Staples Back To School Savings Pass 2013: Is It Worth It?

The Staples Back to School Savings Pass is available for purchase in stores for 2013.

For $10 out of pocket, you can use the savings pass to take 15% off school supplies at Staples stores through September 21, 2013.



In addition to basics like backpacks, paper, notebooks, and pens, you can also use the Back to School Savings Pass for discounts on cleaning supplies, desk lamps, teaching and education supplies, and calendars and organizers.

The Savings Pass cannot be used on calculators, cases of paper, flash drives, or ink, along with a few other categories.  You can see the entire list of participating products here.

I calculate that you would need to spend around $75 at Staples after sales and other discounts on back to school supplies in order to break even on your Savings Pass purchase.

So that could be worthwhile if you have multiple children to shop for, or if you're a teacher looking to save extra money on your classroom supplies.

However, as usual I'm skeptical about having to spend money in order to save money.

The 2013 back to school sales will start in earnest after the 4th of July holiday, and couponers can snag lots of freebie supplies or items priced at a quarter, a dime, or sometimes even a penny each by watching the sales.

So if saving money is more important than saving time, I would probably skip it, and coupon at the office stores and the drugstores for the majority of your school supplies.

Read more about the Staples Back To School Savings Pass here.