Here is a promotional Costco membership certificate for prospective new members. You buy a certificate for full price on the promotional page and then bring it in to Costco to activate your membership. I have done this promotion in the past. You’ll then get a gift card in the mail:

• Gold Star Members receive a $10 Costco Shop Card
• Gold Star Executive Members receive a $20 Costco Shop Card

Costco has two membership tiers for consumers: Gold Star membership at $60/year and Executive membership at $120/year. Executive membership comes with a 2% cash rebate on purchases (now up to $1,000 in total rebates) as well as some other side benefits. That makes the breakeven point now $3,000 annually (averages out to $250 a month).

Here are some useful details from the fine print:

To qualify as a new member, an existing Costco membership must be expired for 18 months or more. Not valid for renewal of an existing Costco membership or an upgrade of an existing membership to an Executive Membership.

The Costco Shop Card will be mailed to the address provided at the time of new membership sign up at the Costco location. The Costco Shop Card will be mailed within 4 – 6 weeks.

After joining, you may consider applying for the Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi.

Depending on your area, Chevron, Texaco, Exxon, and Mobil gas stations are new partners with Safeway’s gas rewards program (Exxon/Mobil link). This may be good news to those who shop at Safeway supermarkets but don’t have any nearby Safeway gas stations.

The gas rewards program works using their free Safeway Club card. For every $1 in purchases, you get a point. Every 100 points gets you 10¢ off per gallon on a single fill-up (25 gal max) at a participating Chevron, Texaco, or Safeway gas station. You can stack rewards for up to 20 cents off per gallon at a Chevron/Texaco, or up to $1.00 off per gallon at a Safeway/Exxon/Mobil gas station.

So if you spent $200 at Safeway/Von’s over time, you’d get 20 cents off a gallon. With a 15 gallon tank, that’s a $3.00 savings = a 1.5% rebate. Not bad, considering it doesn’t cost anything and you can still use your cashback credit cards to get additional rewards. Chevron’s regular gas prices may be higher than other places, of course.

GroupMe is a group-texting smartphone app with a new feature called Split which allows you to collect payments from groups via credit card (collecting rent from roommates, splitting a bar tab, chipping in for a friend’s birthday gift, etc.). The regular fee for this service will be 4% + $0.99, which covers credit card processing fees plus some profit for GroupMe. The cost for this convenience seems rather steep for regular use, other than maybe splitting a rare dinner bill when I don’t have cash.

However, until Tuesday, March 12th at 11:59PM CST, all fees are waived. Naturally, airline miles collectors love this and a few quickly decided to split a Ford Mustang between friends at $10,000 a pop. 😉 So the free offer was restricted to apply to the first split transaction up to $499 per person. I like trying things like this out, and it was still worth the 10 minutes to get 998 miles and also be able to satsify basically $1,000 of spending requirements on a few $500+ bonus credit cards (these, actually). Here’s how I did it with two smartphones (me and wife).

1. Both Phone #1 and Phone #2 install the GroupMe app, linked to their respective phone numbers (must verify phone number via text message).
2. #1 invites #2 into a group and starts a “Split”, let’s call it Paris Vacation Tickets, set to $499 per person.
3. #2 joins group, and pays $499 with credit card (verify no fees).
4. #1 started the split and so can’t pay themselves (bummer). You could involve a Phone #3 here, but instead you use your computer to visit the custom split link sent to you via e-mail (http://split.groupme.com/XXXXXX) and choose “Pay without can account.” #1 then pays $499 with their credit card (even if linked to same account). If more people wish to pay, you can also do with the custom link.
5. Now that two people have paid (minimum required is two), #1 “collects” by entering their bank account information. $499 will be then charged to the two credit cards (again verify no fees with this promo), and confirmation is given that the $998 will be deposited into the bank account in 3-5 business days.

Groupon is offering a $20 gift card to Office Depot for $10 (Update: sold out, boo). Valid “at any Office Depot location across the country, and for online purchases”. Also, the LivingSocial Sam’s Club membership deal has been extended for another day (previous post).

Remember that you can save even more with cashback shopping sites like eBates ($5 new customer bonus), Mr. Rebates ($5 bonus), and BigCrumbs.

Amazon has a special Kindle promotion where if you buy a certain amount of Amazon gift cards, you’ll get up to 20% back towards qualifying Amazon Kindle accessories in the form of a promotion code (i.e. coupon code). The key here is that “Amazon.com Kindle Accessories Gift Cards” work exactly the same as any Amazon gift card. The offer page reaffirms that you can use them on “Kindle Accessories as well as millions of other items on Amazon.com“.

This is the same fact that allows people to buy Amazon Kindle gift cards at the grocery store for 6% cash back and use them online towards anything at Amazon.

Buy $50-$99.99, get back $10 via promo code
Buy $100-$499.99, get back $20 via promo code
Buy $500 or more, get back $100 via promo code

You must make your purchase by 3/14/13, and you’ll get the promo code by 4/1/13. The promo code is only good towards an unknown list of “qualifying Amazon Kindle accessories” which are sold directly by Amazon. If you already spend this much at Amazon and have a Kindle accessory you want in mind, then front-loading your purchases to get up to 20% back/$100 in “free” Kindle gear may be worth it. Make sure you spend exactly $50, $100, or $500.

Amazon Mom is a program that has some nice perks for parents if you already pay for Amazon Prime at $79 a year (name is a little sexist, though ;)). The main draw is the 20% off diapers & wipes (5% Subscribe & Save discount + 15% Amazon Mom discount).

Right now, they have a new-member promo for $10 off your first pack of diapers when you sign up for a free 3-month trial. During the trial, you’ll also get the free 2nd-day shipping of Prime but not the video streaming or free Kindle book borrowing. Many people have reported problems stacking the $10 off with the 20% off Subscribe and Save discount, but others have reported success after either changing up the subscription periods or using Amazon’s Help chat feature to manually combine them. If you can stack them, it’s a good deal.

Also, I saw that they are offering a mysterious coupon book of “$100 value” when you buy a qualifying baby book. Has anyone gotten this coupon book yet and is it any good? We currently own the following books on their list (amongst others, we went book crazy):

• Baby 411: Clear Answers & Smart Advice For Your Baby’s First Year – Recommended to me by MMB readers and is very handy as a reference book, feels less academic (though the advice is sound as far as I can tell) and more like casual tips from experienced parents.
• Caring for Your Baby and Young Child, 5th Edition: Birth to Age 5 – Thick and dense, but good for reference, by the AAP (American Academcy of Pediatrics) so more academic.
• Heading Home with Your Newborn: From Birth to Reality – Relatively concise, like tips from a friend if your friends were busy pediatrician mommies.

Now I’m looking for a good baby sleep book. Any suggestions?

(Update: Extended for an additional day. Also, if you use them, remember that you can save even more with cashback shopping sites like eBates ($5 new customer bonus), Mr. Rebates ($5 bonus), and BigCrumbs.)

LivingSocial has a special Sam’s Club membership deal where for $45 you can get:

• 1-year Sam’s Club membership
• $20 Sam’s Club gift card
• $19.84 in food vouchers (free Artisan Fresh Rotisserie Chicken, 16″ Artisan Fresh Take-and-Bake Pizza, and two boxes of 6-, 12-, or 24-count Artisan Fresh Cookies)

Expires soon, over 25,000 purchased already. Valid at any Sam’s club location. New members only, which is defined as someone who does not have a currently valid membership. However, it appears that you can wait until June 8, 2013 to actually activate the voucher without losing any value.

Starbucks is offering a free $5 gift card for new members of their Starbucks Rewards program that register a Starbucks (gift) card. If you don’t have one, you can either buy one from a physical store or use their mobile app. Ends 3/15/13.

Indeed, the easiest way to get a free $5 gift card is to download their smartphone app (Android/iOS) and sign up for a new account via the app. When asked to register a card, choose to “Get a Mobile Starbucks Card”. You may need to wait a few minutes, but the card should eventually get credited with $5 without having to load it with your own money. Free caffeine, good for at least two iced coffees with milk per person! 🙂

LivingSocial has a new promo code MYFEB which will get you 20% off almost any deal for $100 or less, local or nationwide. Look for “Redeem promo code” during checkout. Valid for first 10,000 uses. Must be used by February 22, 2013, 11:59 p.m. (Pacific Time). Fine print below:

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