How Melbourne mum made $1500 in one month just by using rewards programs

Olivia White has been using reward programs for years to save cash but then she realised there were new ways she could increase her haul.

Parenting blogger Olivia White has shared how she made more than $1500 in just one month from reward’s programs and is urging others to use points and cashback to their advantage.

The mum-of-two shared her hacks on how she has used a range of programs, including Woolie’s Everyday Rewards, Qantas Frequent Flyer and Shopback, to grow a rainy-day fund outside of the weekly wage.

She said with a huge shift in spending to more local pursuits, including home improvements, companies are scrambling to adjust to the new normal and work out the best way to market to people.

“I have noticed that especially using programs like Qantas Frequent Flyers there are so many specials and deals and great ways you can earn a large amount of points because they are struggling as people aren’t flying,” she told news.com.au.

“I’m not sure if people have seen but Qantas have a points club that is designed to help people earn points outside of travel and on every day spends. So I was shopping in David Jones the other day and you get 12 points for every dollar, which is huge if you spend a couple of hundreds of dollars.

“But people aren’t mindful of this as they associate Qantas Frequent Flyers with flight and travel, but it’s a great time to be gaining those points as there are so many specials on offer.”

RELATED:Why you should save $10k before a baby

You don't need to be travelling to earn Qantas Frequent Flyer points. Picture: Supplied

Ms White revealed they had insured a new car in January and got a bonus 40,000 frequent flyer points.

“Just to put that in perspective, you can currently get a one-way fare from Melbourne to Perth for 18,000 points (value $453),” she wrote on her House of White blog.

The Melbourne mum also converts her Everyday Rewards into Qantas points and recently used them to book two nights of accommodation worth $660.

She’s also a huge fan of Shopback and has utilised it for the past two years on every single online purchase possible. In January, she made $397.05 from regular spending, travel and several referral signups.

“I think organisations are becoming aware it’s a give and take relationship and if they want people to be loyal they have to offer something in return,” she added.

To get the best bang for your buck on Shopback, Ms White recommends signing up to the newsletter to uncover epic deals, shop via the app, use the Google Chrome extension to see who has the best cashback offers and invite friends to use it for the signup bonuses.

RELATED: Couples saves $70k with drastic move

Olivia White loves the kickbacks from referring people to programs. Picture: Supplied

Referrals offer a huge potential to bring in a load of free money, she wrote on her blog. She uses a Spriggy account where they get a $5 signup when they share a code, with $400 deposited into her daughter’s account last year.

There’s also the 500,000 Qantas points from sharing signups for American Express and Qantas Wellbeing that she gained.

“I think a lot of new ways I discovered to make money are really smart for businesses like referral programs as its using word of mouth to share a business and you get a kickback and anyone can do it,” she said. “You can find heaps of different ways to make those kickbacks.”

Victorian mummy blogger Olivia White from House of White shares her tips and trips to make the most from reward programs. Picture: Supplied

The 31-year-old recently discovered the Origin ‘Spike’ Program which not only offers cash back in the form of PayPal money or gift cards, but also helps reduce electricity bills overall.

“Each week you are given a ‘spike’ hour that they want you to beat your projected usage on. If you hit that target and based on how much, you earn points,” she wrote on her blog. “While it isn’t a huge amount we are making ($36 last month). The savings we have made from reducing our projected electricity bill has been huge. Our last quarter saw us come in $280 less than expected.”

Priceline Sister Club has also been an old faithful program, which saw her score $34 off her purchases in January.

But she warns not to buy something just to earn more points. Picture: Supplied

But she did warn that people should use the points on everyday spending rather than just splashing out cash for rewards.

“Most of the money I make is more from every day spend, whether it’s the weekly shop or school supplies, I’m using points to travel as we have them sitting there and why not get a couple of $1000 dollars in value when there great offers out there?” she said.

“At the end of the day if I wasn’t using those loyalty programs I would have said goodbye to that $1500, so its better to have that value in my pocket or have value in points, then not have it all.”