Huge savings at Gap, both now and later. How to save 60-75% on everything.

Yesterday was the Halloween Carnival at my kids’ school. This is always a fun day: costume contests, games, too much candy.

The kids run around in wild packs so I get to do a lot of socializing with other parents, which means I’m standing and chatting. So I wear comfortable shoes. Boots.

I went to pull on a pair of boot socks, but this was the best I could do. Note the horrific pilling and completely threadbare heel. Scary!

I wore the socks anyway, but as soon as we got home, I hopped online to check out what was on the virtual shelves at Gap. Turns out they didn’t have any good socks, but what they did have was huge potential for savings.

If you need anything from Gap, this is a good time to pounce. I’m going to walk you through an example purchase and show you how to save a TON. We will start with a $150 purchase and get the total price down to around $50…over 60% savings!

Then I’ll show you how to save 75% in a few weeks. Yay!

How to save big now

1. Set up a Plink account. Total earnings: $5.

Plink is a rewards program where you earn Plink points when you make qualifying purchases with featured merchants. It’s kind of a no-brainer because once you set up your account, you don’t need to do anything else. Just make sure to shop with the credit card that you registered with Plink, and you will automatically earn Pink points.

Plink points are worth 1 cent each towards various rewards. I’m planning on using my Plink points for Amazon gift cards. You need to accumulate at least 500 Plink points to get an award (500 points = one $5 gift card).

Currently, Gap is a merchant in the Plink network. Once you have a Plink account, add Gap to your Plink wallet.

2. Now head to Ebates. If you go through the Ebates portal to Gap, this will give you 7% cash back. Total savings (using our heavily-discounted $150 example): $4.70.

3. Once you are on the Gap site, sign up to receive Gap emails. You will need to use an email address that is not already registered with Gap. Once you sign up, you will instantly receive a 25% off code. When you finish shopping, use this code to take 25% off everything in your basket.

4. Then use the code SURPRISE to save an additional 40% off your purchase today (October 28). If you miss this one, don’t fret – lately the Gap has been giving these things out like Halloween candy, so it’s likely that another will come along very soon.

The total stacked value of these two codes is 55% off your total purchase. Using our example amount of $150, this means that so far you are spending $67.50 for $150 worth of merchandise.

You are also saving an additional 7% ($4.70) if you went through Ebates, which brings your total down to ~$63. If you also went through Pink, you earned enough points for a $5 Amazon card, so your total cost is now ~$58.

5. You can save another 10% if you pay with Gap/Banana Republic/Old Navy gift cards that you purchased through Cardpool. These are normally sold out, but you can set an alert to notify you when new cards come in. I buy them as I can, and stockpile them for when I need to make a Gap purchase. It’s an easy way to save an extra 10%. This could bring your purchase cost down to ~$52.

6. Another way to add value to your Gap purchase is to buy gift cards from Office Depot with an Ink Bold card. This will earn you 5 points per dollar spent. So $50 in Gap gift cards purchased from Office Depot would earn you 250 Ultimate Rewards points.

Save a bunch of money later, as well.

Right now (until November 22), you will earn Gap cash for all of your purchases. This is basically a way to lock in future 50% discount.

 In our example purchase, we spent $150 before discounts, so we would earn $75 Gap Cash to spend later.

I read the fine print and learned that Gap Cash can be combined with the 25% first purchase discount. So, once it is time to spend your Gap cash, if there is someone else in your household who would like to sign up to receive emails from Gap, you will get another 25% discount code, and you can use it in combination with your Gap Cash.

GAPCASH is good for a single use only and is combinable with other offers and discounts including Reward Cards, first purchase discount, 10% Tuesday discount, and 10% Welcome Saving Pass.

I’m not sure how the discount will stack with the Gap Cash. For example, if you spend $150, then use your 25% discount, your new total would be $112.50. If the $75 Gap Cash was subtracted from that amount, you would spend a total of $37.50. This is a 75% savings!!

However, if the $75 Gap Cash was subtracted from your $150 purchase and then the 25% was subtracted from that total, you would spend $56.25. This is a 62% savings.

Either way, that’s a lot of savings.

Of course you could use the other tips to save even more: Plink, Ebates, Cardpool, Office Depot.

I’m loving this savings from Gap. I stocked up on winter basics for my kids, got a start on my holiday shopping, and didn’t break the bank.

Anyone else excited about this deal? What’s on your wish list?

(Boot socks? Ha ha.)

Disclosure: some of the links above are mine, and I do receive a small commission if you use them. As always, thanks so much for your support!