s/o "pricing games" - grocery + cheaper gas cards

[athena1277]

It seems lately that most gas stations have a deal with a grocery chain that if you spend X at the grocery store, you save Y in gas.  I shop at a grocery store that does not have cards, so when I buy gas, I don't get any savings. Then I wonder, are people paying more in groceries to save on gas?  Do any of you use a groceries + gas savings card?  Does it really save you money?

[Mergath]

It saves me money.  One of the two grocery stores I already shop at began offering "Pump Perks" cards last year.  It's something like, for every ten dollars you spend, you get one cent off per gallon, and certain items give you additional cents off.  I just buy what I would normally buy, but it does add up.  When I go to get gas tomorrow, I'll have fourteen cents off per gallon.  I've had thirty cents off before.  I suppose whether or not it's worth it depends on how tight your budget is.

[Lara in Colo]

Not for me!! Any gas near my home is (for some reason) higher than other parts of town, so whatever I "save" just puts me the same as pre discount prices. 

 

Also the stores that do the gas discount are the more expensive stores and I only buy their sale stuff-- I never amount much in the way for gas discounts.

 

I just always buy mine at Costco.

[chiguirre]

For me, Kroger and Randall's are not a good deal. However, I do buy a gift card at Walmart using my credit card (so I get airline miles) and that gives me 10 cents off per gallon at Murphy Oil. That's cheaper than Sam's Club and the best deal I've found in the Houston area.

[Ottakee]

The Walmart gift card for 10 cents off does make sense.

 

One local grocery store does the 10 cents off a gallon (max 20 gallons) is you spend at least $75 (or $100). Their groceries though are more expensive----esp. when most of the time the max savings is $2.00.

[AdventureMoms]

It saves me money. We only have one real grocery in town and they offer 10cents/gal for every $100 you spend plus random "buy x of these, get y off/gallon" promotions. Every few weeks they offer double or quadruple rewards on gift cards so I get a bunch of amazon ones to cover our amazon purchases. I don't buy anything I wouldn't have bought anyway, and the gas at the discounted stations isn't any more expensive than elsewhere. I usually get $2.00+ off a gallon (20 gallons) at least once a quarter. I use that fill to do the mower/snowblower gas can plus my van which is usually almost exactly 20 gal. So it saves me at least $160/year, probably closer to $200

[Crimson Wife]

Target's and Trader Joe's groceries are cheaper than Safeway's but they don't have as big a selection. Also, their hours are shorter (9-9 TJ, 8-10 Target) whereas the Safeway is open 24/7. So I get what I can find at Target & TJ if they're open and the rest at Safeway. I used to shop more at Costco before the Safeway gas station opened up but the Safeway gas even without the extra discount is cheap enough to not make it worth the schlep over there. Safeway & Target are 5 min. from my house, TJ's is 10, but the Costco is 20-25 depending on traffic & stoplights.

[LisaKinVA]

I regularly check the ads...I don't tend to buy things I wouldn't normally purchase just to get gas points, but there are many times my purchases come out about even for the amount of savings I get from the gas.

 

Taco Seasoning was on sale for under $1/packet.  For every 6 I spent, I got 400 gas points (40 cents/gallon), maximum of 10 bonuses (4000 points, which was broken into two $2/off per gallon, max of 20 gallons...which filled up my tank and a 5 gallon gas can for the mower/weed eater).  Added bonus, I am stocked on taco seasoning for the move to Italy (which wasn't even on the radar when I took advantage of the deal).

 

I've also matched coupons to certain things that were part of a gas point bonus (hand soap, tooth paste, bleach...), and done well.  Frozen Food month (veggies) is another good one for me.  I don't usually buy junk (boxed cereals, crackers, etc....), but occasionally I do.

 

When I don't have gas points, I fill up at Costco.

[creekland]

Two of our local chain gas stations (Rutters and Sheetz) have their own discount cards automatically giving holders 4 and 3 cents (respectively) off gas on each fill up with the opportunity to earn more if you buy things at their convenience stores.  We seldom buy anything at the convenience store other than milk (same state-set price, no growth hormones in Rutter's milk), so we don't add up much there, but we have opted to always buy gas from Rutters now as their normal price matches the others.

 

At one of the grocery stores where I regularly shop they sometimes have gas options, but those same options can also be used as a $10 coupon off gas or anything at the store (total bill) so I opt to use it at the store.

 

Driving elsewhere to get gas is often a non-savings.  When gas is approx $3.50 per gallon and the vehicle gets 20 miles per gallon with a 16 gallon tank then even at a 10 cent per gallon difference the total trip had better be less than 10 miles just to essentially break even IF you had a nearly empty tank (rounded math).  Rarely is there a 10 cent per gallon difference around here.  We gas up at the cheapest station along a normal trip - usually that's a Rutters now (with the 4 cents off).

[PrincessMommy]

I have found it to be beneficial to our family.. .especially when summer comes and my household swells to 6-7 people.  I have it at the store I normally shop at, and the prices aren't the cheapest, but they aren't the worst either.   We get 10cents off for every $100 we spend within a month.  So I usually keep it adding up and then, once I'm at about 40-60cents, I get gas for our big passenger van.  I don't sweat too much for other other, smaller cars.   I've even been able to get about 80cents off gas for a 30gallon tank...so yeah, it's nice.

 

 

[FaithManor]

^{Walmart has 3 cents off per gallon at Murray's if you use a Walmart gift card.  I don't like shopping at Walmart, but sometimes I will run in to a fast check-out lane if there isn't a huge line, and put money on a card, then go get gas. The regular price is not less than anywhere else in the town, so I do not save anymore than that 3 cents. Generally, if I don't have a really good reason, such as grabbing coffee filters :D , it is not worth my time to do so. If I'm buying 8 gallons of gas, I'm getting 24 cents off! Seriously, a quarter is not worth all of the time I waste at this Walmart where there are NEVER enough lanes open and even in the fast lane, a 20 minute wait wouldn't be uncommon. Besides the fact that I have to hike to an obscure section of the store to get coffee filters and the shelves are never stocked properly so 5 out of 10 trips, I can't get what was on my list. Mostly, we just avoid Walmart.}

 

^{As for the one grocery store that does this, they are VERY pricey. Now, they do have beautiful produce, and some organics that I like, but the 10 cents per gallon off at Speedway IF I spend $75.00 just isn't worth it because I have to pay soooooooooooooooo much more for items that I would get at the Mennonite Bulk Food Store or Meijer for far, far less. If I took my grocery list into that store and did a major shopping, I would pay 35-40% more for everything. All for 80 cents or maybe a $1.00 worth of fuel savings.}

 

^Faith

[bobbeym]

My local Kroger tends to have lower gas prices than the regular stations, and we get the kids' employee discount, so I do almost all my shopping there anyway.  I don't think prices are higher than other places, but we don't buy a lot of convenience or packaged food either. We get 10 cents off per gallon for every $100 spent, up to a $1.00 discount.  Right now they have a "summer coupon" that gives you double points for Fri-Sun shopping. 

[4everHis]

This is what we've done at Kroger. When they have the 4X fuel points we buy gift cards for things we already spend $$$ on. My husband is a contractor and we know he's going to be at Home Depot, a LOT, so we buy $500+ worth of cards. Amazon cards if it's close to Christmas or birthdays, etc. At our Kroger you can now only use $1 off gas per gallon but you can do it multiple times. A dollar off is a lot any more when our gas has pretty much averaged $3.80 all summer.

[MomtoCandJ]

I go to Murphy's as well, it's the cheapest in my area. I can drive 7 miles pay $3.95 a gallon and spend a whole lot more on groceries and not be able to get half of what's on my list. Or drive 11 miles pay $3.75 a gallon (3.72 if use gas card), groceries are cheaper, and I can get everything on my list.

[Amber in SJ]

Funny how regional prices & deals can be.  Where I live there is no Aldis or Fred whats his name, nor do we have a Win-Co.  We do not have a Costco with a gas station close by nor do we have a Safeway with a gas station close by.  The produce & meat at both our Target & Wal-Mart is substandard so I do not shop for food at either place.  We have a lovely, clean & inexpensive (relatively speaking) Safeway where I do about 1/2 my shopping.  I do get gas rewards there for Chevron which is fine because we are babying along two older (one positively geriatric) cars that run better with better gas.  The gas rewards bring the price of Chevron down to the price of the cheap-o gas from Rotten Robbie's that makes my car run terribly.  I do the remainder of my grocery shopping at Trader Joes, Costco, Sprouts & various farmer's markets in the area.

 

Amber in SJ

[happypamama]

It saves me money on gas! I do not buy more in groceries because of the gas points; I just do my regular shopping. Once in a while, something like shampoo or canned tomatoes, things I keep in stock anyway, will have a deal where if you buy a certain amount, you get extra gas points. Those I will do, but otherwise, no, I just buy the regular stuff I need, shopping the usual sales. The extra gas points are usually things like "buy $25 worth of products from X company and get 200 extra points [which translates into 20 cents off a gallon]," and I rarely need that much stuff from X company, so I ignore it. But still, it takes a lot of food to feed my crew, and the gas points usually run for about 8 weeks, so I generally have about a dollar off a gallon, if not more. The only time I actually fill my van completely is when I have gas points, and I can fill it for about $50 instead of $80. (Otherwise, I put in only about 5 or 8 gallons at a time, whatever I plan to use during that pay cycle.)

[Joker]

I don't do what your speaking of, but our local store almost monthly has a deal if you spend $50 in groceries that you get $10 off a $50 gas card. I usually break up my list so I get two or more. Since we're already spending the money on groceries I feel it's a good deal.