Playing the fuel points game

I have been urban camping right next door to a King Sooper’s store for a few months now. They offer 10c off the price of a gallon of gas for every 100 points earned on their King Sooper’s Card… pretty standard stuff for most grocery chains now-a-days. Honestly, that only equates to 10c off per gallon for every $100 dollars I spend with them and I rarely spend more than $200 a month in groceries.  While 10c off is welcome, it  only works out too a $3.50 savings if I bought a full 35 gallons.

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

1) They often award 2X points for shopping on the weekends. Following this could result in nearly 400 points over the course of the month with just my normal shopping habits.

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

3) They offer 2X points on my pay-as-you-go cell phone minutes as well. If I am spending the money anyway, I may as well make it work for me right?

4) I even get points for my beer purchases. Woot!

5) Lastly, if you watch closely, stores often will give you points for completing customer surveys.

The points do not roll-over each month so you do have to use them. Luckily, they do 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. I earned more than 400 points before the end of July, at which time I filled up the van and the two 5-gallon fuel cans I have  for a $14 savings in gas (four free gallons) – roughly a 12% savings.