Working the System, Baby

Last year, I wrote about making the most out of gift cards.  In case you don't want to read the post, the basic idea is buying gift cards at the grocery store for planned purchases, and earning gas points.

Price Chopper recently changed their $0.10 off per gallon of gas for every $50 in purchase to every $100 in purchase.  Bummer.  I don't know why....I am guessing that the Sunoco that is partnered with them complained that people were getting cheaper gas all the time.

Oh well, it was good while it lasted.

But this week....Price Chopper is offering a $10 off your next shopping order for buying $150 in Lowe's Gift Cards.  Oh boy!!!  There is no limit to the number of coupons you can get; however, it is one coupon per transaction.  And you still earn the gas points.

So, here is the breakdown for us this week.  These are all purchases that we planned on making, and had cash for.  And were going to be purchased at Lowe's anyway!!

Lawnmower - $200 (purchased yesterday)
Carpet (including disposal of old carpet) - $500 (to be finalized tomorrow)
Paint and Supplies - $100 ($72 purchased in paint (primer, paint, trim), supplies and ceiling paint still pending)
Tax,Misc, overage -  (switchplates, caulk, etc) - $50

Total:  $850

We have already bought $300 in gift cards, in two transactions.  So I have two $10 off shopping coupons now.  We earned $0.30 off gas.  And since I was there, and one of my many errands included buying cat food, I bought a $25 gift card for PetSmart.

The remainder was transferred from ING today, and I will purchase another 3 sets of $150.  That will be 3 more $10 off coupons, and another $0.40 off gas, plus $50 towards the next $0.10 off.  We will have the final numbers on the carpet tomorrow, so if we decide to get another $150 in cards, we have until Saturday to still earn the coupons.

Even if we do $750 total, that is 5 coupons (totaling $50 off groceries), and $0.70 cents off gas, and half way to $0.80 off.  Even at $0.70 off, that is $14 off a tank of gas.  So we would come out $64-$66 ahead, all for purchases we were going to make anyway!!!

My suggestion if you are going to do this is go at a time that is quieter.  The cashier is less likely to be annoyed about the multiple transactions.  And you are less likely to tick off the people behind you.