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I love Starbucks.
There’s just something about the aroma of roasted coffee grounds and fresh brewed espresso that warms my soul.
You know exactly what I’m talking about—otherwise you wouldn’t be here trying to figure out how to get free Starbucks.
Let’s face it. A Starbucks habit can be pretty costly—for example, this guy spends $2,300 per year on Starbucks—but it doesn’t have to be that way.
I know, I know. Usually personal finance experts like me are trying to convince you to ditch Starbucks and live like a penniless hermit.
The good news is it’s possible to cut those numbers way down and even get free Starbucks coffee, Starbucks gift cards, and refills on an ongoing basis.
And it’s way easier than you might think.
How Much Does Starbucks Cost You?
Before we jump into the ways to get free Starbucks, we need to figure out approximately how much money you’re spending on coffee every week.
Fortunately, if you’re like me and have a consistent go-to drink, this is pretty easy to figure out.
Start by checking out the price on your go-to Starbucks drink here. Then multiply that figure by the number of days you stop for coffee per week.
For example, if you get a venti cafe mocha for $4.65 every Monday-Friday, you’re spending $23.25 each week.
(If you do this every week, that’s over $1,200 per year on Starbucks.)
We’ll come back to these numbers in a minute.
3 Main Ways to Get Free Starbucks
When it comes down to it, I can’t resist a hot PSL (pumpkin spice late, for the uninitiated), white chocolate mocha, or iced green tea.
That said, I’m also razor-focused on my monthly budget to make sure I can accomplish my long list of money goals. So spending $1,200 every year on coffee just isn’t going to work.
Luckily, I’ve figured out three different methods to get free Starbucks:
- Make easy passive income each day to pay for my Starbucks addiction week by doing things I already do
- Get as many free Starbucks gift cards as possible (legally, of course)
- Take advantage of the many ways Starbucks rewards loyal customers to get free coffee and free refills
Personally, I use each of these methods to maximize the amount of free coffee I can get. I also am constantly on the look out for ways to save money on groceries to free up money for, you guessed it, more coffee.
The best way to get free Starbucks is to study the list below, see which tricks fit into your lifestyle, and put them into practice as often as possible.
Earn Passive Income to Pay For Your Starbucks
Passive income often gets a bad rep. You know, those “make money while you sleep” ads get kinda old, kinda fast, right?
Around here, we think about passive income a little differently: Anything you already do without getting paid can probably be monetized, which not only makes it easy free money, it’s also passive.
The solutions below will help you make money doing what you already do to essentially get free coffee by earning enough passive income to cover the cost of your weekly coffee.
1. Get Cash Back on Your Regular Shopping
If you’re not using a healthy selection of the best money making apps in 2019, you’re missing out. Here are my personal favorite apps that help me pay for Starbucks every week:
Ibotta – Since the app launched, Ibotta has helped shoppers save over $525 million on their regular shopping purchases. The app is 100% free to download and use, and it makes getting cash back super easy:
- To get started, you’ll need to create a free account (you can also link store loyalty cards to save even more money at this time).
- Then you’ll simply scroll through the Ibotta app while you’re making your weekly shopping list, add offers with a simple tap, and go shopping.
- Scan your receipt in the app after you check out, and the cash back offers will be redeemed.
The best part about Ibotta: Cash back is added to your account within 24 hours, and then you’ll have several options: transfer cash to your bank account, add it to your PayPal account, or use it to get free Starbucks gift cards.
Since I started using Ibotta, I’ve saved enough money to fuel my Starbucks addiction for an entire year (proof below).
Bonus Alert: When you download the Ibotta app and complete your first offer redemption, you may earn a $10 welcome bonus.
How much cash back can I expect to earn with Ibotta?
Honestly, the amount of cash back you can earn is impossible to predict, as it will vary from person to person. But with hundreds of retail partners and thousands of redeemable offers available to you at any given time, you may not have too much trouble finding good offers to redeem for cash back.
Are there any special Ibotta hacks I should know about?
Ibotta is a pretty simple to use app, but there are a few bonuses to know about. You can keep an eye out for these in the Earn Extra Cash area on the Home page.
For example, while I’m writing this, there are opportunities to earn an additional $8.00, $10.00, or even $12.00 in rewards for completing various tasks.
Also new to Ibotta: You can now pay for purchases in the Ibotta app and earn even more rewards (from 1% up to 7%, depending on the store/restaurant/retailer)!
Drop – Similar to Ibotta, the Drop app is another app that has given out millions of dollars in cash back rewards. Here’s how it works:
- Get the free app and register for a new account.
- Link the debit cards and credit cards you plan to use to earn cash back. The app uses bank-level 256 bit encryption, never stores your login information, and has been certified by DigiCert, an online security industry leader, so it’s safe.
- Go shopping for groceries, order an Uber, buy clothes, place an Instacart order, or even pick up a simple snack. You’ll earn points every time you complete a purchase.
- Redeem points for free gift cards to Starbucks (there are several other options, too). 1,000 points are equal to $1.
Drop is quickly becoming a popular cash back app, which isn’t surprising with reviews like these:
You can create a free Drop account and get a $5 welcome bonus here.
Shopkick – If you’re already using the apps above, Shopkick is a relatively new app that can help you in your quest to get free coffee.
- First, you should know that Shopkick isn’t just another “buy stuff and get rewards” kind of app. In fact, there are six ways to earn rewards (called “kicks”).
- Earn kicks at the entrance of stores just for walking in
- Scan barcodes of products while you’re shopping, even if you’re not buying them
- Complete a purchase and submit your receipt
- Complete a purchase using a linked credit or debit card
- Make purchases online
- Watch videos
- Some actions may only earn a few kicks, while others could earn you hundreds of kicks
- When you have earned enough kicks, you may redeem them for Starbucks gift cards (like most apps, there are other options).
Our favorite part about Shopkick: All gift gards are digital gift cards, meaning you can get access to the free money you’ve earned right away.
You can get the free Shopkick app here.
2. Get Money Back on Services You Already Pay For Each Month
If you were able to free up even $100 in your monthly budget it would be a game changer, right?
That money would pay for your daily coffee.
In the last year, my wife and I have freed up more than $100 in our budget—more than enough to pay for Starbucks runs—and we barely lifted a finger to do it.
How We Saved Almost $800 on Cable and Internet
One afternoon, I went to the mailbox to find a suddenly enormous bill from Comcast, our cable and internet provider.
Apparently, our promotional period had ended—and so had the great rates we had been paying.
So I started researching cheaper alternatives to cable TV and how to negotiate cable and internet bills. That’s when I discovered Trim.
(If you’ve never heard of it before, Trim is an automated savings assistant designed to help make saving money easy.)
After creating my free Trim account, my first order of business was tackling my behemoth cable and internet bill. I uploaded a copy of my bill, shared a bit of information, and let Trim do the hard work of negotiating better rates with Comcast.
The next day I got this text notifying me that Trim had saved us $798 on our Comcast bill:
Does it cost anything to use Trim? Technically, yes. In the example above, I had to pay Trim 33% of the money they helped me save, or about $263.34.
But I came out ahead by $534.69. And I didn’t even do anything, which is pretty much the best kind of passive income possible.
What else can Trim do to help you save money? Trim can now do the following:
- help negotiate car and homeowner’s insurance rates,
- lower your mobile phone bills,
- find and cancel subscriptions you no longer use,
- help you automate your savings by making small transfers from your checking account into a high interest savings account,
- and can even help you form a plan to pay down debt.
Ready to get started with Trim? Start your free account here.
How to Get Free Starbucks Gift Cards
If earning passive income to get free Starbucks sounds too hard, getting free Starbucks gift cards might be your jam.
Personally, my wife and I love using gift cards because we’ve discovered a few extra hacks to get even more free coffee (more on that below).
Here are some of our favorite ways to earn free gift cards for Starbucks:
Survey Junkie
If you’ve heard all kinds of terrible things about online surveys, you should know that Survey Junkie is different.
They’re one of the most trusted and respected survey providers today because they have responsive customer service, treat their survey takers well, and reward them for their participation.
Why You Should Trust Survey Junkie: They currently have 11,300 reviews on TrustPilot, one of the most trusted websites for honest customer reviews. Their average TrustScore is 8.6.
How Can Survey Junkie Help Me Get Free Starbucks?
If you’re willing to exchange a few minutes of your time to earn Starbucks gift cards, Survey Junkie can help you get a free Starbucks drink faster than you might think.
When you complete surveys and earn points, you can redeem them for e-gift cards.
According to one TrustPilot reviewer, you can earn your first gift card pretty quickly:
My Points
If you’re already maxing out your opportunities with Survey Junkie, MyPoints is another 100% free option to earn free Starbucks gift cards.
You can learn more about MyPoints and get a $10 welcome bonus here.
Swagbucks
Another opinion industry giant offering the chance to get free gift cards is Swagbucks.
The name might be familar to you, as they’ve been featured on BuzzFeed, ABC, Time, and Fox News.
How does Swagbucks work? As of August 2019, Swagbuckers users have earned over $365 million in free gift cards by shopping online, taking surveys, watching videos, searching the web, and playing games.
What score does Swagbucks have on TrustPilot? Out of over 13,900 reviews, Swagbucks has an average TrustScore of 8.3.
You can join Swagbucks for free here.
Samples and Savings
Believe it not, there is one more way to get free drinks from Starbucks without leaving your home. Samples and Savings makes it possible to answer a few simple questions to support market research, and in return they’ll send you free Starbucks samples in the mail.
Join the STARBUCKS® REWARDS Program to Get Free Coffee
Finally, one of the easiest ways to get free Starbucks comes directly from Starbucks: the STARBUCKS® REWARDS program.
Here is a detailed overview of the program:
- It’s 100% free to join the STARBUCKS® REWARDS program.
- When you join, you’ll automatically receive a free coffee every year on your birthday. You’ll have 30 days to redeem the offer, and you can choose any size drink you want (you can even customize it!).
- Members may order food and drinks ahead of time and bypass long lines.
- When you earn 25 stars, you can customize any drink.
- At 50 stars, you earn a free brewed hot coffee or bakery item.
- When you reach 150 stars, you earn a free handcrafted drink, hot breakfast or parfait
- 200 stars will earn you a free salad, lunch sandwich, or protein box
- At 400 stars, you will earn a free signature cup or a bag of coffee to take home
Here is a detailed overview of how the Starbucks Star program works:
Secret Starbucks Hack: You can use Starbucks gift cards you’ve already earned to earn even more Stars and Starbucks rewards as a program member.
Wrap-up
Whew! It’s time to get out there and put these free Starbucks hacks to the test. When you’re finished, come back and let us know your favorite way to get free Starbucks in the comments below!
