How To Get Free Stuff From Sears and Kmart SYW Weekly Member Deals

I previously discussed how  I Got $165 Worth of Stuff at Sears / Kmart for $37 using Shop Your Way (SYW).    You can use SYW deals to get free stuff if you use the points to buy stuff you'd need anyway.  

Here are the steps you can use for free stuff ;

1. Sign up for SYW.  Its free.
2. Find a good cashback deal for Sears & Kmart.    You can use Cashbackmonitor.com  Right now Discover Deals offers 5% back for either store and eBates offers 3% as examples.
3. Look around the Kmart and Sears sites to find something you need or would buy normally that is a good price.  Household stuff you buy regularly like paper towels or soap might be a safe bet at Kmart.   You can also find good deals on clothing at Sears.      Make sure you can either pick up the item in store conveniently or that they offer shipping.  
4. Watch the weekly member deals at Sears and Kmart for 100% points items.   You'll want to find something that is useful to you in some way.   Don't worry about the prices paid since the plan is to get this stuff for free after the points.  The promotional points usually expire in a relatively short period (30 days commonly) so you'll need to use them quickly.
5.  Once you've found something worth getting for 100% at either store you can buy it.   If you want shipping then look to buy >$35 to take advantage of free shipping.    Use the cashback deal from step #2 as well for extra cash back.
6. After you've bought the 100% points items from step #5 you should get your points.
7. Take your points from 6 and use them to buy an item you identified in step 3.

Lets run through an example...
1. I'm already a SYW member.
2. I would use the Discover deal for 5%.
3. I will buy some of the paper towels at Kmart.  They are $8.99 for 8 rolls which is a competitive price.
4. I see various phone accessory items at Kmart and Sears right now.   Among the list of 100% points items I might want a car charger for $14.99 and battery backup for $12.99.   Thats $27.98 and it looks like both qualify for free shipping.
5. I go to Discover Deals and follow their link to get 5% cash back.  I then go to Sears and buy both items with my Discover credit card.
6. I get credited $27.98 in points that will expire in 30 days.
7. I go through Discover Deals use the $27.98 in points plus and $7.98 with my Discover card I buy 4 of the paper towel packs for $35.96.

I spent $35.96 on my Discover card.    I will get $2.15 cash back.   Thats a net cost of $33.81.   I get 32 rolls of paper towels, a car charger and a phone USB backup battery.    You'd also get SYW some points from the paper towel purchase to use on a future purchase.

Note thats just an example to illustrate how it works.

Keys to making it work well :
1. Make sure you identify stuff you need and would buy anyway at Sears and Kmart for good prices.   If those paper towels are 25% cheaper at Winco then this isn't such a good deal because you should just buy them at Winco.
2. Don't bother unless the 100% points items in the weekly deals are something you want, or can make some use, gift to someone,  or resell.    I don't need or want a phone backup battery personally.   I don't know anyone really who'd want it as a gift and I doubt I could resell for much.  So I wouldn't actually buy that item myself.    
3. The SYW program also has pretty frequent promotions with coupons and free points deals.   You can try and combine those with the basic strategy above.  Whether or not deals can combine will vary and I'm not sure what rules they apply for that.

Additional things to consider:
If you find a particularly compelling deal at the weekly deals that isn't 100% points back but still a great buy then it might be worth doing.    Depends on what they're selling and if you need it or not.   For example, they've got Nutribullet 8 piece sets for $79.99 with $20 points back.   That $79.99 seems to be the standard price and the $20 is basically 25% off.  If you're looking to buy one of these anyway then this is a good deal for you.


--This article may contain referral links which pay this site a commission for purchases made at the sites.

Best of Blogs for Week of January 29th

Every Friday afternoon I share some of the more interesting or notable posts that I have seen in the personal finance blogs and other sources for the past week

DQYDJ shares a nifty calculator that shows Who Makes Up the Workforce, by Year and Age? 1962-2015

DoughRoller has a basic comparison of tax software with Comparing The 5 Best Tax Software Programs
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Craigslist & Zillow Rental Comps for January 2016

After checking rental comps on Rentometer.com I've decided to stop using that service.   Their data seems stagnant (at least for 3 of 5 of our properties.)     I'm going to now instead use Zillow.com and Craigslist.com to check rental comps.

Here's the Zillow :

	Zestimate
A	$1,500
B	$1,400
E	$1,675

Here is Craigslist :

	sample	median	10% floor
A : 3 bed house	31	$2,000	$1,300
B : 3 bed house	59	$1,450	$900
C : 1 bed apt	87	$620	$525
D: 1 bed apt	171	$700	$495
E : 3 bed house	33	$2,200	$1,500

This is the first time I'm checking rental comp from these sources so theres no previous data to run comparisons on.

For Zillow I just check the Rent Zestimate figure for the single family homes.

Checking comps on Craigslist is much more involved.   I have to pull up the housing search, center the property and search for the number of bedrooms.   Then I also limit it to similar style properties (houses vs apartments) and designate if we do or don't take pets.   Then I have to do a little trial and error to see where the median and bottom 10% rent levels fall.  I look at the total number of properties for rent and then find the price level below which 50% and 10% of the listings fall.  For example if there are 59 units then I try and find the price point where ~30 are above and blow for median and then about 6 units are below for the bottom 10%.

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TopCashBack Friend Referral Bonus is $20.16

If you have any friends that could benefit from joining TopCashBack then you can get $20.16 by referring them.

Follow my referral link to find out how.

If you aren't a member then check out their site.   Its pretty competitive with other cashback shopping portals like Ebates.


--This article may contain referral links which pay this site a commission for purchases made at the sites.