Saving Money at Starbucks

Today Starbucks is offering free tall coffees to anyone who says they voted¹. Here's another way to save money at Starbucks, similar to the one we mentioned in a recent post ("Lobster Rolls in Lean Times"). Costco sells $100 in Starbucks gift cards for $79.99 (similar to the deal it offers on McCormick & Schmick's gift cards). Starbucks also offers a gold card now, that gives holders a 10% discount on most purchases. If are a frequent-enough Starbucks customer, you probably received a free gold card last month (if not, you can buy one now, or get one free with a Starbucks affinity credit card deal). You can combine these discounts by transferring balances from the Starbucks cards you bought at Costco to your Starbucks gold card. Then you'll be getting an effective 30% discount on your Starbucks purchases<sup>1


1</sup>Ben & Jerry's is offering a similar deal from 5pm-8pm today ("Democracy never tasted so sweet").

²If you bought the Starbucks gift cards at Costco with a Costco American Express card, you'd get 1% cash back on the purchase, so your effective discount would be 31%.