Everybody loves to drink coffee. And when it comes to good coffee, many people frequent Starbucks for their daily cup of Joe.
In fact, 12.36 million households in the U.S. visited a Starbucks in 2018. And if you’re someone who just can’t miss out on your cup of coffee before heading to work, you probably know that Starbucks’ coffee can be pretty expensive.
Thankfully, there are a few ways you can save money when you buy your next cup of coffee. Here are 11 Starbucks hacks to save you money each time you make a stop at Starbucks.
1. Starbucks Rewards Program
One of the fastest ways you can save money at Starbucks is by signing up for the Starbucks Rewards program. This program lets you enjoy free Starbucks food and drinks, get discounts, refills, exclusive offers, birthday treats, and many more.
It also lets you order ahead and make your payment with their mobile app. You can even have your own personalized gold card printed out.
To join, you simply need to purchase a gift card from them. Make sure to register the gift card on their website or their mobile app.
You can also register through the Starbucks app by buying a digital gift card. The next time you purchase your coffee, use the card so you can earn stars. The app also offers a lot of discounts and freebies.
You may also like this:
2. Your Birthday
You can also get a free treat on your birthday when you join the Starbucks Rewards program. You can redeem the freebie with the Starbuck app.
A few days before your birthday, Starbucks will send you a reminder that you have a free treat. When you visit a store, have the Starbucks barista scan the app so you can get your reward. This free offer requires you to be a member at least 30 days before your birthday.
The birthday freebie entitles you to a free drink or food for free, except for the loaves, bars, and items on the Starbucks Evening menu.
3. Your Own Cup
Starbucks is encouraging its patrons to bring their own reusable cup when they purchase a drink. When you bring your own cup, you can get a $0.10 discount on your beverage.
The good news about this is that it does not have to be a reusable cup from Starbucks. Even if you bring in a cup from a competitor, you can still get the discount. The discount is not applicable to the “for here” mugs that Starbucks uses in its stores.
4. Cup Size
When you take a look at the Starbucks menu, you’ll find that there are three cup sizes available: Tall (12 oz) this is the small cup, Grande (16 oz), and Venti (20 oz) this is the larger size. Unbeknownst to everyone, Starbucks actually has a secret cup size that gives you quite a bargain.
The next time you order a drink at Starbucks, order a Short drink. This will give you an 8 oz cup that costs less than the price of a Tall drink. During some promotions, Starbucks actually sells the drink in a mini size, which comes out to 10 oz.
5. Refills
Not too many people know that Starbucks actually offers a free refill on their brewed beverages for yourfavorite beverage. This includes their brewed coffee (hot, iced, or cold brew) and tea (hot, iced, or shaken).
In order to get the free refill, you will need to pay the initial purchase with your Starbucks reward card or via the mobile app. You can get the free refill once you show the payment method you used.
Of course, you can only get this free refill if you are having your drink order inside a Starbucks branch. It isn’t available through drive-thru transactions.
6. The French Press
If you are headed to Starbucks as a group, you can save so much money on your brewed coffee. Instead of ordering individually, you can order a French press coffee.
This will give you around 32 oz of coffee that you can divide share between yourselves. Doing this will actually let you save up to half the price of individual cups.
7. Grande Cup
Typically, when you order a Tall coffee, your barista will ask if you want to leave some space for cream or milk to be added in. This, unfortunately, means less coffee.
The best way to get around this is to order a Tall coffee and have the barista put it in a Grande drink. This way, you still get all the coffee that you paid for and have plenty of room left for milk or cream to be added in.
8. Ice And Milk
Baristas or Starbucks employees usually fill your cup with ice and milk before they add in the coffee so you end up with half coffee or less. In order to get more coffee with less ice or milk, you can tell your barista to go “light on the milk” or “easy on the ice”.
Something many people don’t know is that any iced beverage or cold drinks cost more than a hot beverage like hot coffee or hot tea. Even, when you ask for light ice. Instead you can order your drink hot then ask for a cup of ice. This way you can have your iced coffee, iced latte, or iced tea cheaper. This will make a huge difference in the long run.
9. Gift Cards
There are plenty of ways you can earn points and use those points to pay for your Starbucks drink. All you need to do is answer a survey, watch some videos, or even do some online shopping.
Some programs that allow you to do this are Ibotta, Microsoft Rewards, Swagbucks, and Toluna.These will all earn you points that you can redeem for a Starbucks gift card.
10. Promotions
One good thing about Starbucks is that they frequently offer promotions throughout the year. They’ve offered happy hour, treat receipts, and holiday promotions in the past. All of these promotions are aimed at helping you enjoy discounted beverages.
You can keep an eye out for these promotions by following their official page on Facebook. And if you’re shopping at Target, you can score some of these coupons when you’re checking out.
You might also like this:
11. Discount Gift Cards
Another way you can save money at Starbucks is by keeping an eye out for discount Starbucks gift cards. Some users have picked up these gift cards at Groupon and paid $5 for a gift card worth $10.
You can also check out for discounted gift cards at CardCash and Gift Card Granny. They aren’t available all the time but once it is, it’s good to know that you can score big time with these offers.
Make sure to try these tricks the next time you visit a local Starbucks. You’ll be surprised at just how much you can save!
Do you have other Starbucks secrets to share? Please leave them in the comments below.
