Today I took a whirlwind tour of my neighborhood to scoop up $240 in (sort of) easy freebies! My favorite hobby is collecting Found Money—that’s money I can access outside my regular income. Anything from coupons to credit card points to cash I earn selling my clutter counts as Found Money. Here’s the breakdown of my $240 Freebies Spree (which actually counts as $264 in value for me!):
1. $200 freebie: I opened a free checking account with 1stBank.
This one was a pain in the neck, but worth it. Even though I opened the account online, I had to go to the brick and mortar branch—twice—to get my account set up.
If you have a chance to open a checking account with 1stBank and there is any other option that is not BMO Harris, take that other option. I opened both 1stBank and BMO Harris checking accounts last night to claim $200 bonuses for each, and let’s just say, they’re no Capital One.
Not only were both websites painful to navigate, I had to actually visit the bank in person in the case of 1stBank, and call in to BMO Harris during a very small window of business hours—then was told I needed to call in again in two business days. What the what.
I plan on opening many more bank accounts just to get the opening bonuses this year, but I’ll be looking more carefully to find online-only banks. These brick and mortar banks are seriously behind the times. I spent less time getting my ID verified when I bought a house this year than I just did to open two measly checking accounts. But, $400 is $400.
Can you get this freebie too? Yes!
Read on to find out how you can score the same $240 in freebies I did!
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- Also check out Doctor of Credit’s list of checking account bonuses for current offers at other banks.
- For an easy $50, open a Capital One 360 free checking and free savings account with my link here. You’ll get $25 for each new account (use the link twice to make sure you get your $25 referral bonus for both) with a $250 opening deposit for each, no direct deposit or other strings attached.
2. $5 Freebie: Dunkin’ Donuts gift card with AmEx Offer
I never go to Dunkin’ Donuts. In fact, I didn’t even know there was one near my home until I looked up locations. My AmEx Blue Cash Preferred card emailed me the targeted Dunkin’ Donuts offer: $5 cash back on a $5 purchase. It is an AmEx app exclusive; use the app to check your AmEx offers.
I bought a $5 Dunkin’ Donuts gift card and was in and out in less than 90 seconds. I noticed a sign for 2/$2 iced teas in the afternoons, so I’ll look for deals to stretch the $5 out. I just googled to find a free drink offer with email sign up: Dunkin Donuts free drink with email. Can anyone tell my why Dunkin’ Donuts email signup requires an 8-digit password that contains letters and numbers, and a Captcha? Seriously, stop with the crazy password requirements! My banks don’t even require strong passwords, but it takes an act of Congress to get into my Starbucks account.
The free drink requires you to link a Dunkin’ Donuts gift card. With the free drink offer added to my free $5 Dunkin’ Donuts gift card, that’s an extra few bucks in freebies!
I got an email from AmEx within the hour telling me I had claimed the offer.
Can you get this freebie too? Yes!
Check your AmEx offers or open an American Express card to be eligible for future freebies:
Earn a $300 statement credit when you spend $3,000 in 6 months on a new American Express Blue Cash Preferred credit card: Apply for an American Express Card for the $300 bonus with my link here. Amex Blue Cash Preferred gives you 6% cashback at the grocery store, and 3% cashback on gas.
3. $15 freebie: QT (Quik Trip) with AmEx Offer
I rarely go to QT, even though the customer service is fantastic. (Have you noticed that every server in Phoenix restaurants says, “It’s my pleasure” all the time? This started with QT customer service training and spread around town.)
This is another AmEx offer. The offer is $5 cash back when you spend $5 at the QT—three times. That’s $15 in free gas!
I bought two $5 gift cards in two transactions at one QT, but I didn’t want to hold up the line so I figured I’d go do the third offer next week. But, I passed a second QT on my route, so I stopped in and did the third offer.
I didn’t receive emails from AmEx telling me I’d redeemed the three $5 QT deals, but $15 appeared as a single credit the same day the QT transactions posted to my account.
Can you get this freebie too? Yes!
Check your AmEx offers or open an American Express card to be eligible for future freebies:
Get a $250 cash back bonus with a new American Express Blue Cash Preferred credit card. Read more about this great card here, or open an account with my link above. I’ll get rewarded too, thanks! The $250 bonus is only available with a referral; the regular bonus is only $150!
4. $10 freebie: Staples $10 off $10 coupon from Staples Rewards
I redeemed a $10 off $10 coupon that was mailed to me, I assume because I have a Staples Rewards account. It only worked on full price items, and everything seemed to be on sale today! I found a Blue Sky 2018 planner for $11 like this one and paid $2.15 including tax. I usually spend about $15 for a planner each year, so the freebie value for me is more like $13 since I only spent $2 on the planner!
Can you get this freebie? Yes!
Keep an eye out for high value Staples Rewards cards in the mail. I believe I received three of these $10 off $10 coupons this year. Sign up for the free Staples Rewards program if you don’t have an account. If you homeschool, you can sign up for the Teacher Rewards instead and get high value coupons at back to school time!
5. $10 freebie: Nordstrom $10 off coupon for Nordstrom Rewards anniversary
I shop at Nordstrom Rack and I must have signed up for Nordstrom emails somewhere along the way. I got an emailed $10 off Nordstrom Note way back in July—valid through July 2018!
Nordstrom Rack has it’s Clear the Rack sale going on now—an extra 25% off clearance! I found these Havaianas flip flops for Jameson, and these Havaianas for me and paid $9.10 out the door!
Since Reef stopped making my beloved brown Ginger slim flip flops, I buy any color of Ginger slim flip flops when I find my size on Amazon. I had these black Reef Slim Ginger flip flops ($30) in my Amazon cart, but bought the Havaianas at Nordstrom Rack instead. I spent just $9 on flip flops when I had planned to spend $30, plus I got a bonus pair of flip flops for Jameson; I usually buy her Reef/Roxy flip flops at Nordstrom Rack for $10. Total real value for this $10 freebie for me: $31!
Can you get this freebie too? Maybe.
Search your email for: “Nordstrom Rewards member, here’s your $10 Note!” You may have a $10 Nordstrom Note! If you’re not a Nordstrom Rewards member, sign up now. This freebie was called an anniversary reward, so I assume you need to be a member for a year before you get it—if Nordstrom is still sending these out.
I don’t have the Nordstrom credit card and never linked my debit card, and I got this freebie with just the email sign up.
I scored $240 today in freebies, and I only spent three hours total to get them: 1 hour to open the bank account online since the website is awful, and 2 hours driving around town (about 1 hour of that was browsing Nordstrom Rack!).
$215 of my freebies are cash in hand: The $200 bank account bonus (which I’ll receive within 90 days) and the $15 in free gas from QT!
$5 at Dunkin’ Donuts will buy some sweet treats during busy baseball season, which starts in early March. This is just a fun freebie, because we rarely buy drinks—or donuts! I save hundreds of dollars a year taking homemade organic iced tea everywhere we go. In Phoenix (hot hot hot), it would be easy to spent $4 + tax a day on $1 iced teas for the family at McDonald’s! I also signed up for emails and linked that free $5 gift card to get a bonus free drink.
$10 at Staples really saved me $13 because I got a 2018 planner for $2 that I would have spent up to $15 on.
$10 at Nordstrom rack really saved me $31. I spent $9 and would have spent $40 on $30 flip flops for me, and $10 flip flops for Jameson.
Total freebies spree face value: $240
Total freebies spree real value: $264 plus an extra free drink from Dunkin’ Donuts!
Total freebies spree Found Money value: $259!
That’s cash money plus money I saved that I had planned to spend. (I don’t count the Dunkin’ Donuts freebies in my “Found Money value” total because I’d never normally go there, and I don’t usually buy drinks anywhere else either.)
Read all Found Money posts on All Day Mom here!
