Love to treat yourself to a specialty coffee from Starbucks now and then, but don’t want to pay their specialty prices? Here are my tips for saving money on Starbucks coffee.
Rewards Program
The Starbucks Rewards program is completely free to join. All you need is a Starbucks gift card! I actually joined using a Starbucks gift card I earned through SwagBucks.
When you join the rewards program, you’ll begin receiving lots of great perks, like:
- FREE drink on your birthday
- FREE refills on brewed or iced coffee or tea (if you stay in the store)
- Exclusive offers and discounts
- Earn a star for every purchase you make with your registered Starbucks gift card
These stars are like points that you will want to collect. If you collect 30 stars within 12 months, you’ll be upgraded to their Gold card. You get a special card in the mail, and in addition to the perks above, you’ll earn a free drink or food item for every 12 stars you earn!
Tip – redeem your free drink offers for a Venti (large size) drink to get the maximum value of the reward. 😉
Stars
If you want your stars to add up quickly, you need to remember to use your registered Starbucks gift card for every purchase. I made the mistake early on of paying cash for my drinks after my gift card ran out – I missed out on several stars! If your gift card is empty, first ask the cashier to reload your gift card (minimum $5 reload) and then use the gift card to purchase your drink.
Tip – you only earn one star per transaction, not per purchase. Purchasing two drinks in a single transaction will only net one star (if you are buying multiple drinks, PLEASE be a considerate customer and do not break it up into multiple transactions just to earn more stars).
You can also earn stars from the packages of coffee you can purchase at the grocery store. You’ll want to look for a little sticker on the front of the bag that says “buy this bag, earn free drinks at Starbucks.” The back of the sticker contains a star code that you can redeem on the Starbucks website.
Sometimes there are bonus star codes you can get by completing certain actions in your account. Be sure to log in to your rewards dashboard occasionally to see if there are new opportunities to earn.
Packaged Coffee
Buying Starbucks packaged coffee at the grocery store is an easy way to enjoy Starbucks brewed coffee at home. Looking for more than the basic brewed coffee? Try my easy, homemade White Chocolate Mocha recipe.
The packaged coffee can become very inexpensive if you wait for a good sale. There are also Starbucks Coupons available often that will bring the price down even further.
Plus, in addition to earning stars by purchasing packaged Starbucks coffee at the grocery store, you can also bring your empty bag to a Starbucks and exchange it for a FREE tall brewed coffee!
Gift Cards
There are also occasional special offers where you can earn a free gift card with purchase. Sometimes the offers are available through your local grocery store and sometimes the offer is directly from Starbucks. There was recently an offer for a free $5 gift card with purchase of two packages Starbucks coffee. I waited for a sale and used a coupon and then I redeemed for a free $5 gift card, plus I got the two star codes from the packages and saved the bags to redeem for two free tall coffees!
I also like to save up my SwagBucks (a search engine with a free rewards program) and redeem them for free Starbucks gift cards. I simply transfer my balance over to my registered Starbucks gift card so I can continue earning stars on all my purchases! It’s like double-dipping – using free gift cards to get free drinks on which I’ll earn more free drinks!
Group discount sites, like Groupon and Zulily, occasionally offer discounts on Starbucks gift cards. I’ve been able to get $10 Starbucks gift cards for just $5 from these group sales.
Discount Days
I love when Starbucks offers special discounts. I particularly love their happy hour promotion! Here are some of the recent promotions we’ve seen:
Be sure to stay up to date on these Starbucks specials by following us on Facebook or by email – we love Starbucks and share all the deals we find!
Miscellaneous
Bring in your own cup or travel mug and you’ll receive a 10¢ discount on your drink! Every little bit adds up!
Planning to order two drinks? A Venti is almost double the size of a Tall, but it’s far from double the price. Instead of ordering two Tall drinks, order one Venti and an extra empty cup (no charge for empty cup). Then you and your friend can split the drink and pay much less!
Those are my tips for saving money at Starbucks! Do you have any money-saving tips you would add to this list?