St. Joseph Parents' Club Manna News

Manna 2011-2012 School Year!

MANNA/T.R.I.P.
The Way to Really Buy!

Participating families earned $3,500 toward their 2006-2007 tuition.
Sign up today and join in the savings!

What's New?

Per School Policy - every family must purchase $400.00 Manna certificates per year.

CURRENT MANNA ORDER FORM

MANNA/TRIP POLICIES & REGISTRATION

Want to Work Manna To Your Advantage?  Here's how!

By now, you know that the Manna Program has a mandatory purchase requirement. This means that every family must participate in the program. What a drag, right?

WRONG! The Manna program is actually the easiest thing you can do to not only help St. Joseph School, but to help yourself in the process.

Let's review the workload that is needed: Each week, the Manna orders are due on Tuesday morning. You spend money (via check) to obtain certificates or gift cards that you then use during the week just like cash or credit cards for the things that you are going to buy anyway, like groceries, restaurants, and gas. This requires that you think ahead a little bit about what you intend to buy during that week, spend some time filling out a form, and it requires a small investment from your money (which you're going to spend anyway) to obtain the cards, but that is the ONLY real "work" required.

Everything else is a benefit. After receiving your order, you now have a stack of cards or certificates in your hands. All you have to do now is go shopping (hey -- let's help the economy somehow)! However, you don't need to buy stuff that you don't need or want. Instead, just take your cards into your favorite stores and spend them -- just like credit cards or cash -- to buy stuff you DO need. So what do you get for the work involved? You help the school by getting a percentage back from each card purchased, and you help yourself by getting 1/4 of THAT back as a tuition credit at the end of the year.

Do you need to order every week? Certainly not! In the beginning, it makes sense to start small to experiment a little bit and buy a few cards here and there and see how they work. Start with grocery and gas cards, which are easy, and move on to special restaurants that you frequently visit. Do you stop at Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts for a morning coffee once in a while? That's a no-brainer! Once you're comfortable with the program, you can start buying in bulk and holding onto the cards for "special occasions". Do you know when something is going to break around the house? Not always. Solution? Keep a spare Home Depot card on hand for these special needs.

How do you handle the cards? This is the tough part -- remember that cards are just like cash, so you should protect them. Also, some (like the Visa cards) will start to accrue fees after a certain time, so it is probably NOT a good idea to stick them in a drawer and forget about them. So what can you do? Get a special wallet, purse, or even a rubber band, bundle the cards together (we like to keep ours in alphabetical order to make finding the one you want easier), and keep them with you, or locked in your glove compartment of your car. When you go out, you'll always have them handy. Do you ever play the game of "What do you want for dinner tonight?" with your family? Simple -- get out your stack of Manna cards, fan them out, and pick your favorite restaurant!

So, once you're hooked on Manna, the next question is simple: How do you maximize your investment in this program? Let's look at a few examples or how to work the Manna Program to your advantage:

• Mr A. hates to go grocery shopping, but every once in a while, Mrs. A. calls him at work and asks him to stop by Jewel/Osco on his way home. He buys a $100 card and simply keeps it in his wallet until it is needed. When the inevitable call comes in, he can zip through the store, get what he needs, hit the self-checkout, and swipe his Jewel Card to pay for it and get out of the store, quickly and easily. Each time he uses the card, he uses a marker to note the balance, and he puts it back in his wallet. When it starts to get low, he orders another through Manna. He makes $3 for the school and $1 towards tuition, just by saving time and not carrying cash.
• Mr. B. spends a lot of time travelling on the road for business. He's already registered for every airline points program, every rental car program, and even every hotel frequent stay program -- he really works the travel system. When planning a trip now, though, he looks specifically for hotels on the Manna Program. This is not very restrictive since this list includes Best Western, Choice Hotels (including Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality Inn, Sleep In, Calrion, Cambria Suites, MainStay Suites, Suburban, EconoLodge, Rodeway Inn), Hyatt, Marriott (including Renaissance, Courtyard, Residence Inn , Fairfield Inn, TownePlace Suites, and SpringHill Suites ). Anyway, Mr. B. finds a hotel in the Marriott chain and books the hotel stay, and then he orders a couple of $100 Marriott cards (or a $500 card for longer trips). When checking out, he simply provides the Marriott card to pay for the bill, then provides the receipt on an expense report to his company for reinbursement. With almost no real "extra" work but some planning and a pre-purchase of $500, Mr. B. just made $30 for the school and $10 in tuition credit. (Mr. B. also carries cards for national restaurant chains, too, so if he's eating at TGI Friday's, Olive Garden, Red Robin, Burger King, etc., he gets even more credit -- and it is all reimbursed by his company!)
• Mrs. C. has three boys which keep her very busy shuttling them around town every day -- and those boys sure like to eat. Not always having time to prepare a home-cooked meal, Mrs. C. keeps cards for Aurelio's (10%), Culver's (10%), Fifth Quarter (15%) and Wendy's (4%) in her car. When she's running late, she can run through somewhere and feed the boys -- and get tuition credit in the process!
• Mr. D. has a thing for his morning coffee on his way to the train station -- he can't start his day without it. He gets $25 Starbucks cards and uses them like a charge account, making payment fast and easy, and making a 7% return on his "java investment". When he needs a change, he can also get Dunkin Donuts (4%), Great American Bagel (8%), and Caribou Coffee (8%), too! [Secret tip: The Dunkin Donuts purchases earn 4%, but if you go to a location which also has a Baskin Robbins, they accept the $2 Baskin Robbins certificates (at 9%) as well. Even better, they do give a limited amount of cash back in change, so if you buy something for $1.75 with a $2 certificate, you not only get the credit for the 9% of the entire $2, but you even get 25 cents back in cash, increasing your return to over 10%!]
• Mrs. E. does her part by buying Market Day every month to help the school. She is commended for this effort! However, she can do better! In the past, she ordered on a paper form and sent the form to school where it is compiled, entered, and then processed by Market Day for delivery that month. When the order comes in, she has to stop at the payment table and write a check, which also requires additional information, finding her drivers license in her purse, and so on. Manna can make this better! Now, Mrs. E. buys Visa Debit cards, enters her order on-line (where there are usually some other special deals that didn't make the print order form), and provides her Visa Debit card number for payment when she places the order. On pick-up day, she walks in, flashes the order at the payment desk (which shows that it is prepaid) and proceeds to pick her order. Not only does she save time, but the school benefits TWICE -- once from Market Day and again from Visa!

Do you have a Manna Story to contribute to this list? Submit your best "How I Work the Manna Program" story to the Parents' Club and we can add your tips here so that others can benefit!