Works For Me Wednesday - Pump Perks

The Safeway stores in my area offer a Power Pump Rewards program. Basically, you earn a discount on your gas purchases based on the amount of groceries you have purchased from them. And the rewards are stackable so you could possibly get free gas. I personally have not done this, but it is possible. Here are some of the highlights of their program:

• For every $100 you spend on groceries you will earn a $0.10/gallon discount on gas.
• Discounts are stackable so if you've earned 4 discounts that you haven't used yet, you get $0.40/gallon discount on gas.
• Discounts expire quarterly (3/31, 6/30, 9/30, 12/31)
• To redeem your discount, simply swipe your Safeway Club Card at the gas pump. The pump will tell you how much you have in rewards and ask if you want to redeem them.
• You can purchase up to $100 or 35 gallons of gas per transaction.
• Purchases of certain products do not count towards your $100 spending. Those products include prescriptions, milk, stamps, lottery tickets, cigarettes, liquor, gas, money orders, some gift cards, club card savings and Safeway Store Coupons. (See store for complete list of excluded items, I have just listed some of the bigger ones here.)
• Amounts for current rewards available and spending towards your reward are listed at the bottom of your cash register receipt.

Please note that manufacturer coupons do count towards your spending totals. I love this because I try to keep my out of pocket spending to a minimum and this helps me earn rewards much faster.

Normally I don't let my gas tank get below half. I have a 27 gallon tank so you can get sticker shock if you let it get too low. However, when I know that I am going to be redeeming my Power Pump Rewards I'll let my tank go down to a quarter tank so I can get more gas at the discounted price.

You'll also want to pay attention to the reward expiration dates. Try not to wait until the last day to redeem you reward because everyone seems to do this and there are lines at the pumps. I've seen the lines at our local Safeway and there is no discount out there that would get me to wait in those lines. It's much easier to just redeem them a few days earlier and avoid the chaos.

Not all of the area Safeway stores have gas pumps. In fact, I can only think of one around here that does. For earning the rewards though, it doesn't matter which Safeway I shop at. All of my Safeway purchases (expect excluded items) count towards earning my rewards. This is great because it means I can stop at whichever Safeway is on my way.

There are other grocery stores that offer similar programs. One other local store with a pump perks program is Redners. Their program is very similar to Safeway's except that their discounts expire 30 days after you earn them. This is an important distinction.

No matter which pump perk program you participate in, be aware of the rules of the program. It makes life easier for everyone. I'm sure there are other grocery stores out there with similar programs. If your grocery store has gas pumps, you just might want to check and see if they have a similar program. I'm a big fan of taking advantage of any discount programs that fit my life and don't require me to go out of my way. So far this quarter I've only earned one $0.10 discount, but I'm very close to a second one. And considering that I only shop at Safeway when they have sale items I really love, I think that is a good savings.

For more Works For Me Wednesday, head over to We Are THAT Family.