Recently my friend Laura from 89thandBroke.com wrote a post about how she only spends $2.79 at Starbucks each week by making use of Starbucks’ liberal $.54 refill policy.  I loved the post and would definitely take advantage of her tips if I frequented Starbucks often enough.

However, I am more of a casual Starbucks fan. If there were a Starbucks anywhere near my house I would go constantly, but alas, it’s usually more of a pain to get to Starbucks than it’s worth.  So I started thinking about ways that non-frequent goers could get a better deal on an over-priced cup of joe at the ‘bucks. Here are a few of the tips I came up with:

1. Do you buy Starbucks coffee at the grocery store to make at home?  Save your coffee containers!  Most of them have a note on the side that you can trade in your empty container for a free cup of coffee at Starbucks!

2. Do you have a Starbucks gift card sitting around?   Even an empty one?  Well then, register for My Starbucks Rewards and receive a free drink {of any size} on your birthday.

3. Stop using cash!  Once you have a My Starbucks Rewards account and have registered a card, make this your only source of currency at Starbucks! By using your registered card to purchase drinks you will earn a star every time you purchase a drink.

After just 5 drinks, or 5 stars, you’ll be at the “green level” and will get the following *free* perks:

• Free beverage customization {such as additional syrups or soy milk}
• Free coffee or tea refills with each visit {normally you’d pay $.54 per refill as mentioned above}
• Free tall beverage with purchase of coffee beans
• Free trial offers

After 30 drink purchases, or 30 stars, you’ll be at the “gold level” and will get the perks below in addition to the ones above :

• A free drink every 15 stars
• A personalized gold card
• Personalized offers and coupons

4. Put money on your Starbucks using your credit card and earn credit card points!  The boyfriend and I just started a system where on the 15th of each month our Starbucks cards are automatically refilled with a set amount of money.  The refill is tied to our joint charge card {hello, Amex Zync}, meaning that we are earning points every month for refilling our cards.  We convert all of our points to airline miles, so in essence we are earning airline miles with every Starbucks purchase!

5. Do you have multiple Starbucks gift cards?  Either register them all under your Starbucks Rewards account OR you can just transfer the balance from one card to your main card, thus ensuring that you keep earning stars and working toward higher rewards with every purchase.

Please share – what do you do to make the most out of a visit to Starbucks and get the most bang for your hard-earned buck?

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This was originally published at FantabulouslyFrugal.com on August 31, 2010.