Point out which chicken you want (the brown ones are organic, the white ones aren’t) and the friendly staff will take your chicken out of the cage, weigh it, and take it in the back room where it is prepped for your dinner (this could be either fascinating or upsetting depending how you feel about these things). There is no fresher organic chicken in town. And for $1.70 a pound for organic chicken, it is not a bad deal.

Fresh Organic Eggs on a Budget

Organic eggs from cage-free chickens are a real luxury. The yolks are almost orange and the taste is distinct. Go back to regular mass produced eggs and they taste like rubber. Organic cage-free eggs are pricey. If you buy them in the grocery store you pay in the $5 range for a dozen.

If you like the idea of buying local and environmentally friendly, organic cage-free eggs can fit in your budget. In Hoboken, the Farm Food Creamery delivers fresh organic cage-free eggs directly to your door for $4 a dozen, which is only about $0.50 more than you would pay if you drove out to a local free range chicken farm. Order by Thursday at noon and they deliver right to your door the next weekend, either Saturday or Sunday late afternoons or evenings. Call 973-772-3248 to place an order.

Organic Veggies on the Cheap

One of the best ways to get excellent quality organic vegetables for a better price is to join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Most small farms today have a hard time surviving because of the cost of running the farm. CSA are a way for people to help small local agriculture survive. You purchase a share in the farm at the beginning of the season, giving the farmer up front enough cash to run the farm for the year. In exchange, you get a weekly delivery of fresh grown vegetables from the farm.

There are many good reasons to join a CSA. It helps a local farmer. It helps the environment since most pollution happens from transporting food from far corners of the earth to your local supermarket. CSAs also usually use environmentally sound agricultural methods and the food is usually organic (not certified organic because of the cost of getting actually certified).

Being part of a CSA is a wonderful experience for a child. Children learn where their food comes from. They learn what is in season are are exposed to more and different vegetables, all delivered personally to your family from your local farmer. You can bring your child to the farm to see where the vegetables are grown and experience how they are harvested. Some farms are really like coops where you have to work on the farm, luckily ours is optional in that regard. Our CSA also issues a weekly newsletter with information on the impact of the weather on the farm and animals on the farm like the groundhog and deer that they are constantly chasing away.

The downside of the CSA is that you do not get to choose which vegetables you want. You get what the farm grows and what is in season. Most people joining for the first time are disappointed when for the first month you just end up with lettuce and salad, but that is all that is in season in the early months. The heavy and big deliveries of squash and tomato come in late summer and early fall. Also, if the season is bad, you get less vegetables. If a storm washes away all the spinach, there is no spinach. Finally, you end up with a lot of vegetables that you would not normally buy and have to be disciplined about either eating them (often experimenting with veggies you don’t know) or freezing them for later use. Some CSAs provide guidance on what the vegetables are and how to cook them or eat them.

CSAs in Hoboken: CATALPA RIDGE FARM
Catalpa Ridge Farm delivers to three locations in Hoboken. The price for a full share is $575 for 2009 or $525 if you sign up before March 15. There is currently a wait list to join this CSA so contact the farm directly if you are interested. It is possible to split a share too, which I think is a good idea, especially if it is your first year doing it. The CSA does not find someone to split with you, you have to arrange that on your own. Veggie deliveries are done May through October. The farm issues a harvest identifier (so you know what is what) and a weekly newsletter with recipes and tips. Examples of how much and what is delivered is available on their website (you can read all of last year’s newsletters). They also do a swap with a fruit farm so there are small samples of fruit deliveries mixed in with the veggies.

Looking for organic veggies on the cheap all year long? There is also the option of joining a coop. In Hoboken, there is Purple Dragon. They offer organic fruit and vegetables all year round at a cost of about $40 a week. Since they do deliveries all year round, not everything is local. For more information, please see their website.

Hoboken Picks for the week of Feb 8

Garden of Eden
Blackberries 3 for $5
Dan-o-dino yogurts $2.99 (these are usually imported from Europe and cost anywhere from $6.99 to $9.99 a pack)
Bonne Maman preserves $2.99 (normally $4.99)

New Hoboken Farm
Gala apples, $0.79 a pound
fresh herbs (basil, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, dill, etc) $1 a bunch