I love Coke Zero. I have a problem. I drink about 1 a day, but I’ve been trying to cut down to like 5 a week. But because I’m cheap, I also wait until there is a sale on 12 packs of Coke. My threshold is usually around $3 a 12 pack if I’m desperate. If it’s below $3, then I usually buy the max of 4 or so. However, I did find out recently that you shouldn’t go OVERBOARD because apparently there are expiration dates on soda. It loses the carbonation, and you’re basically drinking sugar water at that point.
Anyhow, I know most people just throw away the caps from Powerade bottles and 20 oz bottles of Coke, and they probably throw those codes away on those 12 packs. Well, you should stop throwing them away! Now don’t go digging bottle caps out of the trash; let’s not get CRAZY here. But you should keep them stashed away.
Now go out to www.mycokerewards.com and sign up for an account. Should take a minute or so. Once you confirmed your email, DON’T UPLOAD ANY CODES YET! The reason for that is because they will usually have promotions like double points on certain 12 packs of sodas. So you wait until the promo happens, and that’s when you upload the codes. They will also give away free codes now and again, which you can enter into your account. I think they usually give 10 points per 12 pack code, but if you wait for a promo, they will sometimes give you 20 points instead of 10. So just hold off on the codes.
You will also want to wait to redeem points as well. I don’t even know how many points it usually takes to redeem a free 12 pack, but I do know that when there is a promotion, you can usually get a free 12 pack for 30 points. So imagine that, you enter 3 x 12 packs for 60 points and then you redeem those 60 points for 2 free 12 packs. And you wonder why I can’t quit?
Also note that your account will expire if you don’t add or redeem any points after 90 days of inactivity, and they will send you reminder emails days ahead of time. That’s when you should add one of those 20 oz bottle cap codes to push out your expiration.
The way to stay on top of bonuses is to create a deal alert on Slickdeals. I have one that emails me instantly when someone posts ‘coke rewards.’ It’s caught almost all deals so far. Or you can just wait for me to post a HDOTD “Hot Deal of the Deal.”