Office Depot - 25% off One Item

Disclaimer: I receive a commission for the following link(s):  Top Cashback

25% off one item at Office Depot.  In store or online with this printable coupon.

Use coupon code 68005695 when buying online.



Start your purchase from Top Cashback and get up to 6% back as well!

Don't have Top Cashback?  Sign up here for free.   They usually have the best cashback percentages although it take a little longer to get your money.

Pay with a Chase Ink Bold, Ink Plus, Ink Classic or Ink Cash and you will receive 5 Ultimate Rewards points for every dollar you spend at Office Supply stores.

Bumbleberry - Self Serve Frozen Yogurn $2 a cup on Sunday

Bumbleberry in Teaneck (1445 Queen Anne Road) is having a promotion this Sunday to start off the summer. $2 a cup all you fill frozen yogurt.

I would like to show a picture of the promotion, but my camera is still packed away in the move.

Bumbleberry is self serve and you pay by weight so you can go and get $2 worth of ice cream if you don't want so much, but on Sunday it is all you can fill.

See you there!

Sunday June 23rd from 1-4pm

Under the hashgacha of the RCBC (Rabbinical Council of Bergen County)

$200 of Visa/Mastercard Gift Cards at Office Max - $10 Free - Free Points

Update 6/19 - Leaving with a bang.  I went to an Office Max I've never been to before in Buffalo (1701 Niagara Falls Boulevard, Space 700) and asked if they have any $200 visa gift cards.  They pulled out a stack of them.  The lady did't know that it changed to one per customer and I was able to buy $2000 worth on multiple cards for net gain of $30 and 2,000 points!


Update - 6/18 - extended for another week

Update: 6/11 - My local office max started only allowing one per person which makes this far less lucrative.  Your local office max may or may not enforce this.


This week, June 9th-15th22nd, Office Max is offering $10 off the purchase of $200 or more in Visa or Mastercard gift cards.  Visa and Mastercard gift cards normally have a high activation fee that make this cost prohibitive.  However, with $10 off, it will more than cover the fee for the $200 cards.

There is a limit of one $10 bonus per transaction, not per household.  The limit is 35 per store, which comes out to $7,000 of gift cards so you might be able to make a nice amount of money pretty easily.

It is very unlikely that you will find any denominations larger than $200 and you might find $200 cards, but even if you only find $100, the discount will still cover the fee.


This is a chance to get some free spending on your credit card and maybe even to make some money on the actual purchase along the way.

Your Haul

Assuming you buy the $200 card with a $6.95 fee, you will have spent $196.95 on your credit card and you get a return of $3.05.

If pay with the American Express Fidelity card, you will get another $3.93 in cashback (2% cashback on everything) or just about $7 for every $200 card you buy.

Pay with a Chase Ink Bold, Ink Plus, Ink Classic or Ink Cash and you will receive 5 Ultimate Rewards points for every dollar you spend at Office Supply stores.  This will be close to 1,000 Ultimate Rewards points for every $200 you spend.  Remember that 80,000 Ultimate Rewards points get you a free trip to Israel on United, one of the transfer partners for premium Ultimate Rewards points!

What to do with your Cards

You can load the funds from your Visa or Mastercard gift cards that have pins onto a Bluebird prepaid card at Walmart and you will not have to actually spend the money on any of those gift cards.  It can be a pain depending on how many you buy, but clearly worth it in my book.

A Word of Caution

There is a limit of 1 per transaction but not one per household.  The limit is 35 per store which is $7,000.  You could theoretically keep buying them.

Don't be an idiot!

Don't put all of your purchases on one card.  It will look very shady to have $7000 of office max purchases on 35 transactions in one day or even one week and you will probably get a couple calls from the fraud department.  Bring all the cards you have and spread out your purchases if you can.  

Moving Day!

I'm moving today to Teaneck, NJ today.

Posts will not be as frequent over the next week.

App-O-Rama - Part 1

Related Posts

Part 2 - Picking The Right Cards 
Part 3 - Application Status Update

Part 4 - Avoiding annual fees

Part 5 - Affect on your credit score

What is an App-O-Rama?

App-O-Rama is the Personal Finance term used when applying for many credit cards on the same day (App is short for application if you didn't figure that one out).  One can sign up for different credit cards and get lots of bonuses all at once.

I will have a paycheck for the first time in July so July will be the time to try an App-O-Rama.  I have been reading about them for the past couple of years so I have some good ideas on how I want to approach it, but this will be a learning process for me as well.

What's the point?

Organization.  It's easier to keep track of when annual fees kick in if you applied for a bunch of cards at the same time.

Practical.  You are more likely to be accepted for each card if you haven't had a lot of recent inquires for credit on your credit report.  If you applied for 3 cards in the last 3 months and you are applying for a new one this month that's risky behavior in their eyes.  If you are applying for 4 cards on one day, the inquiries from the other banks will all register in their system, but you don't have the recent history against you.

How many cards should I apply for?

That's up to you and there is no correct number.  The more you apply for the more sign up bonuses you get and the more money you need to spend to reach those spending thresholds.

It all depends on the level of risk you are willing to assume.  This may sound simple, but credit card companies are out to make money, not give you free miles.  This is a marathon, not a race.  You have the rest of your life to collect sign up bonuses.  If you are a non-profitable customer to the company, you run the risk of the credit card company closing their relationship with you, sometimes for many years and possibly forever.  You may do better in the short term but is it worth?  Up to you to decide.

Before you decide, take a look at this post on Fat Wallet about companies Blacklisting people for extreme behavior.  Some of the stories are really fantastic.

Some blogs advocate signing up for 3 or 4 credit cards from the same company on the same day so that you will only get one hard inquiry on your credit report.  This may be true for your credit report, but the credit card company still has its own records and knows what you have been doing to them.  Just because you can get away with it now doesn't mean you can get away with it the second, third or fifth time.

How frequently can you do it?

Same answer as before.  Whatever you are comfortable with.  Some blogs will advocate every 3 months.

I personally plan on starting with the every 6 months plan.  Every 3 months for me and every 3 months for my wife.  I don't travel so much so that should more than cover my miles needs and 2-3 cards a year per company doesn't seem too much to me, but who knows where life takes you.  Also, if one of you are applying every 3 months you are unlikely to miss out on any short term promotional sign up bonuses.

As I apply I hope to update how it goes and what I need to do to get all the cards approved.

JetBlue - TrueBlue Points No Longer Expire

JetBlue is my favorite airline to fly domestically.

They tend to be cheaper than the bigger airlines like United and American Airlines and they give you more amenities in coach and better customer service.  Everyone gets a free checked bag, a snack and drink and Direct TV for free (which is priceless when you are flying with a kid).

In addition, if your Direct TV is not working you automatically get a $15 credit towards your next flight, no matter how much the ticket actually costs.  In addition, if there is ever a major delay you can get an even larger credit.

JetBlue also has a great Frequent Flyer program with TrueBlue.  Every seat is available with points and their points are consistently worth more than 1 cent per mile.


The problems with JetBlue have been that they aren't part of any airline alliance.  This means that you can only use the points to fly on JetBlue.  JetBlue also only flies domestically   TrueBlue points also expired with a year of inactivity which meant that you needed to fly every year to keep your points.  Not Anymore!


JetBlue has decided today that your points will never expire!

This is perfect timing for me since I no longer need to fly into New York and I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to use my built up miles.

Sign up for Quarter 3 5% Categories - Chase Freedom, Discover and Citi Dividend

Disclaimer - The Discover offers are no longer valid.

The beginning of enrollment for the various 5% credit cards for Quarter 3 has come.  Here are the stats.

All of the cards are for purchases from the beginning of July until the end of September.


Chase Freedom 

• 5% Cashback at Gas stations, Theme parks and Kohl's on up to $1,500 in purchases (up to $75 cashback).
• Key to maximizing:
• Finding $500 Visa gift cards at Kohl's and cashing out on Bluebird
• Find a gas station that sells gift cards in the convenience store coded as a gas station to get 5% off gas for the full $1,500.  For those who live in Buffalo, there is a Sunoco like this.

 DISCOVER IT™

• 5% Cashback at gas stations on up to $1,500 in purchases (up to $75 cashback)
• Key to Maximizing
• Same as Chase Freedom, but if you find $500 visa gift cards at Kohl's and use the full $1,500 use the Discover for gas.

Citi Dividend

• 5% Cashback at Hilton's, Car Rentals, Movie Theaters and Theme Parks
• Up to $6,000 of purchases a year instead of $1,500 a quarter (up to $300 cashback for the year).  Doesn't help me much since I've already used my entire $6,000 allotment

Chase INK Sign Up Bonuses Increase

Chase has increased the signup bonuses for their INK line of credit cards for this week.  These are all business cards and get 5% back at Office Supply stores.  Some have annual fees and some don't, but all of their sign up bonuses have been increased due to celebrate Small Business Week.

The INK Bold and INK Plus sign up bonuses have been increased from 50,000 to 60,000 after spending $5,000 in 3 months.

The INK Cash sign up bonus (no annual fee) has been increased from 20,000 points to 25,000 points.


I wouldn't get too caught up with this increase.  If you signed up recently and got the lower bonus, send Chase a secure message and you should be matched to these increased levels.  Also, if you sign up after this week you can likely still send a secure message to Chase and be matched to these levels for the next 3 months.

Check out this post by Dan's Deals if you want to sign up for the cards and support his blog.

Hat Tip - Susan Solovic via Frequent Miler