Couponing: Ways to Earn Gift Cards

Since back to school just happened, and that means fall, which means soon to come are the holidays, I thought everyone could use some insight to how I've found ways to earn gift cards to Amazon and Starbucks with little to no effort.

But first, if you're going to coupon, make sure you set up an email address specifically for signing up for random stuff you're not really interested in getting tons of mail from. My couponing email address is similar to my regular one, but has ".shop" after it (just as an idea for you!).

  1. Swagbucks  

For the past few years, I've earned Amazon gift cards through Swagbucks. Since 2011, I have earned 17 $5 gift cards....that's $85 I didn't otherwise have! They have other rewards options, but I find Amazon to be the best value. I don't participate in everything on the site (because some of it isn't worth my signing up for various things like insurance!). The activities I do participate in to earn the points towards rewards - and at 450 points I earn a $5 gift card! Some examples include:

• Daily Poll
• NOSO (no obligation special offers)
• Videos
• Games (free ones only!)
• Brand Activities
• Surveys
• Swagcodes (find them on http://sc-s.com)
• Coupon printing (I even print them for friends!)

  2. Pampers Rewards  

I'm the mom of a 7.5 year old little girl who I am in love with! But man, does she go through a lot of diapers. From day 1 we've used Pampers (except for two Huggies diapers - one broke and one leaked; and a box of Honest Company diapers which were great but too expensive). About 2 months in, we realized there were little codes on every Pampers product that could be saved on the Pampers Rewards site! So far I've earned a $5 Starbucks Gift Card, and since we have a Nespresso machine at home, I've decided I won't reload my Starbucks card myself and only use free gift cards I earn. That said, the Starbucks card isn't always available. Right now they have a $10 card to Barnes & Noble and a lot of options for Shutterfly products (which is great for holiday gifts to relatives when you have a child in diapers).


  3. Biore  

On Facebook, Biore has an app to submit codes from their products to earn points. In addition, you can answer trivia questions and make daily pledges to earn even more! For 2800 points you can earn a $5 Starbucks or Amazon gift card.


  4. RecycleBank  

RecycleBank is a great site to learn about environmental impacts of consumer goods, along with ways to save money, energy, and water. Every day you can pledge to do one thing that earns you 5 points. Then every month they have different topics to learn about (e.g., how to save energy in your house) or quizzes to answer (e.g., testing your knowledge of how much trash the U.S. makes each year). For 1500 points you can earn a $5 gift card to Starbucks or Target.


Do you have any other ways that you earn gift cards or free items?

Couponing: Safeway Freebies!

I haven't couponed much since our little one was born, but I had to share my success today! I planned out my trip to Safeway and got the following items free or extremely cheap! Most of these ideas came from the Coupon King of Washington DC. 

  My Savings  

4 tubes of Colgate toothpaste ($0.99/tube)

2 pk 1-lb grass-fed ground beef ($5)

2 packs of 4-roll Angel Soft ($0.99 / pack)
+ 2 $0.55/1 coupons (doubled up to $0.99)
FREE (but they are the teeniest rolls you've ever seen)

6 pouches of Plum Organics Baby Food ($0.67 - $1.50)
+ 2 $0.50/1 coupons + 4 BOGO Free at $1.99 each**
FREE

** Yes, she took 6 coupons when she should have taken 4 and she gave me $1.99 off when they should ave been $1.50. I told her and she shrugged....I tried to do the right thing!!

Couponing: Birthday Deals

May is my birth month, which means lots of birthday deals! I wanted to document the one's I'm using in case anyone else is interested! I've hyperlinked where you can sign up for the same deals.

May 1: Enjoyed a free regular bowl at Noodles & Co. and they even threw in a fountain drink! I also learned from a friend that sometimes soda can bother baby's tummy when mom drinks it, which I believe since it was my first soda since our little one was born, and she was screaming in pain from gassiness that night! Whether or not it's medically true, I'm staying a away from soda! Sign up for Noodlegram.

May 3: Used a $10 off coupon at World Market to buy some Torani vanilla syrup for use with our Nespresso. I got two large bottles for about $4 (compared to $16, because I also had 10% off!). Sign up for World Market Explorer.

May 13: Free Starbucks! Granted this was one I earned with 12 stars rather than my birthday drink, so that means I'll get another free drink this month. I didn't need more coffee today, so I bought a venti iced cinnamon dolce latte, took out the ice, and stuck it in the fridge for work tomorrow! Register a Starbucks card.

May 18: My actual birthday! The plan was to have a free medium coffee from Caribou (sign up for Caribou) but after making sure my little one was fed and changed, and okay with daddy, I drove out to the Caribou only to find it closed....and apparently ALL of them in VA are closing! For more information, see here. Quite the disappointing start to my day. So instead, I drove myself over to Starbucks and claimed my birthday drink!

I can still get a free single scoop of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, (sign up to be a ChunkSplunker), a free Benihana a dinner up to $30 (join Chef's Table), and a free burger at Red Robin (join Red Robin Royalty).