From finding loopholes in fast food menus to finding ways to earn some extra money, people have benefitted from loopholes in unimaginable ways.
It just takes some critical thinking to figure them out.
Some people on Reddit shared the best loopholes they found and how they exploited them.
Most people did it when they were younger, and finding out about those loopholes made them feel rich and smart.
Comments have been edited for clarity and grammar.
1. The Cheaper Way to Have a Sandwich
u/hear2fear: My college campus had a café with a deli and salad bar. The deli sandwiches were way overpriced, like $8 for a standard turkey sandwich, but the salad bar was very reasonable (it was subsidized to promote healthy eating).
So, I found that the salad bar had all the same ingredients as the sandwiches, but the meat was shredded.
The deli would sell slices of bread for $0.25 each, so I would just buy the bread, load up and weigh my “salad,” grab some free mayo and mustard packets, and build my own sandwiches for under $2. I used that trick for my last two years.
2. The Unlimited Supply of Soda
u/some_body_else: Back in the 90s, Dr. Pepper ran a promotion where you could win stuff from the bottle caps, including a free Dr. Pepper. You just paid for the new soda with the winning bottle cap.
I learned that you could look up the bottle and barely read what was written inside the cap. I bought one Dr. Pepper and continued to “win” maybe 30 or so more Dr. Peppers. As a teen, an unlimited supply of soda was amazing.
3. Winning the Radio Station Contest
u/mahck: A local radio station had a contest where you call in when they play the same artist back-to-back to win a prize.
It turns out they had a “now playing” and “up next” feature on their website. My then-girlfriend would start calling in before the second song even came on. She won tons of prizes, ranging from concert tickets to a laptop.
4. The Glitch
u/[deleted]: When Lyft was new, it gave free rides up to 10-15 bucks if you signed up a friend. My college roommate and I did this with each other, but it glitched out, and my account had the free ride thing attached to it for the whole year.
I only had to pay if it exceeded the $ amount given for the free ride. The bar was a $9 ride, so that was very convenient.
5. The Working Hours
u/Mitch_from_Boston: I had an employer who would subtract “break hours” from your pay, regardless of how many hours you worked or if you even took a break.
So, if you worked 40 hours/5 shifts, you’d get a paycheck for 35 hours. If you worked 44 hours/5 shifts, you’d get paid for 39 hours.
I found the loophole was to work 39 hours because they would only subtract the 5 hours from you once you hit 40.
6. Free Burgers
u/Pterons: They used to have a promotion at Wendy’s, probably 6 or 7 years ago, where if you filled a survey out on your receipt, you could get a free burger.
I guess they didn’t notice that you could take the survey on the free burger receipt and keep getting free ones.
So we would just go after school and chain five free burgers after buying just one. We did that for a few days until they finally caught on and stopped accepting it.
7. I Didn’t Break Any Rule
u/iknowvapetricks: During my senior year at my high school, we had a baby photo contest. The contest had a bunch of rules about the photos you could submit.
None of the rules said that the baby had to be you. I submitted a baby picture I found on Google and won the “Best Dressed Baby” award.
8. Chicken Nuggets
u/Gerreth_Gobulcoque: Back in the day, two five-piece chicken nuggets at Burger King cost less than a single eight-piece chicken nugget box.
Me and those two extra nuggets were laughing all the way to the piggy bank. Things get cheaper per unit as you buy more of them. This was the opposite.
9. My School’s Reward System
u/Modusobit: My school had a reward system for good grades/behavior called “Swag Bucks.” At the end of each quarter, you could trade them in for prizes (movie posters, dollar store toys. I think the biggest reward was a Wii).
They were just a heavy stock of red paper with a Times New Roman font. My mom worked for a printing company then, and I printed a few of them.
I made a bit of money selling them to other kids, but shortly after I hatched this genius plan, the school banned them because we were playing poker with fake money.
A teacher found out when one misbehaved student had enough bucks for a Wii and some DVDs after pulling straight Ds.
10. The College Courses
u/joeschmoe86: I took a “survey” course in college, which basically amounted to a course the school was planning to offer in the future.
It allowed the professor to fine-tune the curriculum before officially offering it as a class. Easy course. I got my credit and went home happy.
The following semester, the course went “live” and was offered under a different course number, but the description was identical. I signed up, never attended a class, took the final, and got my credit again.
11. The High School Rule
u/meinherzbrennt42: My high school had a stupid rule that banned you from attending prom if you went to a Saturday detention that semester.
I got in trouble and was assigned to Sat. D-Hall, but my girlfriend really wanted to go to prom. I just skipped it, and they kept adding more until they rolled it into a day of actual suspension.
They had no rule barring you from prom for an out-of-school suspension, so I got a day off and took my girl to prom.
12. The Magic Burger
Deleted user: My husband found a brilliant loophole at a fast-food restaurant, but when he got caught, the fallout was like a nuclear explosion.Husband: Ever heard of the ‘buy one, get one free’ deal at the joint on Blake?Me: Yeah, sure, what’s the catch?
Husband: “They don’t cap the sizes. So here’s what I do: I snag the most monstrous, wallet-busting burger they’ve got, and then, for the freebie? The smallest one on the menu.”Me, eyebrow raised: “Wait, you go for the little guy on the house?”
Husband, with the smirk of a man who’s just beaten the system: Here’s where it gets brilliant.For the free item, I take the tiny burger, which actually costs a buck less than the drink I want. I tell ’em to swap the burger for the drink. They’ve been doing it, no questions asked!”
However, last Tuesday, the manager caught wind of his little substitution stunt. He confronted my husband right there, with a queue of hangry customers as witnesses.
13. The driveway
Deleted user: What are the best loopholes everyone should know about?I got home from work one day to find my driveway completely cemented. I was floored because that kind of work costs around $4,000, and I had only $400 to my name.
Neighbor: “Do you like it? Don’t worry, it’s free for you.”Me: “Absolutely, it’s awesome! But how?”He smiled as if he had just outsmarted thesystem. Neighbor (smirked): “It became possible after I applied for a community beautification grant our city offers.”
The program covers expenses for projects that enhance the neighborhood’s appearance. He submitted a proposal for improving several driveways, including ours, and it got approved. It was all legit – the city funded the renovation, aiming to uplift the community’s look.
So, technically, we got a new driveway legally and for free, thanks to my neighbor’s savvy understanding of city grants and programs.
14. The impound lot
Deleted user: My husband’s car was towed for parking in front of our house. Our neighbor reported it because it didn’t have the right parking permit. Ugh, right?
So, we head to the impound lot and get hit with a $250 fine. Just when we thought it couldn’t get worse, I get a call from the local police department the following day.
The officer tells me, “Your car has been stolen from the impound lot!” I’m in total shock, right? I call my husband. His response? I was absolutely frozen.
“Stolen? Really? No one realized that 6 days ago I had already filed a report for a missing vehicle. I thought it was stolen before I found out it was towed.”
Turns out, my husband’s preemptive report inadvertently protected us. When the car was stolen from the impound lot, our insurance company covered the loss due to his earlier report. His quick thinking in reporting the car as missing ended up being a legal safeguard for us.
BONUS. The Loophole at My Workplace
u/Macabalony: My old job had a loophole about time. If you were scheduled for the 8 a.m. shift, you had seven minutes to arrive and be on time. If you came past the seven minutes, you were considered 15 minutes late.
Loophole: it worked the same for clocking out. If you stayed, helped for an extra seven minutes, and clocked out, you got an additional 15 minutes’ worth of pay.
During my tenure there, I would always ask if people needed extra help and made sure I stayed past the seven minutes. This went on for an entire year. I got close to an additional 24 hours’ worth of pay.
These people shared the loopholes they discovered during their lives and explained how they took advantage of them. They saved money by getting many things for free. Did you ever find a loophole that helped you access stuff for free? We would love to know about your experience.
