Thrifty Thursday:  Using Gas Points

When you’re already budgeting, it’s hard to find new ways to cut the spending even further.  Have you been using your store shopper card to earn free gas points?  Many of our local grocery stores offer this deal and it has saved us a lot of money in our gas purchases.   Here’s an example…..

At Food City, we get 15 cents off per gallon when we earn 100 points (which is usually 1 gas point for each dollar spent.).  We typically earn this amount in one week, sometimes more.  I usually wait to fill up our gas tank when the tank is just below ¼ tank.  This is about 12 gallons worth of gas, which is approximately $8 in savings per month for one car.  In one year, that’s about $90 in gas savings!   When we do this with both cars, it’s even bigger savings.  Consider it as driving the car for free for a few weeks!

If you’re a Kroger shopper, you can even get $1 off your gas when your points add up to 1000 or more in one month.  Now, you don’t actually have to spend $1000 to get that savings, of course.  Pay attention to their gift card deals and you’ll often have an opportunity to earn 4x the gas points when you purchase gift cards.   Go ahead and purchase gift cards for places that you normally eat or shop at, or get a head start on your Chirstmas gift card purchases.   Use those savings at the gas tank to maximize your budget.

This is just one way that you can save a little extra on things you would be buying anyway.  If your grocery store has a similar savings program, I’d love to hear about it!