Thrifty Thursday: Loyalty Cards earn free things!!

Do you have a card to your grocery store and others?  I know that I have a bunch of them but it took me a long time to realize how good of a tool they could be beyond scanning them when you are in the store.  Do you know what your loyalty cards can do for you?

I have a K-Mart card (which also works at Sears) and they send me updates all the time with different sales and coupons that work for different specials like $5 off $20 in toys or $10 off $50 in clothes.  It isn't often that I am looking for a deal that they send me but there have been some good ones.  In addition, I am super excited when they send me an e-mail with free money like they just did.

I had $6.42 in my account to go and buy anything that I want at the store which expired Wednesday.  It was easy enough that I sent my husband (because I ran out of time) to go get something (may not seem like the nicest thing to say but he leaves the couponing to me).  I told him that I would like to get a family movie for friend for Christmas or he could look at something for himself.  He decided to do both and told the cashier to apply the points so he only paid $0.07 for the two items in the picture.

 
Do you have your CVS card yet?  Let's hope that most people do because that provides lots of benefits...if not you better get out and get one now.  If you scan it at the red box in the store, you get CVS coupons printed.  Make sure you print until it tells you that there are no more coupons because there is usually more than one set that comes out.  My mom didn't know that so I guess there are a few others out there that might not know either so I like to share that easy tip. The other tip is that these can be used in combination with Manufacturers coupons and ECB (Extra Care Bucks) to get free and money makers on different items in the store.  Many weeks there are deals where you can get things for totally free through the ads or even surprises that come out of the red box machine.  In addition, make sure you set up your account on e-mail because they will send you coupons and free money too.

I got a bunch of freebies at CVS recently with their Black Friday specials and the next few weeks of deals.  I used my ECB to buy the Planters Nuts and Popcorn tin (both on sale) for free which I am getting for my Dad's Christmas present.  I don't count those for free because they were money that I earned but it was no money OOP.  I used a facebook coupon to get the Essence of Beauty Body Spray pictured on the left of the popcorn tin for free.  In addition, if you can't tell what is off to the left of the body spray, it is a package of Rolaids.  After I purchased the items that I went to the store for, my couponing friend told me that the red box was printing out free Rolaids coupons.  Normally I scan my card to get the coupons first but the weather was getting bad and I was there on a mission to grab a few of the sale items and run back out the door in record time.  I love free things!!!

There were free batteries and Milky Way right after Thanksgiving.  The batteries were free after CVS coupon and the Milky Way was free after ECB (meaning you have to pay money OOP but get back the same amount in ECB to spend next time) but I had a BOGO coupon so I bought two bars and used the $0.25 CVS coupon to get the transaction for $0.29 each and I did an extra Milky Way transaction in the process because I messed it up a little so I paid $0.87 for all of this and got back $1.50 to spend another time.  Gotta love it when you get stuff and make a little money in the transactions.

 Today, I brought $2.99 in ECBs and one manufacturers coupon to get these for free (not even tax since they are considered medicine).  I got $3 back in ECBs to spend next time.  Sometimes these are a little more difficult to consider free because you have to pay money out of pocket but it is great that I have the ECBs from the previous deals so that I can roll it into getting something I thought would be neat to try.

Not to mention the great things that you can get from your Harris Teeter card which is by far my favorite grocery store. There are weekly EVIC specials that are available in a limited number to everyone who is signed up for EVIC savings for just your card that is signed up electronically to receive e-mails.  They also have deals that come out every Friday that are customized EVIC savings based on the items that you buy.  There are also evic zvr coupons which you can load to your card and get in addition to manufacturer coupons on different items through the store.  I can't say enough about getting your Harris Teeter card linked to the EVIC program so I hope that if you don't already have it, you get it done.

The Hallmark card is also amazing if you do a lot of shopping at Hallmark.  I don't do that many trips to Hallmark but I did buy my wedding invitations there (way back almost 10 years ago) and I got back points on even those and they sent me out at least $20 in certificates to get free stuff in their store.  I always scan my card when I go to the store but it normally only happens at their after Christmas sale (which is amazing if you haven't checked it out) because we get lots of gifts for next Christmas for 50% off.  If you buy cards and other fun gifts at Hallmark, you could make out really well in money back but even without it, you can sign up and then might get some surprise benefits for the trips you are already making.

If you don't have these and more loyalty cards, get them because it will give you credits for everything you buy and at least a few times a year, send you free money!  Isn't that always a great thing?

What cards do you have and love???