I have mentioned before that I am usually not very good about taking advantage of loyalty reward programs. Sure, recently I have been downloading lots of music for free through Pepsi Stuff and carry in my car key holder cards for my grocery stores’ loyalty cards. But by far I have missed out on a lot of reward programs.
A few months ago, I finally signed up for the loyalty program at our local thrift store. For every $50 you spend you get $5 off your next purchase. Isn’t this a great program? additional savings from the place where you buy things already at bottom prices? Another thing they offer is gift cards. They actually advertise it as the best present for a frugal person: $25 can go a long way in that store.
On Monday I went to the store to drop off food donations. They also run the food pantry. While there I picked up 15 books. The grand total would have been $8.70 but because of the reward program I only paid $3.70 for them. And they are great parenting books that I needed anyway!
Remember my Mac and Cheese dilemma? I took advantage of my trip to ask whether they would take the expired Mac and Cheese I had. The food pantry person there at the time agreed with me that the product was probably safe to consume and she would undoubtedly use it. However, in her words, “some of their clients are very uppity about that.” We couldn’t help but laugh at that.
To be honest I am not 100% sure how food pantries work but I am assuming customers pay a “nominal price” for the food they take with them. So, I guess they have a right to be “uppity” about expiration dates. And of course everyone always has a right to food safety. I just couldn’t help thinking of the phrase “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”
I was wondering, is there a loyalty reward program you think you need to look into, or wished you had found out about sooner? I’ll start: Coke Rewards. I still don’t know how it works.
