Vistaprint -It's a Love/Hate Relationship (so far)

So I kept seeing all of these awesome products that teachers were getting for their classrooms from Vistaprint for AMAZING deals and thought to myself, I HAVE to get in on this. So I scoured the internet until I found a Groupon for Vistaprint. If you paid $17 you got a $70 voucher for Vistaprint - not a bad deal I thought... to sweeten the deal even more since I had never purchased anything on Groupon before I got a first time buyers coupon that saved me $15. SO in the end my Vistaprint voucher cost me $2. The fine print said that if I didn't use my $70 voucher by December I would still get $17 to spend on Vistaprint products... so for $2 I thought I made out pretty good! THEN I tried to order product. OY VEY!

I got a great email that offered me tons of free products, little did I know that if I wanted all those products for free I couldn't use my $70 voucher - NO WAY! So then I sat down and figured out the what it would cost me for all the free products (and a few not free products) without my Groupon - with shipping I would have spent $40.70 - not that great of a deal I thought. Yes I saved over $100 but still, who wants to spend $40 on stuff? Then I redid my shopping cart and used my Groupon. First I spent almost exactly $70 and found that I would have had to pay $35 or more for shipping!?!?! Now that is CRAZY!!! So then I went back and got a few other things so I spent $25 addition to my $70 that were free and now shipping was free. Once tax and all that was done I ended up spending just about $30. So I'm not really sold on using Vistaprint so I thought I would be spending almost no money and spent $32  (counting my Groupon)!

BUT I am excited for all the stuff I got and can't wait to see how it looks.... of course I have to wait the 14 days to get it all which is a bit of a bummer since I am impatient and want all my stuff NOW! But here is what I got:

First up.... a new personalized pen! It was free so I thought, WHY NOT, plus I love the pattern its green and pink polka dots!

These are magnetic business cards. They were originally free with the email but not free with the Groupon offer. I did get them for about 50% off and since I needed to spend $70 I got them. I bought 25 and will hopefully give them out to the parents at our meet the teacher, that is if they arrive in time, otherwise I will be sending them home as a special treat!

These are simple folded cards. They just say my family's name on the front. I got 10 of them for $1.89. These were also a freebie originally but with the Groupon they were not. I also got 140 matching return address labels - they were originally free, but with the Groupon cost me $1.48.

I got 10 of these little note cards for free. 

These are small car magnets. Originally the one on the right was free, but with the Groupon it cost me $1.89. But I was offered another magnet for free so I got the one with the flower.

This is a small lawn sign. It was free but using my Groupon it cost me $2.23. I plan to hang it outside my door since I still don't have my name up outside my door. 

This stamp was free!

These are my "business" cards. I put all my teacher contact information on them and plan to hand them out to parents. I got 250 of them for free... figuring I have about 25 kids in my class each year these cards should last me 10 years! I didn't put my grade or room number so I could use them year after year!

These are probably my favorite item! I did pay for these because I purchased 50 of them and wanted it colored on the inside. I put a cute saying inside them and now I'm all set for when my kiddies bring in something special for me! I can't wait for these to come in! These were my most expensive purchase: $8.84!

These flat invitations were also free originally but with my Groupon they cost me $1.47.

The final thing I purchased were these rack cards. They were originally FREE but I had to pay $4.99 to have them printed in color on the back. BUT with my Groupon they cost me $3.78 in total... I know it makes no sense to me either! They were $2.83 for them and an additional $.95 to print them in color on the back. I think they look really cute and I hope they print as good as they look (mind you this picture is terrible!). They are the "Beanie Baby Reading Strategies." 

So in the end I purchased 13 items. I paid for 8 of them and got 5 of them for free. The original total was $137.89 minus all the discounts and my Groupon my total came out to $25.90. Shipping would have been another $22.18 but since I spent $25.90 shipping was free... then with tax my total came out to $29.95 instead of $163.76... I saved $134.17! I'm still not 100% sold on all of this since I still had to spend an additional $30 and I really thought I would get stuff for almost nothing, but I guess you really can't get anything in life for free these days! I'm excited for my stuff to come in and see if I love them as much as everyone else does. Navigating their site was pretty easy but they don't make it clear that some deals can't go together, BUT their customer service representatives were very helpful and patient with me. 

Have you gotten anything from Vistaprint? Do you love them? How do you use your Vistaprint items in your classroom?