Boogers on the Wall

I am clothing my family by using credit card rewards. It’s amazing.

Several years ago I got conned into signing up for an Old Navy credit card while Black Friday shopping. I was standing in the middle of the night in a never-ending check-out line that wrapped around the Old Navy store about seven times when an associate said if anyone was willing to open a credit card then he’d take them to the front of the line. It was like 2 a.m. and I had an armful of clothes I could only afford if I bought them during the Black-Friday bargain sale. I caved.

But it has turned out to be one of the best rewards programs for my family – ever. I have bought nearly all the clothes I have purchased for our baby girl the past two years using my free Old Navy Rewards money. Thank heavens we’ve had it. Baby girl clothes are so cute, I just can’t help but want to buy them all.

There are many clothing companies out there that offer rewards and each of them are a little different. If you are looking for a way to get free clothes for you or your family and have a favorite store, I recommend looking into their rewards program. Do they have one? What are the benefits?

With the Old Navy card, I get one point for every dollar I spend outside of Old Navy. When I get to 500 points I get a $5 reward. Often times they have promotions where I can earn 3-5 points for every dollar spent outside of Old Navy. So if I buy gas, groceries, etc. during that time frame I can get 5 points for every dollar I spend. That adds up at our house.

Sometimes they have members-only sales. Sometimes they offer members-only free shipping. Sometimes they give me bonus rewards each quarter. They are always offering more incentives.

Right before Christmas I got $200 in Old Navy Rewards. With the holiday sales going on and my rewards I ordered $530 worth of clothes for $13. No joke. I was so excited. Getting that much for free is thrilling.

What does $530 look like?

Here’s a list of what I got:

3 pairs of women’s boots, 2 women’s coats, 1 pair of slippers, 2 pairs of women’s jeggings, 1 women’s sweater, 3 women’s shirts, 2 toddler shirts, 1 pair of toddler sweats, 2 pairs of toddler boots, 2 pairs of boys joggers, 1 pair of women’s leggings, 1 men’s sweater

It still blows my mind.

I know I’m not the only one looking for a bargain and we are definitely not the only family raising kids who are constantly needing new clothes. So I thought I’d share what works for us.

A word of caution – I have to be diligent. I carefully mark each thing I charge onto my card into my online checkbook app. I treat it like a debit card. Then each time my husband gets paid, I reconcile what I have entered into my app with what I have charged onto my card. If it all matches up, I pay off my card. If it doesn’t, I find out what I’m missing, account for it in my app, then I pay off my card. I pay it off every two weeks so that I never have to pay interest.

I’m not a proponent for credit-card debt.  I’m not in any way telling anyone to go out and charge a bunch of money onto a credit card so that you can get free clothes. But these days it’s easier to pay via credit card – especially with how many things I buy online. If you are like me then you are already using a card to make most of your purchases. Why not turn the money you spend into rewards that work for you and your family? If you use the card for stuff you already budget for and stuff you purchase on a regular basis, you should be able to pay it off before accumulating any interest.

Maybe you don’t need clothes. For years my husband and I used a travel rewards card. That’s a major part of how we were able to afford to take our entire family to Italy last summer. Together we had earned more than 300,000 Skymiles. We bought all of the airfare for our family by only paying the fees which were around $700 total. That saved us about $9,000. Do you have a trip you want to go on? Try out a card with a rewards program.

Rewards programs aren’t for everyone, but we have really benefitted from ours. After all the clothes we got for Christmas for free, I couldn’t resist sharing in on our secret.

Do you have a card you like? What are the rewards?