Fuel Points

[jazz4cash]

We get them at Martins, owned by the same co. that owns Giant Food. 10¢ off/gallon for every $100 spent in groceries, 25 gallon max. I bring a couple of 5 gallon gas cans and use the pickup to get all 25 gallons, then fill the car from the cans.

^^^ There ya go!

 

[38Chevy454]

Here we have Smith's (owned by Kroger), and the same $.10/gal for every $100 spent on groceries, plus additional points for gift cards, etc. It does save us some, although we also use Costco gas, just save up the Smith's/Kroger points. The Smith's gas is at the grocery store, so it is not out of the way.

My wife figured out a small way to increase the points, by using your own reusable bags. Works out to equivalent of additional $5 spent per bag credit, so for example 5 bags is like $25 additional dollars spent on groceries. Also get $50 equivalent points if you fill a prescription, per prescription. There are a lot of ways to maximize the fuel points if you make deliberate effort.

 

[Ronnieboy]

Here we have Smith's (owned by Kroger), and the same $.10/gal for every $100 spent on groceries, plus additional points for gift cards, etc. It does save us some, although we also use Costco gas, just save up the Smith's/Kroger points. The Smith's gas is at the grocery store, so it is not out of the way.

A Smith's is about 2 miles from me, I go there to get the knick nack type groceries that I can't get or don't want to get from Costco (which is 3 more miles way from the Smith's). I'll get weekly sales items that are a good buy in bulk and quick trip type stuff, Smith's regular grocery prices aren't very competitive so I would go elsewhere for a 'major' grocery trip, so not huge dollars spent there but I will accumulate points. It takes 100 points to save $0.10/gal. which will bring it down to Costco's price. I wouldn't go the extra 3 miles to go to Costco just to fill up though, only if it is on my way or in my planned trip area.

 

[Winemaker]

For at least 5 years, DW and I have (1) 30 gallons of gasoline monthly at no cost at the pump. That's at least 1800 free gallons of gas, all because of a loyalty card at local grocer. At $3.00/ gal that's an easy $5400.

DW thinks it's been 7 years, because we bought stuff for our daughter's wedding, and racked points then.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

I don't go crazy with the gas savings thing but I take advantage of a few things every month. Just today, I used a coupon in the Publix grocery flyer. When you spend $50 on groceries, you can also get a $50 gasoline rewards card for $40. The gasoline stations vary monthly. Today it happened to be Racetrack. Then I pay for the groceries with my AMEX Blue Cash Card and get 5% off the total grocery bill. If I go to Sam's Club and I fill up the tank, I use the Sams Master Card and get 5% off every gallon. We've decided not to re-up with the Costco card. Not that I don't like Costco's, but I don't think I can even save the annual fee. Some of their products I prefer over Sam's but Costco's is too far to drive. Just going with Sam's Club this year.

 

[FUEGO]

The only store that has reasonable grocery prices and offers gas points is Kroger. I only shop there about 1x per month for sale items and rarely spend more than the $100 required to get $0.10 off per gallon. Combine that with the fact that we only buy a tank of gas every month or two (and a tank = 8-14 gallons for our Honda sedans).

So not a lot of potential savings since the points for $ off gas are only good at Shell stations, and I might not be near a Shell when I want to get gas. There's one at the edge of our neighborhood but I refuse to spend 5+ minute to drive out of the way just to save a few pennies. I use the gasbuddy app to find the cheapest station on my driving route, and if it's a shell and it's one I'm near anyway, I'll hit it up and use the gas points if I have them.

 

[Exit 2024]

We use Kroger fuel points. Every $100 you spend earns a 10-cent discount per gallon, up to 35 gallons. Oddly, we don't shop there much as we prefer the local neighborhood grocer. But here's the kicker at Kroger... they offer 2X fuel points on gift card purchases and 4X around the holiday season. Plus we have the AMEX Blue Cash card that gives 5% cashback on grocery purchases, including (you guessed it) gift card purchases at Kroger. The card also gives 5% on gas purchases at Kroger.

All my Amazon Christmas purchases are paid using gift cards from Kroger. Here's the math on a recent $400 purchase of Amazon gift cards:

$400 (Amazon gift cards purchased at Kroger; earned 4X or 1600 fuel points)
-$20 (5% cashback from AMEX for "grocery" purchase)
-$35 (used 1000 fuel points to purchase 35 gallons at $1.00/gal discount)
-$21 (used remaining 600 fuel points to purchase 35 gallons at $0.60/gal discount)
$324 (net cost of buying $400 of merchandise on Amazon... 19% discount)

Note I'm not including the additional 5% discount on the net gas purchases since I would have received that anyway, without the gift card purchases or fuel points. Most of the 19% discount comes from fuel points. It's still a good discount at 2X fuel points (12%), but really makes sense around the holidays when I tend to spend a lot on Amazon and Kroger boosts it to 4X. It also helps that we have a large SUV plus a 5-gal gas can that enables the full 35-gallon purchase. Otherwise you leave some money on the table. You also have to consume enough gas to utilize the fuel points before they expire at the end of the following month.

Anyway, there you have it. That's my Happy Holidays fuel point scam.

That is exactly what we do including Amex Blue Cash card but have some additional perk out of kroger fuel points: we have one phone from krogeriwireless.com that our daughter uses, so 100 fuel points also give $1 toward paying for the phone plan - lowest unlimited is $35. So using example above that $400 in gc purchase will give $16 reward to pay for the phone on top of fuel discount and all listed above.

 

[Al in Ohio]

We live in central Ohio where d benefit from the most generous fuel rewards in the country. We have Kroger (.10 off per $100) which yields a paltry .30 to .50 off per gallon each month, but we shop more often at Giant Eagle which program yields .20 off per gallon for every $50 in gift cards or food purchased. That often gets us a full $3.00-$4.00 off per gallon each month, which pays for an entire fill up of 30 gallons each month free (we obviously use multiple 5 gallon tanks. (I have learned how to convert new tanks to the old style that drain fast and don't have that stupid ventless system).

I get a minimum of $1500 per year of free gas, but in years where we bought a lot of gift cards for home remodeling I have got almost $2,500 in free gas. I drive less than 10,000 miles a year, so a good portion of my annual gas budget is subsidized by this program. (My wife drives at least as much or more and we split it. I usually fill my Cars tank and fill three 5 gallon tanks for her)

Basically with planning ahead (If I buy a $500 Amazon gift card for Christmas shopping for instance, that's $60 in free gas) about half my yearly gas is free. I'm not yet retired. I still commute.

The formula gets even better when you realize gas prices here are getting down to $1.65 per gallon at the fluctuating lows.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[lhamo]

I don't know if they do this everywhere, but here in Seattle Fred Meyer (owned by Kroger) has a survey link on your receipts that you can fill out once every 7 days to get an extra 50 fuel points. That adds up to 200 points/month just for the surveys, plus whatever you spend on groceries. Fred Meyer is my main grocery store, so I've been getting around 300 points/month ($3.30 off on my 11 gallon tank) for the last few months.

If I need a second fill up in a month, I try to time it to coincide with a Costco run. Otherwise I hit Arco, which is the cheapest in the area and near my gym.