Site Showcase Sunday: MyPoints

It is Site Showcase Sunday! We are starting a weekly series that you absolutely can’t miss reading every week. We will feature a website that is useful, interesting, and helpful to you!

This week I’m featuring two websites as I used both of them to score a fabulous deal. They are http://www.mypoints.com/ and http://www.restaurant.com/.

Last week I received a FREE $25 gift card for http://www.restaurant.com/ from MyPoints! I was so excited. This gift card will allow my husband and me to go out to dinner for very little out of pocket at many great restaurants. This is an opportunity for us to be frugal, but still enjoy a wonderful date night.

So let me tell you about the deal…

For the last five years I have been a member of http://www.mypoints.com/. It is a website that allows you to earn points to redeem for a variety of gift cards. It’s free to sign up. It’s easy. It’s worth a few minutes of your time, a few days a week. I created a separate email for MyPoints and I check it about three times each week. I read emails, take surveys, and occasionally make purchases online. MyPoints thanks me by giving me points for each email. It takes some time for me to accumulate enough points to redeem, but I’m patient.

After about 6-8 weeks I usually redeem MyPoints. I used to always get gift cards to Panera Bread as I enjoy eating there, but now I stick to getting cards for restaurant.com. The best part about redeeming MyPoints for a Restaurant.com gift card is that it costs me several hundred points less then the cost of a Panera Bread card (or many other popular cards).

According to Restaurant.com they “serve as the community matchmaker…Restaurant.com helps restaurant owners promote new and unique aspects of their restaurant while providing diners with great value in a fun, new and cost effective way.” What this really means is that I get CHEAP gift cards to use at local restaurants. To make it even better, their gift cards go on sale. I usually wait until many of their gift cards are 80% off. Then I login and buy them with the gift card I redeemed at MyPoints so I am out of pocket very little!

For example, I bought a gift card at 80% off at a great local restaurant. It was normally priced on Restaurant.com at $10 for a $25 gift card. Since it was 80% off I was able to snap it up for $2. I used my Restaurant.com gift card I redeemed from MyPoints so I was out of pocket nothing! When I actually redeem the gift card at the restaurant on my date night my husband and I will spend about $10. (It is a $25 gift card, but it stipulates that you must spend $35 to use the gift card.) We will spend about $10 plus tax and tip to enjoy an appetizer, 2 entrees, a dessert, and 2 drinks on a Saturday night. AMAZING!

I’m looking forward to a cheap date night very soon and fun local restaurant!

Happy Eating!
Thriftynester