**Note: The following content isn’t a pyramid scheme nor is it e-begging. Instead, it contains money-saving advice for fellow Barnes-N-Noble members
Back when I was blogging about money-making websites/apps during the early stages (2018/2019) of the current Art Infliction era, I did so because I wanted to emulate Clark Howard, the author and radio/podcast host, whom offers helpful tips on both making money and saving money. And while I also did such reviews during this decade, the amount of them wasn’t anywhere near the amount that I did late last decade, due to me A] Not finding as many of those websites/apps to test, and B] Having many other assignments between those early stages and now.
Of course, I still run into those same reasons about why that particular type of frequency remains the complete opposite, but I do have a helpful way as a Barnes-N-Noble member for reducing costs on purchases (for fellow members) from that retail business via the paragraph after the next one in this blog entry. Let’s continue.
Alright, so I mostly purchase DVDs and/or Blu-ray Discs from Barnes-N-Noble since I want my entire movie collection to be on physical media. Yes, I’m old school about my collection, because I can just pop in whatever movie that I want to watch basically whenever I want, instead of conforming to some overly simplistic and sometimes unreliable aspect of modern technology. Anyways, I’ve also gotten CDs (Sevendust’s most recent album “Truth Killer”) from Barnes-N-Noble, but that’s an outlier for an otherwise visual physical media-laden purchasing routine, one that gained an extra advantage for my Barnes-N-Noble membership, beginning in early-October 2023. Let’s continue.
Alright, so in between my lunch and my theatrical outing of the movie “The Creator” on the first Thursday of October 2023, I went to a Barnes-N-Noble that was/is located near that particular movie theater to kill some more time and possibly see if there was at least one movie on DVD or Blu-ray Disc worth purchasing. And as it turned out, well sort of, as I bought the DVD of “Trick ‘r Treat” that day to see if it was a worthy of being in my collection, to which it wasn’t. However, that aspect of that outing wasn’t a total loss, as I was told by the cashier that was tending to me that day about signing up for free with their “Stamps” program, which (I eventually learned) earns Barnes-N-Noble members $5 for every 10 purchases. And of course, me being the retail deal seeker that I am when it comes to making such purchases, I signed up that day and amassed my first $5 reward after two separate online purchases that I made first later that month and then early the following month, respectively. And that first $5 reward was used as soon as I could spend it, as it went towards my purchase of “The Waterboy” on DVD (my credit charge only had to cover $2.13 for it) four days after Thanksgiving 2023. Now let’s look at how to use a Barnes-N-Noble $5 reward through “Stamps” and a Barnes-N-Noble digital gift card together via the next paragraph.
Alright, so after the first “Stamps” reward has been spent, the question is how to get another one? Well, for one, you have to make 10 Barnes-N-Nobles purchases of at least $10 each, which is something that I actually found out in late-April of this year, so bargain hunting at Barnes-N-Noble for something under $10 won’t accelerate any reward accruement. Two, it depends on how quickly that you want that next reward, which for me I amassed by happenstance in September 2024 via getting quite a few movies that I just so happened to want to have on physical media, such as the 2022 version of “Scream” and “In The Heights”, and that accruing took almost a year. But of course, I also both encourage any fellow Barnes-N-Noble member to spend at a pace that’s best suited for them, and advise that all such purchases have a reason behind them, especially since no one wants to experience buyer’s remorse. Three, amass a minimum of 5,000 points on the Fetch Rewards app (an app that I previously reviewed), as that’s the minimum required amount of points for the first eligible ($5) Barnes-N-Noble digital gift card, which I got in late-September 2024. And finally, here’s the part that I learned this most recent November, which is in order to get free shipping with Barnes-N-Noble purchases made online, your subtotal (excluding sales tax) of items in the online shopping cart (of its website) must exceed $50 (used to be $40 pre-2025). And if that means having to look around for something on a whim to meet/exceed that threshold, then so be it, especially since free shipping is ideal for us online shoppers. And as to what I did with my second “Stamps” reward and that Fetch Rewards redemption, well I used them together to save $10 on my online purchase for the movies “Freaky”, Hard Target”, “Need For Speed”, and the 2014 version of “Godzilla” to add my collection.
Yes, what I cited in the two previous paragraphs are specific (and first-hand) Barnes-N-Noble shopping experiences, but they are also ones to provide a baseline for any other current member that’s looking to learn ways in saving for both in-store and online purchases. And they are just the tip of that iceberg, as I don’t think those two specific Barnes-N-Noble purchasing experiences are applicable to anyone else, so there are very likely others with different types of items purchased and possibly well over the $50 threshold, especially since we are also taking online shopping into account.
Tune in on Monday to how else you can expedite your point total to 5,000 in Fetch Rewards. And I hope that the Barnes-N-Noble money-saving advice that I imparted in this entry is/will be helpful to those of you that have read it.
Pay it forward, don’t hold it back!