Anyone on a budget such as a money jar or envelope budget will begin finding creative ways to save money. It happens like a natural evolution because you become so conscious of what you’re spending. When you shop and try to save money, shopping where you get loyalty bonuses is a great idea. If you use them all year round, you can often cash in during the late fall and take advantage of rewards that can take some of the pressure off at Christmas time.

Here are a few examples:

If your grocery store gives you Airmiles or PC Points or some other benefit it could be worthwhile to shop there. Not only could you save money because many of these stores offer discounts but you could also get bonus points on a regular basis.

Let’s look at shopping at a grocery store that offers Airmiles reward miles.  If you spend $160 a week on groceries you’ll have 8 miles a week. The average store has several bonus offerings every week so let’s just say you earn 10 miles a week. Multiply that monthly and at the end of a year you’ll have about  520 miles.  For 140 miles you can exchange for a $20 grocery store gift certificate so you’ll get an additional $60+ of groceries in a year. This is perfect to save for Christmas time when you’ll be spending more on your groceries.

If you buy your gas at a gas station that offers loyalty points on one of the many programs you can also find that once a year you’re ready to cash in for a reward that can be used as a gift or as gift cards to give out.

Here at the Money Jar Budget site we don’t advocate the use of credit cards but some credit cards do offer great loyalty programs. The trick is to pay the balance every month so you don’t get charged interest and not to use them for cash advances which charge interest from the first day you use it rather than the bill payment date.