I recently celebrated my *whisper* 37th birthday! And naturally that meant that I could load up a few apps and loyalty cards and get a few freebies and money off vouchers.
This might be one of my favourite rewards in recent years. Birthday rewards for loyalty cards and apps only started up a few years ago, but they do seem to be a slowly growing trend. I don't like things to go to waste so I've only signed up to things I know I want, there are more offers beyond the four I've listed here.
Paperchase - £5 off with Treat Me card
If you're signed up to the Paperchase "Treat Me" card and you've given them your date of birth, then around your birthday you'll get an email saying you have a £5 voucher ready to spend. They give you a code to use online or if you're in the shop just hand over the card and it will be assigned to your purchase.
I used it to reduce the cost of my 2023 diary. For the past few years I've been keeping a daily hand written diary and I generally purchase them from Paperchase as I'm left handed and find their diaries are quite easy to write on both sides of the page.
Although the code is emailed to you close to your birthday, it generally has an expiry date set 30 days later. If you time it well you could combine it with a sale to get a real bargain!
Greggs app - Free sweet treat
If you download the Greggs app and add your date of birth then you'll find it automatically gives you a free sweet treat voucher on the app! I got this delicious sprinkle doughnut but other options include yumyums, gingerbread biscuits, and chocolate chip cookies.
The offer was added to my app on my birthday itself and was valid for 7 days, if you don't have a huge amount of time to use it. In my case though I was going into town to do some Christmas shopping so I just made sure I stopped by Greggs on my way back to the car. If you don't have a Greggs nearby then you might want to decide if it's worth the cost of a trip.
You also need to have had the Greggs app for a few weeks before your birthday, if you download it on the day then I don't think it will work.
Hotel Chocolat - £5 off with VIP Me card
Like Paperchase, if you have the Hotel Chocolat VIP Me card then you'll get an email confirming you have a £5 voucher on your VIP Me card, or a code to use online.
Back when you could get three selectors for £10 this was a fantastic bargain, as you could get great chocolate for half off. Sadly though inflation now means that it's £12 for three selectors and it doesn't feel like quite as good a deal (to me at least, but I understand why the prices went up).
Instead I got one selector and one milk chocolate "tiddly pot", with the voucher I paid less than £2 for the pair of them. It's still a really nice offer though and if your birthday falls just after a holiday like Halloween, Christmas, or Valentines, then you can use the voucher to get some already discounted chocolate.
My birthday falls in the middle of November and the email normally arrives in my inbox right at the end of October, valid until the end of November, so I think it mostly covers your birthday month.
Costa Coffee - Free cake with the app
I chose the millionaire slice but I don’t think it limits what you can buy. I was very tempted by the lemon muffin as I really like them, and they had also released their festive menu so there were also Toblerone muffins, large mince pies, and a cake with a reindeer face.
If you want to download the Costa app then you can use my referral code (8XQ6D), and we will both get 5 free beans, which will put you halfway towards a free drink.
Overall a nice little haul that just required me to pop into a few shops, I had a week off work anyway so I was going to a few places with the relevant shops. It's a nice way to get a few treats for free or very reduced.
