Every teacher wants to save money and time on buying math resources. In this blog post, I’m going to share with you some save money hacks as well as the time savings ways to go about doing it.
There are active and passive ways to save money. Active ways mean you are taking action to get a better discount whereas passive ways mean you take action only when the opportunity arises.
The first 4 tips are active ways while the last 3 tips are passive ways.
1) Download freebies
The best way to save money is of course to pay NOTHING on math resources.
There are many free resources on the internet that you can use in your classroom.
If you want some recommendations and reviews, do check out this blog post: 5 Free And Useful Websites For Teaching Resources That Engage Students.
And of course, you can find freebies created by teachers at Boom Learning and Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT).
Here are some freebies available in my Boom store that you can begin with:
Add & Subtract Within 20 Quiz Game Show FREEBIE
Add & Subtract Mixed Fractions FREEBIE
Here are some freebies available in my TpT store that you can grab:
Add and Subtract Within 20 Worksheet
2) Leave a review on paid resources to earn TpT credits
If you had bought resources on TpT before, then don’t miss out on the free credits that TpT pays you.
Here’s a snippet from TpT Website:
The amount is small, but it can add up. Moreover, money is money, no matter how small it is.
With just a little effort, you can earn some credits and help other teacher-authors.
As a seller, I totally look forward to the feedback that buyers give.
I’m overjoyed when buyers included their experience with the resources or just let me know how it helped them with their students.
But even when buyers just left 1 sentence review, as long as they leave a 5-star review, I also appreciate their effort.
I know sometimes we don’t like to give extreme ratings and like to give 4-star ratings. But I do hope you rate 5 stars if you do not have any valid reason to do so otherwise.
Do act like the great teacher you are and give constructive feedback, especially if you planning to rank lower than 4. This way the sellers will know how to make the resources better for other teachers.
As a small business, any negative reviews are detrimental. Don’t we all hope that we get a second chance if we did something wrong?
All sellers will thank you if you can contact the seller first if you found fault or mistakes with the resource. They will most likely fix it as soon as possible.
As a teacher-author, I will appreciate it if you leave feedback based on the error-free product.
3) Join Giveaway
A few days before sitewide TpT sales, TpT usually will give out some gift cards to sellers to help in the promotion of the sales. So do keep a lookout for any TpT Gift Card giveaway in sellers’ social media or in your inbox (if you had joined their newsletter).
4) Follow sellers who give discounts for new products for the first 24-48 hours
Many teacher-authors (like me!) provided discounts (up to 50% or $1 deal) when they first list their brand new products.
Usually, these discounts are more than TpT sitewide sales. They are often available for a limited time so do grab them before it is over!
All my resources except bundles are 50% Off the first 48 hours. So do follow me at TpT. Remember to ON the notification to receive email notifications when I post new products.
Not sure how to do that? Here are the steps:
Hover over your profile name.
Under Buy, click My Favorite Sellers, you will see a list of sellers that you followed. You can choose to select which sellers you want to receive notifications from.
5) Buy bundles
Bundles
If you are looking for more resources for the same topics or types of activities, you can save money and time by buying bundles.
Bundles are a group of resources that are usually sold at a discount of 20% or more all year round.
How to select a high-quality bundle:
- Read the previews, previews videos, reviews, and descriptions to ensure it is exactly what you have in mind.
- Buy from reputable sellers with many reviews.
- You have bought product(s) from a seller and you like the quality.
Growing Bundles
If you have a small budget and are not in a rush to get new resources, consider buying a growing bundle.
A growing bundle is a bundle that is incomplete and new products will be consistently added to it. When you buy the growing bundle, any new resources added to it at a later time will be available to you for FREE!
Usually, the price of the growing bundle will be much lower than the completed bundle. Sometimes it can just be started with the prices of the resources that are already inside of the growing bundle. Imagine buying 10 products at the cost of just 2 products!
Pros:
- It is cheaper than completed bundles.
Cons:
- You are paying in advance.
- You need to wait for new products.
- There are risks that sellers didn’t continue to add resources as promised.
Tip #1: You can buy one product from the bundle to see if you like it and seek a refund within 1 year if you decide to buy the bundle later.
Check out the TpT refund policy:
“Duplicate Purchase— You purchase the same resource twice in one TpT account.
Example: You purchase a resource contained in a specific bundle and then later purchase that bundle within one year of the original purchase.”
Tip #2: If you found a few related products that you like to buy, consider contacting the seller and see if the seller is willing to bundle it and give you discounts for them. You can contact me at [email protected].
6) Buy additional licenses to share
You will get to save more if you buy multiple licenses. This is how it works:
You buy 1 product at the full price. Each additional purchase of the same resource is considered an additional license and is purchased at the multiple license price (usually is a discount of 10%).
For example, if you and 3 other math teachers plan to buy a bundle like Division For 4th Graders, you can first buy it at a discount of 20%, $20.07.
Then buy 3 multiple licenses, which is an additional 10% off the discounted price, $18.06 each.
The total cost will be $74.25, which is much cheaper than buying the resource individually which results in a total cost of $80.28.
Here’s the breakdown:
Cost of 1st license: $20.07
Cost of 1 multiple license: $18.06
Total cost of 3 multiple licenses: $18.06 x 3 = $54.18
Total cost of 4 licenses: $20.07 + $54.18 = $74.25
The amount each teacher needs to pay: $74.25 / 4 = $18.5625
The additional amount each teacher saves: $20.07 – $18.5625 = $1.5075
So if you want to save more money, gather your teacher buddies and buy the resources you all want. You save more if you are buying higher price items.
Tips: If you plan to buy a lot, consider contacting the teacher-author and see if you can negotiate for a better price.
7) Buy during sales
TpT usually has sitewide sales in February, April, May, August, November. Discounts are up to 25% off and last 2 days.
Buying bundles during TpT sales will save you more money as it is a discount upon discount!
For example, my bundle Order of Operations in Math Problems is usually sold at 20% off at $9.20. During the TpT sale, where my store offers a 20% discount, the price is further reduced to $7.36. If you use the TpT code, you can get an additional 5% discount.
Some stores do throw sales on some special occasions. So follow them on TpT or social media to keep a lookout for them.
Sometimes there are hashtags sales or $1 dollar deals. So do keep a lookout for them. I do participate in these sales so do remember to join my newsletter and be notified when there are any sales available.
Conclusion
To save time so that you are not spending hours and days on creating math resources or curriculum, buying from another teacher is the easier option.
Buying bundles and following reputable sellers that you like can help you save time on spending time to find more resources in the future.
In addition, buying no prep or low prep resources can also help you save more time.
To maximize our savings, we can choose to “earn” more “money” or receive more discounts.
To do so, do remember to follow me at TpT or join my newsletter to receive notifications.
Furthermore, don’t be shy and feel free to contact the sellers to seek additional discounts if you are planning to buy many math resources.
To recap, these are the 7 ways to save money and time on math resources:
- Download freebies
- Leave a review on paid resources to earn TpT credits
- Join giveaway
- Follow sellers who give discounts for new products for the first 24-48 hours
- Buy bundles
- Purchase additional licenses to share
- Buy during sales
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