Every Sunday morning I get a special treat. Not sure what you’re thinking but it’s a Starbucks latte. Usually a venti cinnamon dolce (skinny style) but sometimes I change the syrup flavor to mix it up. (For those five people who don’t speak Starbucks, venti means large and skinny means sugar-free syrup and fat-free milk.)
My self-imposed limitation to once a week makes it something to look forward to as well as saves a lot of change over a year’s time. I bought Starbucks gift cards last year at Costco when you could buy a pack of five $20 cards for $80. Right there I saved $20.
Then I found out you could register the cards at Starbucks.com and get free shots of syrup. That saves me 85 cents each week and I was happy with that.
Starbucks recently upped the ante with something called My Starbucks Rewards. I wouldn’t recommend you start frequenting their stores just to take advantage of the benefits. However, if you are going to patronize the business anyway there are benefits to participating.
Welcome Level
When you register your Starbucks gift card you are immediately at the welcome level. The only benefit at this point is a free drink for your birthday. For each use of the card a star is earned.
Green Level
This is where you start to see some benefit and is reached after earning five stars. Additionally anyone who had a registered card as of 12/31/09 started out at the green level which includes the welcome level awards plus free flavored syrups (the benefit I was already getting), free soy milk, free refills on brewed coffee, free tall beverage with each pound of coffee and two hours of free wi-fi.
Gold Level
Use your card 30 times and become gold. Yes you get some fancy, shmacy gold card but more importantly you get a free drink every 15 stars. It’s not overly generous, but it’s more than I was getting before (hmm, even the birthday drink is more than I was getting before). Plus of course everything from the previous levels are included.
Usually companies make their rewards programs weaker. Starbucks bucked the trend this time. In six months I’ll get a free drink at my current pace all while enjoying that free syrup along the way. Isn’t it nice when loyalty pays off?
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{ 4 comments }
Oh, that is pretty cool. U treat your self and found ways to save money at it. All the better.
Actually, I like to throw in a self indulging treat occassionally. I think it’s the only way for a girl to stay sane while playing the budget game. 😉
.-= Money Funk´s last blog ..Menu Plan Monday =-.
Those folks at Starbucks are brilliant! If not used carefully their rewards can easily be a budget suck but used well and it can save you money. I especially like the free DRINK when you buy a pound of coffee as opposed to just a free coffee without a registered card.
We make sure to use our card every time we go to rack up the rewards. If I don’t have enough on the card I first purchase an amount for the card then use the card for our drinks.
FFB, glad to see I’m not the only fan of their rewards program. We buy our Starbucks’ roasted beans at Costco. i think it’s a better buy but we don’t have the options we would hat the store.
Buying whole beans at BJ’s is probably our next step after buying a grinder.
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