Very happy to report I just got in on my first round of 30% off at Kohl’s combined with Kohl’s Cash, Ultimate Rewards, and the Kohl’s Card (which I picked up a couple of weeks ago).

I spent ~$257. But I’m getting $100+ of it back. Whaaaa?

I picked up 8 new towels, a mattress pad for my fold-out couch bed, a quilt set, and a coffee table for the living room. All of it was on sale. I got a $140 quilt for $40, the towels were on sale for $7, etc. – so already a good deal.

But it gets better. MUCH better. This might be an elusive quintuple dip.

1st dip: $257 at Kohl’s is roughly halfway to MVC status, which earns even more discounts

2nd dip: Got gift cards for Kohl’s at Staples with the Ink card – 5 points a dollar

3rd dip: Clicked through Ultimate Rewards portal to Staples – 2 more points a dollar

4th dip: When shopping at Kohl’s, clicked through UR portal again – 10 points a dollar

5th dip: Got $50 back in Kohl’s cash!

For spending $257 dollars, I’ll get 2,570 UR points, which I value at ~$50. Then I got $50 in Kohl’s Cash right away. I will also get 5 points/dollar for purchasing the gift cards from Staples with my Ink card, and even more UR points for that purchase, too. All in all, for $257, I got a TON of stuff I needed for my apartment, and I’ll get over $100 of it back to use on future purchases and even more travel. In fact, 2,500 points is over halfway to free one-way short-haul flight on British Airways. Just for buying stuff I NEEDED ANYWAY.

I put those last three words in caps because for me, that’s an important aspect of this points game we play. You don’t want to go out of your way to buy things you don’t need or put yourself into debt just to earn points and miles. But if you’re going to buy or do something anyway, you might as well earn a ton of points for it. Kohl’s is one of those odd situations where the banks make it so easy to earn a boatload of points. And Kohl’s, as a company, is very generous with their discounts and cashback opportunities. I used a 30% discount code on this order which brought the total down even more. Just incredible.

I needed new towels, a coffee table, a mattress pad, and a quilt, so strategized to get over $100 back for things I needed to buy anyway. I recommend the following for Kohl’s:

• Wait for discount codes. There are a lot of them, and they come frequently
• Wait for a sale. They happen pretty often, too
• Buy in $50 increments, or as close as you can to that. Every $50 spent earns $10 in Kohl’s Cash
• Buy in batches, rounded to $50. Lots of people have reported not getting points when buying huge orders after clicking through the portal. I break mine up into separate $100 or $200 orders to make sure all points post
• Don’t buy everything you need all at once. You have to redeem the Kohl’s Cash quickly or lose it all. Save one or two items to use with that discount (usually two weeks into the future)
• Buy gift cards through Staples with the Ink card if you have it…
• …but not enough to cover the whole purchase if you have a Kohl’s Card. You have to put something on the Kohl’s card to get the larger discounts, and if you want MVC status, run more money through your card to get even more discounts, faster

Bottom line

Shopping at Kohl’s is a rare and fascinating opportunity to earn a lots of points and miles all at once. They are generous, sell quality stuff really cheaply, and if you time it all right, you can really save a ton of money.

Don’t buy things you don’t need just to get points. But if you need items for home or clothes/furniture/makeup, price out your options and strike when the iron is hot. There’s a lot of opportunity here to kill a lot of (figurative) birds with one big points-earning stone.

Perhaps the biggest selling point for me is I can shop at midnight (or any time) while sipping a beer and get everything delivered right to my door. Ahhhh yes. Aaaand… I know where I’m shopping for Christmas this year! 😉

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