I know, it sounds ridiculous, but I promise it’s real. You can get free pizza and make money as a college student. I do this all the time and it takes so little time and effort that I can’t believe that my friends haven’t caught on yet. It also doesn’t require any special skills. Without further ado, here is the big secret.

Discount gift cards

Shocking, isn’t it? Something so simple yet can be lucrative. Let me explain in case you’re not too familiar with the concept. Sometimes, people get gift cards for Christmas or their birthday often because cash is too tacky. Well, sometimes, they don’t want these gift cards or prefer cash or sell them for whatever reason. But no one wants to buy them at face value, because it’s not as good as cash. Therefore, they sell gift cards for less than their purchasing power. For example, I last bought Domino’s gift cards at a 23.4% at Raise (which usually has the best prices). Using my link, you’ll get an extra $5 off. Read how this makes you money in the math section. There is a new discount app that allows you to get Dominos with up to 37% cashback. It’s called Fluz. To get the 37% off offer, you have to use my invite code (BARNESCONNOR33220894B0).

Saving even more money

The next step is to use a cashback portal. The most popular one is Rakuten (formerly known as Ebates). If you sign up under my link, you’ll get an extra $10 in cashback after your first purchase, which is just more free money. You’ll also get 1% cashback on Raise, which again, is even more profit.

It’s also time to break out that credit card cashback. If you use Deserve plus Discover, which I recommend for college students, you’ll get a minimum of 1% back. You may also get 2% back due to Discover’s cashback match.

Finally, every pizza place has a rewards program. Pizza Hut has one of the best and unfortunately Domino’s rewards program kind of sucks. But since this post focuses mainly on Domino’s, we’re gonna roll with it (gift card discount is much better for Domino’s typically, making it worth it).

And if you want to make even more money, you can make it when they pay you back. Cashapp is a secure payment platform. It connects directly with your bank and is similar to Venmo. However, when someone you refer (i.e. each of your friends) sends their first payment, both of you get $5. Use my referral or code VTJJQMB for your $5.

The Math

Let’s say for your first batch, you buy $200 worth of Domino’s gift cards and my method. At 23.4% off, you’ll start with a $152.20 cost. The $5 off you get for signing up with my link takes it down to $147.20, but it gets even better. Most of the time, Raise will give $10 off your first purchase over $100 (right now, it’s with the coupon code 10EXTRA) which brings your cost down to $137.20. If you use Ebates, you’ll get $10 + 137.20*0.01=$11.37 in cashback. Now, you’re at $125.83. If you’re using Discover as I suggest, you’ll also get 2% cashback on $137.20, bringing your total cost down to $123.09 for $200 of pizza. This comes out to a 38.5% discount.

That number doesn’t even include any free pizza you may accumulate. Now, to make money off of this, buy pizza with friends and split the costs. How does this work? Well, if you pay for less than 38.5% of the pizza, wings, salad, and drinks you get from Domino’s after your friends pay you back, then you profit. For example, let’s say you buy $200 worth of pizza with your two friends over the course of 2 months, you’ll have spent $123.09, but your friends should have paid you back $133.33 back if you split it evenly. You’ll have made a little over $10 and gotten a ton of free pizza. If you and your 4 friends get pizza and spend $200 on pizza in a month, you’ll get paid back $160 and end up profiting $36.91 plus several free pizzas and good times all for 10 minutes worth of work.

Summary

How to make money as a college student eating pizza is really easy. Just keep in mind Raise, Ebates, and Discover. Use my referral to save even more. And the best part is that it works for tons of places. Other popular restaurants such as Chili’s, Coldstone, Macaroni Grill, Steak & Shake, etc. all also have large discounts making it easy to profit. And once you’ve done that, make your money work for you by investing smartly.