Cordcutter Deal at CVS this week with Gift Cards

If you are a cordcutter, there’s a great deal this week at your local CVS stores! If you buy $50 in plastic gift cards from Netflix or GooglePLAY or Xbox/Microsoft, their cash register will print just for you $10 in Extra Bucks. When you do the math, this is a virtual 20% off discount! Limit one per customer. Offer ends Saturday night when the stores close (5/27/17).

Neither Netflix nor GooglePLAY gift cards get discounted on a regular basis, so this is a great opportunity to score a prepaid discount. Or you can hold on to the gift cards and give them out as gifts in case of emergency ~ Dads and Grads are upon us after all 🙂

Another opportunity: Once you get the $10 Extra Bucks, then you can go for the $20+ in P&G products promotion at CVS. If you spend that much (finding things you need and/or on sale) will get you a new $5 in Extra Bucks. So you can daisy-chain the two offers 🙂

Monday is Starbucks Double Stars Day (YMMV)

I don’t know if every customer gets the same “Double Stars” day, but my email says that Monday May 22nd (2017) is Double Stars day! You don’t have to do anything to activate the Monthly Double Stars offer, it happens automatically. Almost everything you buy counts, except for gift cards and reloads.

With Double Stars, it means you earn a free reward for every $31.25 you spend. Typically $62.50 gets you a free reward. Strategically, double stars days are a good time to make capital purchases (coffee machines, coffee cups, etc) and consumables (coffee beans, tea bags, etc).

Free 2.83oz M&M Caramel bag after Register Rewards (Walgreens)

UPDATE 5/17/17: YES! you can do multiple ones per week using your Walgreens rewards card. However, I haven’t tried paying for it using the previous $1.25 Register Rewards. I don’t want to wear out my welcome 🙂

ORIGINAL POST
Good until May 20 in 2017, at Walgreens brick and mortar stores, you can get a “share size” 2.83oz bag of the brand new Caramel M&Ms for FREE in the way of Register Rewards. You pay $1.25 at the store, and the cash register will print a $1.25 register reward, which you can use in a future purchase at Walgreens.

Since this is a Register Reward promotion, I do not know if you can keep going back and getting more. I haven’t done a promotion like this in recent months, so I don’t know if they change how ti works. From what I recall, you cannot use the Register Reward for this product to buy another similar product, and still get a new Register Reward. So if you are going to try to stock up, you may want to use “new money” to pay for these.

After 2pm Dash returns at Starbucks Rewards May 9-15 in 2017

This is one of the more common Starbucks Rewards promotions, the “After 2pm Dash”. Just like before, you have to first manually activate the offer, assuming you had been offered this. Check your email or Starbucks app to see if you have. Once you activate it, the promotion runs between May 9-15 in 2017. A whole week. If you make six purchases after 2pm local time, you get 50 bonus stars. If you make eight (or more), you get 100 bonus stars. In other words, once you reach the six, it only takes an extra two for an equal bonus.

50 bonus stars are 40% towards a reward. So doing this promotion is 80% towards a full reward. In addition to the stars you earn on the actual purchase amount.

I believe there is an overlap between this promotion and the Frapuccino Happy Hour, which runs 3-5pm (or 6pm for Rewards members). So you can score a frapp at half off and get strikes towards the Dash. I forgot how long the half-off frapp offer runs, but it finishes before the 15th for sure.

Starbucks Rewards: 125 Bonus Stars on First B&M Grocery Store Receipt submission

Starbucks is slowly but steadily trying to expand the reach of their Rewards program. And they are trying to encourage people to buy more Starbucks at your local brick and mortar stores with this new promotion running between April 18 and May 13 in 2017. If you purchase Starbucks K-Cup pods at B&M Grocery stores, and submit a picture of your receipt, you will receive 125 Bonus Stars, which are the equivalent of a FREE FULL REWARD.

Given that you can redeem your reward for the most expensive items at Starbucks stores, or a 1oz of expensive Teavana tea at Teavana stores, if you can find the Starbucks K-Cup pods at a good deal at your local B&M grocery store, this is not a bad deal!

I haven’t done this promotion yet, so I don’t know exactly how it works. If/when I do this, I will post more about it 🙂 For all the details, check the Starbucks Stars website with handy FAQs explaining it all.

April 21-23: 50 Bonus Stars on Frap & Baked (SBUX Rewards)

This is a new shorter bonus stars promotion from Starbucks, it runs for three days only, but it is simple to do in a single visit. It is YMMV and you have to manually Activate the offer before you earn the bonus.

The offer is this, between April 21-23 (those two days included), if you purchase TOGETHER (in the same transaction) any frappuccino and any baked good item, you will earn 50 bonus stars ~ in addition to the regular stars on the purchase amount. This is 40% of the value of a full reward (125 stars).

If you are a fan of this product combo, you are in luck! Once activated, you can get the 50 Bonus as many times as you like during this promotion. Just monitor your sugar levels because both fraps and bakery goods are loaded 🙂

PS: This may also be a good opportunity/excuse to try the new Unicorn Frappuccino just for LOLz sake 🙂

Plenti Rewards: 10X at Macy’s

If you are participating in the Plenti Rewards program (administrated by none other than American Express), and you are fond of shopping at Macy’s, a new offer running there offers you 10X in Plenti points for purchases made at Macy’s. Once you activate the offer (hit the green button in the email or their website or app), you will begin earning the bonus points. This offer expires April 23 (2017), but they have new Macy’s offers every few days…

Bing Rewards: unlock a $5 Starbucks Gift Card offer

If you are participating in Bing Rewards, check your emails or account for a new promotion running until April 30 in 2017. If you make 30 or more searches during the month, you can unlock a $5 Starbucks Gift Card offer! You don’t get the gift card, you can unlock the offer to get the gift card. This may be a targeted promotion to encourage inactive Bing users to use it more often. YMMV since I have no way of checking how many others are eligible for this.

Bonus Stars Dash on Protein Bistro Boxes

This promotion is mostly good for fans of the Protein Bistro boxes, meaning, if you had already been buying them, this promotion can get you some bonus points. As usual, it is YMMV (I don’t know how many people get invited to these) and you have to manually press the “Join the Dash” button in your email invitation to start earning.

You have to buy four protein bistro boxes between April 11-17 in 2017. If you do, you will earn 75 Bonus Stars, which are 60% of a full reward. So it doesn’t make sense to buy these for the reward. A bistro box is $5+, so at best this offer would effectively be (when you do the star equivalency math) a “Buy 5 Get 1 Free” type of thing.

As far as I can tell, getting a protein bistro box by redeeming a previously earned reward will NOT get you a count towards your four, but I haven’t tested it out.

April 10 is Starbucks Double Stars Day (YMMV)

This is YMMV as I do not know if every Starbucks Rewards member gets the same “Double Stars Day” or they get spread out. Check your emails or the Starbucks apps or its notifications. April 10 in 2017 is declared as Double Stars day, where everything you buy earns twice as many Reward Stars as it does on other days. In other words, you are earning 4X per $1 instead of 2X. Which means, with Double Stars, a $31.25 purchase translated into a FULL reward (125 stars).

You can buy as much as you like during this offer. Gift cards and reloads are not eligible for obvious reasons (otherwise everyone would be doubling up on the purchases). It is a good opportunity to restock on coffee bags and teas and buy any of their new spring collection cups.

April 4-10: 100 Bonus Stars with select purchases (SBUX Rewards)

A lot of recent Starbucks Rewards offers have been of the “after 2pm” kind, but rejoice! This new one, a “Join the Challenge” dash (meaning you have to manually click the email or app to activate the offer IF you have been invited to participate) works any time of the day. You have to buy one of each from three different product categories between April 4-10 in 2017, and if you “succeed”, you will receive 100 Bonus Stars, which are 80% of a full reward (a full reward is 125 stars). You can only earn one 100-bonus during this promotion.

As you can see in the screenshot above, you have to buy one of each in the three product categories. The breakfast sandwich is the easiest because they are the lowest priced 🙂 The bistro boxes and Evolution juices are $5+, so that’s where the decision whether to jump in will be made. Considering the bonus is almost a full reward, consider it a “Buy Two, Get One Free” type of a promotion!

Free Bagel Every Day in April 2017 at Panera (YMMV)

Panera Bread is running another promotion fro select Panera Rewards members that is definitely YMMV. If you are eligible for this promotion, you should have an email in your inbox that informs you of this promotion. You get a free bagel per day (no spread of course, just the bagel) for the whole month of April 2017 at their Panera stores. You have to use your Panera rewards card, which I’m assuming is how they are keeping track and enforcing the one per day thing 🙂

It is a bit of a razor and blades thing, because who is going to eat just a bagel without a spread and without coffee or tea or some other liquid to push it down? 🙂

I rarely go to Panera, which is perhaps why I have been targeted with this and similar promotions. Sometimes companies run offers like this to “encourage” customers to visit more often and develop a habit. Which is why they are running it for a month. If you get used to going to Panera for a whole month, chances are, a percentage of those people will continue going there after the promotion is over. Why pay money for ads (which annoy most people) when you can instead spend the money giving potential customers free food? 🙂

They previously had offers with free coffee as well, which is a more freerider-friendly freebie since you can drink coffee on its own and get free refills if you stay in-store 🙂

Starbucks After 2pm Bonus Stars promotion returns

Starbucks really really really wants us to visit their stores after 2pm local time, because the “after 2pm Dash” is back again! As usual, check your emails/apps to make sure you are eligible for the offer AND to manually activate it, because if you don’t, you won’t get the bonus.

The offer is similar to past promotions, it runs for a week, March 28 to April 3 close of business in 2017. You get 50 bonus stars if you make six purchases after 2pm local time, or 100 bonus stars if you make eight. The way it is structured, basically, if you make six purchases, you have to get to eight for a profit. Simply buy $1 items (string cheese, avocado, or $1.25 tangerines [yes they have these too now!]), and you come ahead in terms of stars!

Lucky Rewards: FREE Teddy’s Root Beer on the weekend

UPDATE: so all you need the app for is to load the offer into your Lucky’s rewards account. You don’t need to use the app in-store. So you can install the app, add the freebie to your card, and uninstall the app. It is horrid permissions-wise (Google Play), and it keeps pestering you to turn on Bluetooth. Why the f*ck does a grocery store app need Bluetooth? Which is why it is a good idea to have a phone running Android 6.0 or later, so you can tame some of the out of control permission grabs!

ORIGINAL POST
If you are participating in the Lucky’s Rewards program (it helps if you are near a Lucky’s store), they are back with a new freebie, but this time, you can only claim the freebie using the official Lucky’s app, and you can only redeem it during the weekend. The freebie is a 26oz Teddy’s Root Beer or Ginger Ale. One per customer. You have to claim it using their app, and only on Friday, Saturday or Sunday (March 24-26 in 2017). Enjoy March Madness with a free root beer 🙂

PS: their app is free, you just have to login with your account. If you are worried about permission over-reach, if you are using Android 6.0 or later, you can reign in any permissions you may find objectionable.

Starbucks Rewards Double Stars on March 22

If you are participating in the Starbucks Rewards program, check your email or the app. A new promotion just got sent out that announces a second “Double Stars” day for March, Wednesday the 22nd in 2017! This covers almost everything in the store (gift card reloads are NOT eligible for example).

This is great timing, because running until March 27, they have promotion that gets you 25% off take-home on coffee and tea purchases (coffee beans, tea bags, K-cups, etc). They also have a 25% off sale on some of the coffee cups, including a lovely new 16oz at-home hot cup that’s $9 after the discount.

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