Free Money From Sears & Kmart (and how I was able to get snacks for our welcome bags for free)

When you have out of town guests coming to your wedding, it's customary to block a set of rooms at a local hotel for them. And then, it's nice to create wedding welcome bags for them.

We made our guests amazing bags that \cost us just over $2 each. And part of that was because I'm really good about spending free money.

Yes. Free money.

A lot of snacks we put in our bags were free from Kmart, thanks to free money. If you look, you'll see the chips and crackers all say zero. How? It's easy, but it takes dedication.

Kmart and Sears are sister stores (if you didn't know, they have the same parent company). They have a loyalty program called Shop Your Way. You can register, for free, and you'll earn points for every dollar your spend there. Points turn into credit you can use (1,000 points = $1).

But it gets better.

When we were wedding planning, Shop Your Way was giving new and existing members a free 3,000 points every month. You could use it on anything up to and including $3 and get the items for free (and just pay the difference if you spend more). So something like the Austin Cheese Crackers that are $1.49 for a pack of eight, we bought two for $2.98, used our $3 credit (although only $2.98 will apply) and that was 16 packs of crackers for free. Our guests loved the snack and we loved the price. And, if you pick "in store pickup," there won't be a shipping cost.

We did this constantly. Every time I got free points from Shop Your Way, I took a look at our wedding "to buy" list and figured out what I could cross off the list. It was so much better than actually paying for stuff. I mean, when it comes to weddings, the cost can really add up ... but so does the savings. Sure, a few dollars here and there doesn't seem like much, but I did it anyway. And when it came time to tally up my savings after our wedding was over, my gosh, it really did add up.

We got all the chips and cheese crackers for our wedding welcome bags (and we made just over 50 of them) completely for free.

BRIDAL BABBLE: What are you planning to buy with your free money?