Photo by chadmagiera

Sam’s Club Collegiate Membership

Sam’s Club, the membership-only discount warehouse club, is currently offering a great promotion for college students. While there is no discount on the $40 membership fee, college students get a free $15 gift certificate when they sign up. The Advantage Membership also includes a free second membership card for another person at your address, so you can effectively split the membership with another roommate at no extra cost. Sam’s Club can be a great way to save money on food and other household items, and has proven a lifesaver for me when throwing large events.

To take advantage of this promotion, you need to bring a student id-card and a .edu email address into a Sam’s Club, and they’ll get you all set-up.

Quick Tip: Sam’s Club will only accept MasterCard and Discover Credit Cards. If you want to earn cash-back on Sam’s Club purchases using your credit card, try this: run on over to your Wal-Mart, which should sell Sam’s Club gift certificates that you can purchase with your credit card. Sound like too much trouble? In many markets, Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart are located close together, not surprising given that they are sister companies!

Entertainment Book Discounts

It’s that time of the year! The Entertainment Book — the regional publication with all those coupons — is currently being heavily discounted as most of the coupons are set to expire in November. However, most of the national coupons are good through the end of the year. My favorite national coupon in the book is the coupon good for 5% off one American Airlines itinerary. At $10 for the book, the discount off any American flight over $200 will pay for the book on its own!

The best deal I’ve seen so far comes through FatWallet.com, where if you register and go to their Entertainment Book page, you’ll find a link offering the Entertainment Book for $7.99 + $1.99 shipping, with a $5.50 cash back offer. That leaves the final price under $5 after cash back!

So pick up the 2008 Entertainment Book and score some discount movie tickets and some national travel cocupons!

“Economic Stimulus” Gift Card Bonuses

Photo by kugelfish

Many, and i do mean many, grocery stores across the country are offering bonuses if you put your “economic stimulus check” — or an equivalent value in most cases — towards a store gift card; the going rate seems to be a 10% bonus on $300 increments, meaning a free $30 for every $300 purchased in gift cards. Patrick over at Cash Money Life has a goof overview of this on his post Get $206 in Free Groceries.

This deal can be made even more lucrative in two ways:

1. Many grocery stores will let you charge the gift cards to your credit card. If you use a credit card that offers high rewards at grocery stores — like the 3%+ offered by the Chase Freedom Card — you can earn even more cash back.
2. Some grocery stores will allow you to purchase gift cards with a gift card. In this case, you won’t earn money, but you could move that 10% bonus over to another merchant’s gift card.

Most of these promotions expire July 31, 2008.

American Express Gift Card Promotion: Buy 2, Get 1

While I have previously argued against open-loop gift cards, American Express is currently running a very tantalizing promotion. If you purchase two American Express gift cards at participating retailers, you’ll get one free $25 gift card valid only at Best-Buy, Borders, Fandango, or SpaFinder, after mail-in rebate. You can find more information on the AmEx webpage here — remember, you have to purchase at a participating retailer, which includes Walgreens and most Grocery Stores. Beware: All AmEx gift cards have an activation fee. The cheapest way to execute this deal is to purchase two $25 AmEx gift cards, which will each have a $3.95 activation fee. Then, for $57.90 you’ll have $75 in gift cards, a net profit of $17.10.

Note, of course, that this promotion is really only worthwhile if you are planning on shopping at Best-Buy, Borders, Fandango, or Spa Finder anyway. Promotion expires June 30th, 2008.

Restaurant.com 60% Off Coupon

Restaurant.com, which sells gift certificates to specific restaurants and almost always has decent coupons available, has a particularly good deal going on right now. Use coupon code MEALS to save 60% off your order, plus get a free $10 gift certificate with each order. Pay attention to the details before you buy a gift certificate to a restaurant, as certain restaurants place limitations on when you can use it order minimum purchase orders. Expires July 1, 2008.

In my case, I was able to purchase a $25 gift-certificate to a local Indian restaraunt for $4, plus get my $10 certificate.

This is a nice deal for those that have Bank of America ATM, debit, or credit card — Bank of America has brought back and significantly altered its “Museums on Us” program that provides free access to selected museums nationwide.

On the first weekend of every month Bank of America cardholders can gain free admission to some 70 museums across the country simply by showing a BoA card. From the Bank of America press release:

“Participants in the program range from some of the nation’s largest institutions — such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago — to a number of regional cultural institutions”

In the past, this was a one-month promotion that provided free admission during the month of May to selected museums in the Northeastern United States. This year, they have a much larger list of museums nationwide, however, the offer is only good on the first weekend of the month. Also note that the free admission is only for the cardholder.

However, free is always good. More information on the promotion can be found at the Museums on Us promotion page.