Tip 81: Discount programs at grocery stores
One grocery store discount program I like is HyVee Fuel
Saver. When you buy certain items, you
receive a discount for gas at Caseys or Hy-Vee gas stations. For example, if you buy pumpkin bars, you
might save 3 cents per gallon on gas.
The items that qualify vary all the time. Since my car takes around 10 gallons to fill
up, I can quickly estimate my savings if I buy a fuel saver item. You can save money with the Fuel Saver
program- the trick is not to buy things you would not normally buy. I will sometimes substitute an item to get a
discount- for example I might buy the pumpkin bars instead of cinnamon rolls to
get the discount, but I don't buy more than I normally would without the Fuel
Saver program.
The amount you can save depends on how many Fuel Saver items
you buy. I have received discounts of
around 20 cents per gallon at times. If
you shop at Hy-Vee a lot, you can save some money on gas. We buy some of our groceries at Walmart,
which has lower prices but is a less pleasant place to shop and has less
variety of some types of food items.
If you don’t shop at Hy-Vee or don’t have Hy-Vee in your
area, see if you can find a different fuel discount program in your area that
can save you money.
Another grocery store discount program I use to save money
is a rewards program at an independent grocery store that is near my
house. You get a membership card to scan
whenever you make a purchase and get points that you can use to get free
grocery items each month. One thing I
like about this program is that you get points for everything you buy. This differs from Hy-Vee fuel saver which
only gives points for selected items.
Each month there are about a dozen or so grocery items that you can use
rewards points to get free. One month,
you could get free orange juice and I did that several times. This month, nothing looks appealing to me, so
I’ll save my points for next month.
The price for saving at the grocery store with rewards
programs is convenience and privacy. The
grocery store gets to track what you purchase and when. This does not bother me that much, but you’ll
have to decide for yourself whether privacy is a concern. If you make your purchases using a credit
card or check, it would be easy for the store to track your purchases anyway. As for the convenience factor, you need to
remember to bring your rewards card and have the cashier scan it every
time. This is not a problem for me- I
just keep my Fuel Saver card and my grocery reward club card in my wallet so
they are always ready when I buy anything at the grocery store.
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