The main way I save for my Disney fund is by using rebates. My favorite type of rebates are issued by alcohol companies and are commonly referred to as beer rebates.
Beer rebates are most often issued by Heineken, Budweiser and Coors and are found in grocery and convenience stores. You will not find them on the beer companies website. They require you to buy a certain amount of their product and in return they give you a rebate on commonly purchased items such as meat, produce, soda and even gift cards.
BUT if you live in one of these lucky states (The lucky states are AL, AR, CT, HI, KY, ME, MD, MO, NC, NJ, NY, OK, UT and WV.), you can just buy the item and not the alcohol and still get the rebate! (It will specify on the form if you are required to buy the alcohol or not. We never are required in AL.) that by law do not allow rebates by alcohol beverage companies, you can still get the rebate on the commonly purchased item!
What do I mean exactly? Say there is a rebate that reads “Buy 2 12 packs of Budweiser and $10 worth of meat. Submit your receipts and the rebate form and get $10 back.” if you live in one of the lucky states, you just have to buy the meat! You would get $10 back via rebate for buying $10 worth of meat!
The fine print on the rebate will indicate if it is valid in your state.
Here is an example of a beer rebate: here. Notice along the bottom how it lists the states that do not require any beer purchases? Also look at this one. It lists in the fine print which states can participate and which ones require no beer purchase.
Another awesome thing about beer rebates is 90% of the time they require receipts instead of just receipt. So you can use multiple receipts to purchase all the qualifying items.
Always make sure to notice the start and end date for the rebate. They usually have both.
So now that I told you about beer rebates, I bet you want to find some yourself. I rarely find them in my store so I have to either buy them online or trade for them on Hot Coupon World. You can buy them on Ebay by searching “Beer Rebates”. Make sure you read the fine print!
If you want to trade for them, you need to start here.
This is one of the many ways you can add cash to your fund. Be sure to see all the ways to earn extra cash. Go here to read to the Getting Started “Couponing to Disney” page.
{ 46 comments… read them below or add one }
I live in one of the “lucky” states! I LOVE beer rebates. FREE, FREE, FREE!!!
Not PA, bummer!
i NEVER knew about this! But i dont drink either.
I live in a ‘beer purchase necessary’ state, but luckily I have a neighbor who loves Budweiser, LOL! I don’t do Coors and Heineken because they are well-known for not paying (tried them once myself and didn’t get paid, so why bother?) in the BPN (beer purchase necessary) states.
I SOOO did NOT know this!! We don’t drink….and we live in a lucky state! Now, I’m excited!!!
Bah, us Floridians never get the good stuff, no double coupons, no beer rebates without the purchase.
I know!! Florida is def. a sad place to be for those beer rebates! I did live in NY when we were stationed there, does that count? lol
we don’t get double coupons in HI either, but luckily we get the beer coupons! Did not know this AND my hubby looovveeesss Bud Light!
It says that they buy rebates, that doesn’t make sense to me. I would never buy coupons. Can anyone help me make sense of that?
say you buy a coupon for $5 off of a product but you only pay $1 you are still saving $4. Also think about it when you buy the newspaper you are technically buying coupons.
Be sure to read the listing very carefully – I found one that is posted and has already expired!
I dont live in one of those states-guess I’ll actually have to take up drinking-darn..LOL
I had no idea about this!!! Probably because I live in CA and we never qualify for cool rebates like this, but I will now be on the look out for some in hopes that I will find them.
FYI- I was looking at the link on ebay and some of the rebates qualify in other states then you listed so it is worth your time to check it out!!
I sure with it was in Florida! Fl never gets those good deals!
I wish I was in a lucky state. Im in VA but I am no where near the WV or NC border so that won’t work either. :-(
Michelle,
If it’s a $20 rebate on $30 worth of food and I bought the rebate form for $3.00, then I’m actually getting a $17 rebate on $30 worth of food….which is more than I would have ever had considering I can’t get the rebate forms through any other means. Does this help?
Check Ebay. I just went on there and found no beer purchase required rebates for VA and there were some for FL too. You might just have luck after all. I ordered 4 or 5 just a few min. ago and a few of them had FL on them to where you didn’t have to buy the alcohol!
I will have to check this out.
Often if you ask at the grocery store they can give you the rebate forms for free. I had a helpful cashier let me know about them once.
Woohoo! I did NOT know this. Even though my husband will gladly drink the beer (LOL), it’s good to know we are in one of the FREE states and don’t have to. I’m off to go check out Ebay!
I did not know this. This is awesome!!
I need to look into these on Ebay, because I can never find them in my grocery stores!
Ugh!!! I live in a purchase states, but I saw booklets of these about 3 weeks ago in my stores. Next time I’ll know to grab some for you!!
Even if you don’t drink beer, and you live in a beer purchase required state, this should not discourage you from looking for the forms. Earlier this Spring I saw a $50 beer rebate wyb a case of beer and a patio set. If you were going to buy the patio set anyway, isn’t it worth buying the $25 case of beer to get a $50 rebate??? This example is not an anomoly. There are indeed times where the rebate exceeds the beer purchase.
I need to come back and re-read this article when I have more time. I saw this the other day in the store but didn’t know what it meant! I am all about the rebates!
The Frugal Free Gal
http://frugalfreegal.blogspot.com
Now, I live in a beer purchase required state (NV, go figure-lol). However, we have a family vacation home in a NBPR state. Can I purchase my goods, minus the beer and have the rebate sent to the other home? Or would the receipts from NV stores, negate the address? We don’t drink, so it would be awesome if we could partake in these rebates without needing to actually purchase the alcohol.
Where do the people selling these on ebay get them? I would love to be able to cut out the middle man.
Where do you guys find your beer rebates? I have looked in the alcohol section of Walmart and food lion, but can’t find any. I have also looked in gas stations, no luck. Would the ABC store have them?
Are you in NC? I have never heard of ABC stores until I moved to NC. I haven’t looked yet in any, though I have found a few at Food Lion. I mostly trade iwth others. Though I would be curious if others have found them in ABC stores. I really would love to know how some people can find tons of good ones.
I live in OH but do most of my shopping in KY (Walmart, Kroger, Target). Living in a Tri-State Area, The stores in KY are closer by just crossing the bridge. Just wondering if I have to live in the state or shop in the state? Do they use the store address or the home address where they mail the rebate to?
The home address where the rebate is mailed to.
Having a hard time finding any rebates for TX. :(
I can not find beer rebates for tx either. let me know if you find them
Based on my research, it appears Maryland isn’t a NBPR state :(
Where do you find these in the grocery store? Is it in the alcohol aisle or would it be advertised in the store ad?
MA is a NBPR state but only for Bud rebates, not Coors, Miller, Heinekin, or Blue Moon. Rebates are a big part of how I couponed to Disney this past January and am doing again for January 2013! It’s free money! I always trade for mine on Hot Coupon World and will not pay more than 10% of face value. If a rebate is for $6, I pay $0.60, and I still make $5.40. Totally worth it in my book. Rebates on ebay go for WAY more and really start to negate any savings you might see.
Hi, Thanks so much for this great info! I had no idea about the beer rebates until I read your blog. I live in Ky, in a “lucky” state! woo hoo! i do have a question though. I live right across the Indiana state line, and I shop in Indiana more than I do KY. If I purchase my items for the rebates in Indiana, will I have to follow the guidelines for that state, since my receipt would be from there, or is it strictly by my residential address. I can find better meats and produce over the state line, but before I take advantage of my $25 rebate on $100, I want to be sure. Thanks again!
Yes, you would have to have an Indiana residential address also.
I live in Kentucky and sent in a receipt of required items purchased from an Indiana grocer. No rebate. I called the rebate sponsor and they said purchase and rebate address must be in the same state. So I lost out. I have a suspicion Indiana is changing some laws that negatively effect the liquor industry from offering any kind of rebate in Indiana as i have seen Zero since mid July.
I’ve only seen the occasional coupons in the store off of crackers etc.
Thank You Kathy! I wasn’t sure how that would work. I will just buy my rebate groceries in KY, don’t want to give them any reason to deny sending my check! I have not attempted to send any Indiana receipts, but I often wondered about it. Better safe than sorry! I have a friend who has just started with the beer rebates, and she has sent in the same rebates as I have, using IN receipts, even though I told her I wouldnt do that if I were her. It will be interesting to see if she gets them back…. Since we don’t buy the beer, I imagine they could get really nit picky about it, if they choose to.
This is news to me…another reason why I’m glad I found this site. Thanks! I’ll have to check it out.
Florida is so bad when it comes to being “unlucky.” I bet anything that all the retailers got together to make it so Double-couponing wasn’t allowed. Cuz if just one did it, they’d all have to, to stay competitive. But if they all got together to lobby the politicians, they could keep it out of our state altogether.
Wow! I never knew this! I live in one of those lucky states! So excited to start doing these!
Thanks so much for this post! I’ve done these rebates before, but I would have never thought to look for them on ebay!
This doesn’t seem ethical. Like state-sponsored theft or something. I guess the businesses are dumb for even bothering to offer it.
I LOVE beer and wine rebates!!!! Especially towards of the end of the calendar when people tend to purchase alcohol for holiday parties, I found rebate tags everywhere. My stores were flooded with rebates and most of the beer rebates were not for purchasing beer (i.e. purchase $25.00 in gift cards get $5.00 back, purchase (2) 12-pack of soda and salty snack and get $3.00 back, etc.) For me the best places to find rebates were NOT at beer and wine shops or grocery stores but at little stores; such as, Wa-wa, CVS or truck stop gasoline stations. So now I frequent the little stores and cruise the beer and wine aisle looking for rebates.
I have some questions and I am wondering if anyone can help. I live in WV which is one of the “lucky states”. I have found some wine rebates that lists WV as a participating state. Since WV is a participating state and the company cannot require the alcohol purchase does the rebate have to state the no alcohol purchase required for me to be able to use it to receive the rebate on the food item. Thank you.
This is awesome! I live in NY and didn’t know this! Tyvm!