Not "Just For The Taste of It"

Forgive the cheesy reference to the old "Just for the taste of it" Diet Coke jingle.  My apologies for slacking on posting lately.  I realized today that it's been over two weeks since I've had a night where I could just go home after work (or even go to the gym and go home). Every night has either been a work event or another event or activity.  It's all been fun stuff, but it is a little exhausting.  

The theme of this post is basically that doing little things can result in big savings.  I love points.  Hotel points, airline miles, give me an opportunity to earn them and I'm there and tracking.  This has resulted in rarely paying for hotel rooms and often avoiding high air fares by using miles.  Those should really be two other posts, but this one is about a less utilized source of points by most people.  Coke Points. My coke rewards, if we're being formal.  

To encourage loyalty, all Coke products have a code in the cap (for bottles) or on the cardboard (for packs of cans).  I got into saving and tracking these in college with my then roommate (who is an amazing deal finder and saver) and still close friend.  In the rewards catalog at that time, there was this red ball gown we joked about saving for.  

While the dress sadly disappeared from the catalog, never to be worn by either of us, we have both gotten a number of great things we would have paid for otherwise.  I've gotten numerous magazine subscriptions - I used to order Oprah's O magazine every year for my mom, and I currently have Real Simple.  I have gotten a $10 livenation.com voucher which I applied towards concert tickets I was already buying.  I have gotten Nike giftcards and free movie tickets.  All just for the limited amount of time it takes to enter those codes.

A lot of people don't think entering codes for things is worth it.  I completely understand that time is valuable.  However, all it takes is a few minutes (often while watching tv) to enter in the pile of codes that have accumulated.  In return I've saved money by getting things for free I would have paid for otherwise.  I encourage you to visit mycokerewards.com and give it a try.