More tips for saving money at the pump

Yesterday, I mentioned a few different ways in which you could save money each time you buy gas.  Today, I will examine another which I have discussed in the past, Giant Food Store's Gas Rewards, and build upon it with yesterday's post.

For some time now, Giant grocery store (which is basically East Coast) has had a deal with Shell Oil called Gas Rewards.  The premise is very simple:  register with the program, shop at Giant, and earn points when you shop.  Points are earned at a rate of 1 point/$1 spent.  Once you hit a threshold of 100 points, that's good for $.10 off a gallon.  Shop a lot?  Rack up enough points and you can save up to $2.20/gallon in one visit!  Their website has a very helpful tutorial in case you need more explanation, but once you visit the gas station, pop in your Giant Bonus card and the price per gallon will go down as you redeem points. 

Here is the fun part.  Just as you can double dip using the Exxon/Mobil's Speedpass promotion using a gas rewards credit card, you can do the same with Giant's program.  Again, let's look at another example.  Using the national average of $3.85/gallon, and, assuming you have earned enough points in Giant's program, coupled with 5% cash back, your cost could be as little as $2.09/gallon!  You will feel like you entered a timewarp. 

There are some restrictions, of course.  Points are only good for 30 days, and since it takes 100 points for $.10/gallon savings, and with each point costing $1 in purchases, it would take about $2200 in grocery shopping a month to take full advantage of the program.  A bit challenging even for the largest of families.  Even without realizing the full savings ability, there is still a potential to shave money off each gallon--and, you would be buying the groceries anyway!  You might as well get something for them.

If you read this far, don't get discouraged if you don't have a Giant in your neighborhood.  There are other stores that have similar programs as well.  Just look for them and feel free to report back what you find.  I will list them in a future post.

Verifying grocery store receipts- redux

I have mentioned a few times in the past about the importance of verifying charges on receipts, and once again, that was proven to me yesterday.  Giant grocery store had listed an offer for buy (3) Multi Grain Cheerios, get (1) free.  Since I like Cheerios, and I like free (well, heavily discounted prices) I took them up on the offer.

At home, I checked my receipt and noticed that I was charged two different prices for the same box of Cheerios:  $4.49, $4.49 and $3.49.  I thought that was a little odd.  Looking down at the receipt summary, it reflected some bonus card savings, but no subtraction of at least $3.49 from the offer.  What was also odd was the first two listings of Cheerios abbreviated a few of the letters, while the third box didn't.  So, I went back to the customer service counter, showed my receipt, and they refunded the difference.  Of course, what was somewhat appaling was that the lady didn't seem to be bothered by the noticeable price gun error that had occured.  Instead she says "you must have gotten different sizes."  No, I didn't.  Regardless, she refunded the $4.49 and I was happy.

Before leaving the store, to save the effort, check your receipt and make sure you get credit for your savings.

Don’t forget the in the-store coupons as well

Since most coupon hunting takes place either in the Sunday newspaper, or increasingly on-line (hint: search for "printable coupons"), a possibly overlooked hiding spot for valuable money savings is at the grocery store, supermarket, or drug store itself.  Specifically, CVS offers a handy, dual-function kiosk that serves as a price checker and a coupon dispenser.  As much fun as it is to scan my ExtraCare card, I never have scanned an item, you know, “to double check” the price.  Perhaps I should. 

Most of the time I have tried to use the kiosk for coupons I have been disappointed.  $1.50 off tampons or something I clearly do not need.  Lamenting at the waste of paper (one would think that CVS might want to give the option to print the coupon out or not), I am usually discouraged.  However, lately I have had a stroke of luck.  Not only has the coupon machine been working, but also it provided valuable savings that I used at the same store visit.  The first was the ExtraBucks that I was eligible for based on winter spending.  I did not realize you could print them out there, too.  And, the second was for $1 off paper products and I happened to be buying paper towels that night.

What is cool about CVS, at some locations, is the ability to do self-check out.  Sometimes it is slower than waiting in line, particularly if the machine jams up for whatever reason, but I have had success by and large.  And, don’t worry about not being able to use CVS coupons during self-check out, one can still scan those, too.

Long-time readers know that I love CVS and always feel like I got a good deal for my money.  You should, too.

How To "Super Coupon"

I came across this article this morning that should help inspire everyone looking to save a few bucks.  I will look forward to using the sites mentioned.

On another note, I already have started to see ads and promotions for Black Friday deals.  If you aren't aware of what Black Friday is, it's when retailers are finally (hopefully) making a profit, and falls on the day after Thanksgiving.  I wouldn't be surprised if there are several "Black Friday" days in the works to get everyone pumped.  My advice, be careful where you go to take advantage of these deals.  There have been several injuries, riots, and even deaths related to people being trampled to get a deal.  They tend to happen at "big-box" type stores, but be on the look out.  I would prefer that you are still able to read the blog after Thanksgiving.

Twitter Updates

I installed a new scrolling application that flashes timely deals that I get all of the time.  Just wait a second and you will see them come through again.

How to Make an Effort to Save Money

Occasionally, I have had debates with friends whether or not it is "worth it" to spend the time researching and applying coupons and other savings. Sometimes, yes, it's not worth the trouble to spend precious free time or go out of your way to save. A good rule of thumb to use is how much your hourly wage works out to be as a gauge. So, if you make $50,000 annually, it equates to ~ $25/hour, about $.42/minute. If it takes you 30 seconds to clip a $.50 coupon, then you are out on top. However, if you spend 30 minutes hunting for just one coupon, than you might argue with your self that it's not worth the time. If coupons are a hobby of sorts, than you can also argue that the value you receive in doing something you enjoy, like beating "the man" at the price war game, is also worth it. Search engines like sidestep for travel, pricescan, and bizrate for everything else are awesome this way.

With the power of Google, searching for coupons is a lot less time consuming than it used to be. I grew up clipping coupons with mom basically as soon as I was able to handle scissors on my own. Although I still browse it, the Sunday newspaper isn't the only source of coupons for groceries, etc. There are many sites out there: just input a search time such as "coupon + cereal [insert cereal name]" and you might be surprised. See this Google result here.

The last point to make about coupons is that they are essentially tax free money to you. Hopefully, politicians won't one day tax coupon savings (they could), so for now, if you can significantly reduce your costs using them and invest/save the rest, you can watch your money grow as a bonus to you.

Store Cards Revisited

I have posted about grocery store loyalty cards before, but I wanted to remind you that sometimes stores don't prompt you to use them. Last night, I was at a grocery store and proceeded to check out and knew that one of my items, a loaf of bread, was $1 off with that store's loyalty card. I had o remind the cashier, or ask if you will, to input my telephone number. Voila! $1 savings. I am kind of wondering if stores are a little less apt to promote their cards during these challenging economic times. As you may know, grocery store profits are pretty thin already. That dollar to them represents quite a bit multiplied over and over again.

Grocery Savings

I am quite an avid reader of SmartMoney magazine, from the publishers of the Wall Street Journal. Recently, there was an article that discussed a website called http://www.mygrocerydeals.com/. Basically, it's a site where one registers for emails, etc. on what is on sale at their local grocery store. It's a pretty brilliant concept.

The way it works is advertisers/stores pay the owner of the site to list their circulars that come usually with the Sunday paper or other methods. The site aggregates these and posts them according to one's preferences. It makes it easier to see if Cheerios are on sale at a particular store, like CVS vs. Safeway.

One more tool for the consumer to utilize in the ongoing quest for lower prices.

More coupons...

Following the grocery loyalty card + coupon theme, you may or may not know that you can often get coupons directly from a manufacturer. I just got a bunch from Proctor and Gamble.

You can sign up and get the same notification as well.

Grocery Shopping

If you are like me, going shopping just plain old stinks. The lines, the unfriendly customer service, and worst of all, having to spend money.

Though you may not have much choice in stores to shop, you do in most cases have the option of buying generic. This may not appeal to all readers, but for me, I can hardly tell the difference between most generic products and brand ones. Cereal being the only exception, and even then, it doesn't taste too much different.

Also when shopping, be sure to check out unit prices. These will be in the lower corner of the prices on the shelf, not on the package. Should there not be prices listed, bring a calculator and do some math. Divide the price by the size of the package and figure out its unit cost. Then, compare among the sizes of the product you are interested in. In many, if not all cases, bigger size means lower cost per unit. The exception I would bring up in the next section.

Many grocery stores have bonus cards or store reward cards. If they don't hype them the moment you walk in, ask a customer service representative or cashier. Chances are the big stores will have them. Back to our example with unit pricing. Often, stores will offer deals by using their loyalty or rewards cards. 2 for $1, 5 for $1.25, etc. On top of that, you can bring in coupons to work in addition to the cards further saving you money. Suddenly, that name brand of cereal or other product is not so expensive. Visit a store's website as well to see if they offer these cards. Buy the Sunday paper. $1.50 will be easily recuperated in savings.