Many don't bother with product coupons. It's a benefit vs time and trouble decision.

Too busy to spend two minutes to clip a few coupons and save ten bucks? Yeah, that's brilliant. (insert eye roll)

Elmer: I simply prefer that fund raising for schools emphasize the whole school body working toward a goal. Kids should say "Yay, we earned $$ for our school's library (or whatever)!" instead of "Ha ha, we get the prize and you do not." Virtue as its own reward, and all that.

Cindy: Yes, I understand. For me, the tipping point for using a coupon is about two dollars for a food item -- it happens only rarely. Unless its guaranteed to save me that much, it doesn't earn a spot in my purse. I'll be frugal in other ways.

My tipping point is lower. I'm not about to toss a dollar coupon in the recycle bin if it's something I buy on a regular basis. That would make me a fool.

I don't hunt the internet for coupons or search out newspapers. .I do go thru the ones I get in the mail and Sunday paper and clip coupons I use. I'm also not about to toss a cash value towards an item in the trash if I use that item. I agree with Cindy ..that would make me a fool. Every little bit helps and adds up. Heck I get cereal and toilet paper coupons all the time for 1 $ off each..that's a 2 $ savings..enough to buy a half gallon of milk.

The Labels for Education program with Campbell's soups (among others) was discontinued.

Box Tops do occasionally change which products have labels.

I don't know of a single school that relies solely on box tops, it is one of many fundraising devices we use.

At our school, box tops bring in 1000-1500 a year. Is that the bulk of our fundraising? No. But it costs us almost nothing and gives us a nice chunk of change which we use to help our students and teachers.

We are a very small Title 1 school. Title 1 means that the majority of our students come from economically disadvantaged homes.

We are also the smallest school in our entire district with a student population of 300.

Despite these factors, our PTA last year generated about 15,000 dollars in revenue.

We made this money through Box Tops, selling spirit shirts, yearbooks, having family dinner nights at local restaurants, and our biggest fundraiser was a fun run where students got pledges from friends and neighbors for running laps and the event itself was funded/raised by having business sponsors.

With box tops, we send home a reminder note once a month in their take home folders (that the PTA provides/purchases every year) and whichever class wins gets a cupcake or cookie party at the end of the semester. It costs us less than 30 bucks, sometimes nothing if we get the items donated, and we make 500 per "contest".

Our PTA designs and sells all the school spirit wear merchandise so we make money off of all of that.

We design and sell the yearbooks and make a profit on those.

With that money, we provide our teachers with subscriptions to resources, leveled literacy kits, and basic supplies. We just spent 5700 to purchase new leveled reading books for the library. We purchased field trip shirts for our entire student body so if they are off campus, they are easy to spot/track.

If you've ever taken a group of 60+ 6 year olds to the park with 3 teachers, an aid and the room mom's and other parents who come along to help, you realize how important this is.

We also put on educational programs for our students and their families as well as host reading nights, art nights, the book fair, and a Christmas carnival.

We work our butts off and are known in our district for everything we accomplish.

I'm proud of our PTA and I think we do a lot of really good things, and one of those things is bagging some box tops and mailing them in twice a year and getting 1000+ to help our school.

F.Y.I. Box tops are worth .10 a piece.

Texas Gem our Elementary schools PTO does almost exactly as yours. And yes ours also gives each child K-5 a tee shirt. Its always a bright neon color with the schools name printed on it. This shirt is p aid in full thru the PTO. As a parent/grand I appreciate this extra safety measure that allows all the children to be spotted quickly.

I'm not in agreement with how some of the fundraising is done but I do think the PTO/PTA does a great job and strives to help. Our PTO also provides shoes 2 times a year for any child whose parent needs and asks for help

I don’t understand why a school wouldn’t use Box Tops. It doesn’t cost anyone anything if people turn in Box Tops for products they happen to buy. PTA volunteers sort and mail them. Our elementary school earned $3000K a year on those. I can’t imagine a school having so much cash that they wouldn’t bother

As for coupons-some people just refuse to use them. Not me. Most are digital now. 2 weeks ago I withdrew $1K from Ibotta. It’s not the first time I’ve made a large withdrawal. I easily have another $1K spread over other grocery apps.

im not a fan of many fundraisers. My kids never went door to door. They went to school to learn, not sell. My youngest graduated 2 years ago. I do put my Box Tops in a bag I’ll drop off at one of the schools. My trash is their cash!

"I don’t understand why a school wouldn’t use Box Tops. It doesn’t cost anyone anything "

Perversely, Lisa, that's exactly the reason. The message was "running this school as you want it to be takes money and effort and we need your help on an ongoing basis". Passing along things that don't cost anything doesn't take any effort or cost and to encourage that was the opposite of the message.

As I said before, if you ask for pennies, you get pennies. If you ask for dollars, you get dollars. Imagine the difference if everyone turning in 10 boxtops put a $10 or $20 bill into the envelope instead or in addition.

"My trash is their cash!"

What true contribution/sacrifice are you giving them by limiting it to "trash"? Why not "my extra money that I can afford to give them is their money" ?

Coupons? They're not of interest for many, we can't be bothered with them. Any possible savings aren't worth the effort for us and wouldn't affect our spending one way or another. I find it ironic that coupon users are name calling and belittling non-users, it's not the other way around.

(PS - $3000K is $3 million. I suspect you meant $3000, or $3K. )

Any possible savings aren't worth the effort for us

Effort? Cutting a few coupons? Ok.

Thanks. Everyone is different and faces different circumstances. I'm okay, you're okay too.

CindyMac have you ever sat down and computed the time that it takes to look at coupons, cut them out, arrange them, take them with you to the store, dig them out of where they are stashed against what if you are working your salary is? What other things could you be doing with that time?

Only takes a few minutes. I look through the coupon inserts in the Sunday paper and clip the ones I use, then stick 'em in a drawer paper-clipped together. When I go shopping I check to see if any of the coupon items are on my list. Seriously, this takes a matter of minutes.

Took me longer to take the pics and upload than it did to scan the circulars and clip. I'll eventually save $10 on items I buy on a regular basis.

Cindy do you use apps such as savings catcher and ibotta too?

No. The only app on my phone is a weather app. I keep the beast in my purse for when the need arises. It's rarely turned on.

We use Persil laundry detergent. A coupon for $2 arrived in my mail box. Should I toss it, or be wise and spend it? I mean, it's going to have to be carried by me, to the store, and the effort to hand it to the cashier...whew...just tires me out thinking about it.

But I put newspaper advertising and also any type of junk mail directly into a trash can. I don't bother to look at or open any of it, it doesn't seem necessary. Everyone has different preferences, views, and needs. I'm happy for you to see it differently, I don't need to understand why or agree with you nor you with me.

When we moved a couple years ago, I switched to electronic newspaper instead of physical newspaper. BLISS!!!! No more pile of paper or inserts to get rid of every week!!! My sister used to ask, "Do you want me to save my weekly inserts for you to look thru?" Thanks but NO, a thousand times no!

Unless one of us is Bill Gates, Elon Musk or Richie Rich hiding behind our Houzz name, we all have budgets to stay within. Just different preferences as to how to go about it. I'm happily (and necessarily) frugal when shopping, but I prefer to look for in-store deals vs. being tied to a coupon.

My Dad, who is in the early stages of Alzheimer's, spends a good chunk of his time going thru ads, circling deals and cutting out coupons. When he gives me a stack of dog food coupons (for a brand I do not use), I smile and say "Thanks, Roxy and Spice will appreciate this!" He's happy he is being useful, I'm happy he is still aware we have dogs. All good.

Schools here can’t be bothered with box tops, we are told.

I called my schools PTO President today about another matter but brought up the box tops. Is it worth boxing them up and mailing them...she was shocked I'd even ask. Last year the school earned close to 3K from box tops. Anyway we got together this afternoon and worked on finishing putting names on folders that are sent back and forth from school to home daily. I was happy to help. I'd say 3k is far from pennies.

I'd say 3k is far from pennies

Well let's do the math. A lot of schools that collect box tops are in low income areas. Many of them literally feed breakfast and lunch to a good percentage of their students.

Let's say you have 300 students in the school (and most schools have more like 400 or more). If each family ( going with the 300 number) contributed 10 dollars you would have your 3K right there. However families are pressured into buying products, a lot of which are low nutritional value foods, to get those box tops. Figure each product averages 3.00 to purchase. The family has to buy around $300.00 dollars of boxed cheerios or lucky charms to collect those 10 dollars in box tops . Sounds like a lose-lose to me for a family in a low income school district trying to make ends meet. The only winner in this is General Mills.

Exactly, watchme. I took a look at the box top fund raising site and I was pretty shocked to see that the participating food products are mostly the processed and high sugar types that the school really shouldn't be encouraging families to buy.

Giving cash instead kills two birds with one stone - the school gets more money and school families get more healthy nutrition.

My first comment in this too long thread was that many schools aren't very clever when it comes to raising money. This PTO president mentioned above doesn't sound like she's a creative or thoughtful person.

I'd say the schools are also winners. The school boxes up and mails in the box tops. The school isn't buying the Cherrios or Lucky Charms the parents are. What the parents do is their business but hopefully they arnt buying only for the BT but if they are its not costing the school. My point is the school reaps the rewards.

And my kids arnt in a low income school.

Elmer you base your opinion on the PTO officer as not being creative or thoughtful from the little I said.. WOW

watchme- I can tell you from personal experience that, at least at our school, there is a distinct have/have not line with very little middle ground.

The majority of the PTA board are on the "have" side. The PTA are also the ones that sell yearbooks, shirts, collect box tops, etc.

We KNOW who is a "have" and whose a "have not".

The people who are sending in box tops, paying for laps during "fun runs", their businesses sponsering school activities, etc are all the minority "haves."

Trust me when I say that the poor, "have nots" at our school are not in any way spending money or being pressured into buying low nutritional value foods through the box tops program. Heck, some of the ones I know won't even clip the box tops off of the few items they DO buy and send them in.

No, at our school it is the minority "haves" who not only donate a lot personally out of pocket but also clip/send in box tops to support the school.

Fundraising in a low socio-economic area has it's own challenges.

So let's you continue the math with the haves doing all the box top stuff because they can afford it. For simplicity let's say you have a school where 1/2 the students are low income or don't participate in the box top thing for whatever reason. Using my small school of 300 students that means the parents who contribute each have to buy 600.00 worth of cheerios or what not to get that 3K for the school. When they could have simply written a check for 20 bucks and been done with it.

mamap, If your grandchildren aren't (not arnt) in a low income school, why are all kids given free T-shirts? That was an example of what struck me. It would be much more clever to send the T shirts home with a brief letter and a prepaid business reply envelope (addressed to the school principal or secretary) attached, with a note saying:

"Dear Parents

We can best provide for the safety of your child or children on trips when all XYZ School students wear the same brightly colored shirt. These are expensive for us to buy but they are supplied to you for free by the PTO from other money raised during the year. If you can afford it, we'd appreciate any contribution by check or cash in the enclosed envelope to offset the cost. FYI, each shirt costs us $10 (or whatever). We know there are families that cannot afford to send us money and so if you would like to help offset that cost too, please include an additional amount if you can. Should we be so fortunate to raise more money for T shirts than we spent on them, the additional money will be spent on providing shoes to children whose families can't afford them.

We will not be keeping track of who does and who doesn't send us money. It's on the honor system, but any help will be appreciated. "

I made the comment because I have board and project level experience with a school that's very successful raising money. I suspect you don't have the same experience and nor does this PTO person. Wow all you want.

Watchme- you still don't get it. They are ALREADY spending the 600.00 worth on their own groceries, AS WELL AS writing checks directly to the school and/or PTA well in excess of the 20 bucks you stipulated.

Box Tops is just one more method of raising funds, using things they ALREADY buy.

The PTO provides a tee shirt every year to every child to wear during field trips. My children are not in a low income school.

Texas I can tell you have never been poor $600 is probably three to four months of food to a poor family.

No Texas, they aren't. The whole program and the whole pizza party thing pushes gullible people to buy things they may not normally choose.

I spend quite a bit on groceries and other household items. I'm not some farm to table foodie. I use convenience products. However I certainly don't spend it on many things that come with the box tops. Actually I just stepped away and looked in my pantry. The products I prefer have no box tops. Maybe the occasional box of Cheerios but that is about it. I looked at all my cake mixes , oatmeal etc. No box tops. Occasionally I buy Lysol Wipes or Ziplock products. I looked at the complete product lists too. A lot of the products I used to buy but when the quality fell they lost me. Why buy Kleenex when I prefer Puffs? Ditto for Scott Toilet Tissue. Was a great product at one time. Now it's crap. But I am not changing my favorite brands or compromise my tastes just to collect a 10 cent cut out.

Maifleur- that is an erroneous statement. I have been poor, and luckily I am not poor any longer. I didn't say I spend 600 a month on groceries, nor did I say these other wealthy families spend that. I don't know what they spend, I don't ask to see their finances.

Geez. My point is it's not the poor families buying box tops items anyway!!

I think every cent counts here and if enough people contribute, it does add up to a substantial amount of money. Why not take it? I am surprised that a school could not be bothered with it since the box-tops and the labor involved are all donated. Passing up free money, if you ask me. I saved Campbell's labels for years for my kid's school and actually felt a little guilty throwing them out when the kids left grade school. ( I also don't buy canned soup anymore now that the kids are grown. )

When DD was in elementary school, her school did very well with box tops. It was a good program for our school. Box tops paid for a lot of field trips that many of the kids would never have had a chance to experience otherwise.

I don't go out of my way to buy products with box tops, but keep them when they turn up. My biggest gripe was putting them on the pages of 25 to make them easier for the PTA to process. It was hard to find a way to keep them from falling off. Eventually I just printed pages from the internet that had the placement in straight lines, and used a long strip of ultra-cheapie tape to attach them. Without going out of our way, we generally sent the school between $20 and $25 worth of box tops each year. It only took a short time, and it does add up if you have even a handful of other people contributing in the same way.

A PTA lady I use to know, from a different district, managed to get an entire playground section built with money earned from box tops.

Our school never had a box top competition, but I've heard about those and thought it was stupid. It's funny because the other night I was lamenting that DD's new school probably does not do box tops, but I've heard I could sell them on ebay. DD and DH couldn't believe that-- so again, the OP is funny because of that being mentioned. And for the record, I'm not going to sell them, but will probably offer them to a neighbor who works at an elementary school.

My kid's are beyond the box top stage now so I save them and give them to the neighbor kids. I don't go out of my way to get them, but they are on a lot of non-food items particularly at this time of the year. I think they were on my Ziplock baggies and Kleenix I recently bought.

I think the point is that box-tops are a bonus item. It doesn't cost anything extra for the people collecting them. No, it's not going to be a huge fundraiser, but it is still free money/equipment for the school.

We've moved around a few times so my kids have been to various schools. We've seen a lot of fundraisers. Schools where families have more money do have bigger fundraisers and ask for cash. We've donated and had dh's employer provide matching funds. There are some families that don't participate regardless of any fundraiser or project. The rest of the school takes up the slack. I have to admit I'm not on board with all of the fundraisers. Some schools have better projects than others.

but I prefer to look for in-store deals vs. being tied to a coupon.

Like I said, I only clip coupons for items I buy regularly. I love how some of you try to make all of this out to be such a big deal. Argument for argument's sake?

Are you familiar with the box tops app?

Bonus app

Very easy way to participate supporting your local schools, or school of your choice.

cindymac, my recollection and reading is that you were the one being argumentative. You said you like using coupons, others said they choose not to and that was that. You were the one on a rampage. Trying to belittle the non-users' reasons why, rolling your eyes, and calling us (indirectly) fools.

You seem to be intolerant of people who disagree with you or see things differently. It's not the first time.

I went back reading Cindys posts. I didn't see any intolerance . .only defending her opinion that clipping a few coupons is not time consuming.

I think this is snarky even if it was not aimed at me.

"CindyMac

I'm guessing the same people who don't bother to collect box top coupons don't bother with regular coupons either."

How is that snarky? A coupon's a coupon.

I actually think this might qualify as snark. And to think I took the time to show you how simply and quickly it's done after you belittled me.

maifleur01

CindyMac have you ever sat down and computed the time that it takes to look at coupons, cut them out, arrange them, take them with you to the store, dig them out of where they are stashed against what if you are working your salary is? What other things could you be doing with that time?

Your words, not mine.

And now I'll happily put you on my ignore list.

Well, I've never been so insulted, I'm leaving!!

LOL just kidding. I will be out of pocket (on vacation) for a week or so, but look forward to catching up with the KT when I get back. I want to hear about AmyLou's cruise :-)

OP here, How does a simple question about Box Tops turn into a 2 cluster ___?

I am sorry I started this thread, I don't like people hating on other people!

Please take the calling out, snarky remarks and anything condescending you may want to say --- over to Hot Topics!

Kathy G in MI

Nickle, have a relaxing and fun vacation.

FWIW, I did post about my cruise about 2 hours ago nickel. Houzz has decided to hold it hostage for some reason though, as its still not visible.

For the record - whether or not you have collected Box Tops is up to you. It doesn’t matter to me. I have, and still have some to donate, but I have never gone out of my way to buy a product with them on it. From what I recall- they are on Cheerios, Chex, Bisquick, Scott products, taco shells, ziplocs. If something I happen to buy has it, I rip it off before recycling. When I was on the PTA board in elementary school, all of the Box Top money went into the ‘Angel Fund’ to pay for things some students couldn’t afford-mainly field trip fees or school shirts. I can see other points of view. People sending in extra money would have never worked here. We struggled to get $5 PTA memberships. Anyway my kids have moved on to college so good luck to the schools whatever they do. I think door to door selling is banned now. I haven’t had a kid come to the door in many years.

The vigilante force has struck again, a comment of mine seems to have disappeared.

In response to cindymac saying "And now I'll happily put you on my ignore list.", I suggested I was probably in good company on a pretty long list of people she disagrees with (and so ignores).