Playing the fuel points game

[Van-Tramp]

I have been urban camping right next door to a King Soopers store. They offer 10c off the price of a gallon of gas for every 100 points earned on their KingSooperCard.

Honestly, that equates to 10c off every $100 dollars I spend with them and I rarely spend more than $200 a month in groceries which has kept me from fully utilizing this program. 10c off is welcome, but only a $3.50 savings if I bought a full 35 gallons (the max allowed under the program).

However, I have since learned a few things about the program;

1) They often award 2X points for shopping on the weekends. So I went in and did my shopping on a Saturday evening instead. This could result in nearly 400 points over the course of the month (40c off per gallon, or $14.00 off a full 35 gallons)

2) They offer 2X points for gift cards. Since I regularly buy things from Amazon.com, I picked up a $25 gift card... on a weekend (2X + 2X)... for another 100 points! I should have bought $50 worth as I have $45 worth of items in my Amazon cart anyway... next weekend for sure.

3) I even get points for my beer purchases!

4) They then occasionally offer me a huge discount off things I regularly buy. For example, I buy the Oscar Meyer lunch meat ($3.29 per 9oz package) so they gave me a month long automatic $1.25 off each. package. That is a $2 package of lunch meat, good for 4 meals!

The points do not roll-over each month so you do have to use them. Luckily, they allow you the next month to still use the points. So, points I earn in July can still be used in August (just in case I forget to fill up in the 30th) but will not combine with August's points

Anyway, I bring this up to let you know there are ways to maximize the number of points you can earn, and in turn maximize the savings on a big fill-up at the end of each month. I'm looking to get to 400 points before the end of July, at which time I will fill up the van and the two 5-gallon fuel cans I have ($14 savings in gas is 4 free gallons).

 

[kyonu]

Wow, this sounds incredible if you need to refill your generator weekly! (which I may need to do.) Even better for those who travel around a whole lot; less valuable for those that don't get much gas (AKA off grid electric only and boondocking for long periods.) I may need to look into this, but there are few places I can shop since I'm picky about my food purchases.

 

[GypsySilver]

I do the same thing at Kroger! Also, check your receipt because sometimes you can do a survey and get extra points.

 

[blars]

Yes, it sounds like what krogers is doing. You can use the same card at all kroger owned chains that take cards and combine points. Ralphs, Frys, Smiths, and Fred Myer. Food4less in california does not use the card. (Food4less in Oregon is not kroger.)

 

[Bdog1]

I do the same with Sonoco Fuel rewards. More like a convenient store than grocery though. Limits 20 gal. I usually get $1.50 off in three weeks. Plus another 5c per gal. if you get their charge card.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

SuperAmerica has double coupon Tuesday: any competitors valid in-state coupon doubled. Coupled with my SA rewards card I usually get 23¢ off per gallon. Add to that, I get 1% to 5% cash back at the end of the year from my Visa card. -- Spiff

 

[akrvbob]

Those things do really work. And many grocery stores have their own pumps and I usually find they are the cheapest around except for Costco and Arco. The Amazon gift card is a WONDERFUL idea. I'll start doing that!! Thanks for that tip!!

HOWEVER!!

Walmart ran an add showing a shopper at Fry's grocery stores in Phoenix (they are a Kroger chain). She had saved $15 on gas. But then they took her into the Walmart and bought the exact same groceries on her receipt and she saved $35. Even including the free gas Walmart was much cheaper overall and she could spend the money on anything she wanted.

Unless it's on sale Kroegers and all the national chains prices have much higher prices than Walmart--especially on WalMart brand names. So I only shop their sale ads and almost never get enough points to use the rewards. And since Walmart honors their sale prices, I rarely go to anyone else unless there isn't a Walmart around.

On the other hand Kroegers treats it's employees very well as a broad rule, so that is one reason to shop them and not Walmart. Another reason is that most national grocery chains have much nicer, cleaner stores. They are much more inviting. And Walmarts customer service is generally very poor while the grocery stores tends to be very good.

Those are the reasons Walmart is cheaper, you just have to decide it it's worth the extra money to you.

Bob

 

[GypsySilver]

Yes, it sounds like what Krogers is doing. You can use the same card at all Kroger owned chains that take cards and combine points. Ralphs, Frys, Smiths, and Fred Myer. Food4less in California does not use the card. (Food4less in Oregon is not Kroger.)

JayC also uses the Kroger card. Not sure of all their locations, but they are in Indiana.

 

[blars]

For the groceries I buy, wallyworld is almost always more expensive than kroger chains. Grocery Outlet is frequenty more expensive for near outdated food, but has occasional bargains.

 

[Van-Tramp]

re Walmart vs King Sooper pricing.

Actually, I know the Walmart and King Soopers price for each item I am going to buy. Where they are equal, I buy from King Soopers. Where they are not, I wait until I am at the other store. For the most part they are pretty equal. Some things I cant find at Walmart (like chicken split breasts for $0.99 a pound) while others I can not find at King Soopers.

Once you get to know your shopping routine, it is pretty simple to keep the costs as low as possible.

 

[decodancer]

Price Chopper here in PA has the same kind of deal. Spend $200 get 20 cents off per gallon up to 20 gallons. They also have certain items for an automatic 10 cents off. I have a coworker with 4 kids and no car (has a motorhome). I tote them around in my van occasionally and they give me gas money and use their discount. I got 54 cents off each gallon on one fillup, not too bad huh?

 

[user 423]

At Kroger and FM I get double points when I buy a $50 refill for my T-Mobile cell service. I usually spend at least $200 on food, so I will often get 20 cents/gallon off and that's some pretty good savings. If I'm a few points short by the 30th, I'll go ahead and stock up on some staple items.

FMeyer and Kroger have better deli offerings than Walmart...

 

[Van-Tramp]

I racked up 701 fuel points in the month of September (I bought my Coleman oven/stove on Amazon after buying a gift card from King Soopers for $180... x2 fuel points... that helped a lot). The points did not expire until today (Haloween) so I held onto them as long as I could since fuel prices were dropping and I wasn't driving anyway.

I bought 35 gallons (filled fuel tank + two 5-gallon fuel cans) at $2.39 per gallon. That is 550+ miles of driving for less than $85 in fuel. I saved $24.50 (35 X 0.70) on this fillup alone and did not spend any more money then I would have anyway.

 

[Van-Tramp]

A break down of the fuel points I earned:

364 points by buying the $182 Amazon gift card I used to purchase my stove. Instead of paying for the stove directly on my Visa, I bought a gift card from King Soopers for the exact amount needed to make the purchase on Amazon. No extra cost, but a lot of fuel points and a $12.60 savings on fuel from this purchase along

200 points earned by taking the customer service survey every week (50 points each, max of 1 per week) that are offered on your receipt after shopping.

137 earned from normal grocery shopping over the month

=========

701 points earned

 

[coolmom42]

My son plays the game with his Kroger card. They probably buy $500/month of groceries, plus he does the 4X points on gift cards trick. They get Amazon cards for personal use & gifts, and Lowe's cards for things for their house. He bought all the supplies for building a deck with Lowe's cards from Kroger. He works up to 50 cents/gallon off pretty often, fills up his truck & gas cans, if there's enough he gets his wife's car over there too. It's a pretty good deal, for sure.

 

[offroad]

Gaming the discount system for coupons and other reductions seems a paying hobby for many. Just make sure you are really saving over buying the exact same quality goods at a discount provider. Not easy to tell. Keep a notebook to compare prices.

 

[Van-Tramp]

Yep, very true. I have been shopping the same items for a few years and know the prices well. I wont buy them unless they are the lowest.

An example; last week King Soopers increased the price of a bag of chips that normally cost $0.99 to $1.67. I skipped that item until it was back to its normal price, which took less than a week.

 

[offroad]

Drug-convenience store nearby me does the same thing. The prices change every week. It's like they have a computer model of buying habits analyzing the register sales. And using the price of items that sell well, while reducing less selling versions. --- doooo!! That's exactly what is happening.

 

[flailer]

I don't play that game very well, or often.

But I do use the free Gas Buddy app. If you don't have the app you can still use their web page. The dollars I've saved has been phenomenal :exclamation:

 

[Van-Tramp]

Agreed.

I use the app, and website, to pre-plan my fuel stops on long journeys. When I use it, I save $20 - $40 on a 1000 mile trip, just by making sure I have the cheapest fuel in town. When I am forced to take higher priced fuel, I only take on enough to get me to the cheaper place where I then fillup. $20-40 doesnt sound like much, but consider it is a 10-15% savings over my 1000 mile, $300 in fuel, trip. That is equal to .30-.40 per-gallon savings over the course of my trip.

For example, today I was forced to fuel up @ 3.27, but I only need to make it far enough to cross into Nevada where fuel is 2.70's, so I took on only enough to get me to that cheaper fuel. That is $20 saved in that one example (35 gallons at 0.57 savings per gallon)