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.

Shoping Summary - Safeway and Walmart

This week I actually went to Walmart for the first time in weeks. It wasn't bad since I was there during the day on a weekday. I usually don't go because I can't deal with the crowds on the weekend. Anyway, here is what I picked up using coupons

• Sani-Kids 40 ct Wipes $1.00 ($2.00 less $1.00 MQ)
• 4 Mentos Gum $1.12 (each $1.28 less $1.00 MQ)
• Franks Hot Sauce - FREE with coupon
• K-Y ($0.43) ($2.57 less $3.00 MQ)
• Carefree Liners $0.08 ($1.08 less $1.00 MQ)

I love the money making K-Y and the cheap Carefree liners. I'm not sure if we'll use the hot sauce or not. We usually don't do spicy food around here. I figured I would pick it up since it was free and give it a try. Now I'm not so sure.

I also mentioned in a previous post that I got a great deal on Post Raisin Bran. Safeway is running their buy 5 save $5 promo on various cereals this week. One of those cereals is the Post Raisin Bran which also has a catalina promo running. I was able to combine those along with coupons to get some super cheap cereal. Here is how I did it:

• 5 Post Raisin Bran Cereals $12.45 ($2.49 * 5)
• Less $5.00 on 5 instant savings
• Less $2.00 in coupons (2 $1 on 2 coupons)
• Less $4.00 catalina good on my next purchase
• Out of Pocket Cost was $5.45
• Net Cost was $1.45 or $0.29 per box

And along with my $4 catalina I got a catalina for $1.50 off 2 boxes of Post Raisin Bran. Now I think I'll head back and combine the Raisin Bran with some Cheerios for Pumpkin. Cheerios are also part of the $5.00 on 5 promo and there are $0.55 coupons out which double at my Safeway.

Grocery Shopping - Week of Febraury 28

This week I was able to hit the triple coupon weekend at Super Fresh and also take advantage of the $10 off of $50 Safeway coupon. It was a great weekend for grocery shopping for me. We are within our budget and I was able to score some great deals. Since I was off Friday I was able to plan out my shopping and hit several stores this week. I loved it. The only store that I'm listing the deals I got out for is Safeway. This is mainly because I don't want to bore you all with the details of all my shopping trips.

Without further ado, here are the details of my Saturday Safeway shopping trip:

• 2 liter Pepsi - $1.69 (was supposed to be Free with Safeway coupon)
• San Georgio Lasagna Noodles $1.99
• Raisin Bran $0.99 (forgot to use my $0.70 coupon)
• 2 Cascade Rinse - Free with Home Made Simple Coupons
• Lucerne Butter - $0.99 with Safeway coupon
• 2 Tai Pei Frozen Meals - $3.00 ($2.50 each less 2 $0.50 coupons, doubled)
• 2 Huggies Diapers $13.98 ($9.99 each less 2 $3.00 coupons)
• Suave Shampoo ($1.01) ($1.99 less free coupon they input as $3.00)
• 4 Smithfield Smoked Sausage $4.58 ($4.49 each, BOGO sale less 4 $0.55 coupons, doubled)
• Salad $1.98
• Less $10 on $50 coupon
• Less $8.00 in Ragu Catalinas

Total out of pocket was $11.61 which included $1.42 in tax. If I had noticed that they didn't scan my free Pepsi coupon and remembered to give them my Kellogg's coupon it would have only been $8.93. I will also get a $1.50 rebate for the Huggies from Caregivers Marketplace. I'm annoyed about the missing coupons, but I still didn't do bad, so I guess I should just let it go.

Free Ragu and Heluva Good Cheese

Sorry guys, no music post this week. Instead of staying home and working on my music post I went out and did a little more grocery shopping. I know, I know. We don't need more groceries, but I just have a hard time resisting a good deal. It isn't like we won't use the food. Pasta sauce and cheese are staples in this house.

Since Safeway had such a good deal on Ragu and it was the last night of the sale, I just had to go. Luckily I managed to get the last 3 jars in a flavor I liked. It was a great deal because it was $0.99 a jar and I got a $2.00 catalina for buying 3 jars. That made my net cost $0.32 a jar. For those that still had the $1.00 on 3 coupon you actually earned a penny profit per jar. I did that on Saturday and used up the three coupons I had.

Now that I have oodles of spaghetti sauce, I guess it's a good thing that I have the Food Network magazine pull out "50 Things to Make with a Jar of Pasta Sauce." Look for my post tomorrow on some of those uses. With spaghetti sauce this cheap I can get some VERY frugal meals.

On the way home from Safeway I decided to stop at Weis and get some of the Heluva Good cheese that was on sale. It was 2 for $4.00 and I had two coupons for $1.00 on 2. So I bought four bars for $6.00. Since I paid with a gift card we got for transferring a prescription, it was free. What better to go with the pasta sauce then free cheese? Besides, we love cheese in this house and go through a lot of it.

Finally, I am very proud of myself for resisting the siren call of Starbucks while I was out shopping tonight. Not only did I resist stopping at the Starbucks booth in Safeway, but I also drove past a Starbucks on my way to Weis and didn't stop. Believe me, it was very tempting and I was so thirsty. I just had to keep reminding myself of how expensive they are and how I have perfectly good drinks at home. Plus, my puppies and I will be hitting the Starbucks drive thru tomorrow night. Yes, my crazy dogs love having their weekly outing to Starbucks. Go figure.

Grocery Shopping This Week

So far this weekend I've hit three grocery stores and we still need milk. I know, I know, I said I was only going to go to one store a week, but I couldn't resist the triple coupons at Super Fresh and the Weis was right around the corner, and well, you get the idea.

Friday night I decided to hit Super Fresh to take advantage of their triple coupons up to $0.99. (Note: this is only running through Monday) They were already sold out of most of the stuff I wanted, but here is what I did get:

• Red Seedless grapes $1.20 (on sale for $0.99/lb)
• 2 Packs Shady Brooks Farm Ground Turkey $6.00 (Sale 2 for $6)
• Friendship Cottage Cheese $2.00
• Friendship Sour Cream $2.00
• Del Monte No Salt Diced Tomatoes $1.39
• Simply Orange with Pineapple $3.00
• Total Before Coupons = $15.59

Coupons:

• Del Monte No Salt Tomatoes $1.39 ($0.55 tripled to item price)
• Friendship cottage cheese/sour cream $1.00 on 2
• Simply Orange $1.00

Total Spent at Super Fresh $12.20 - This was a little more then I wanted to spend, but I needed the sour cream. I was hoping to get the Daisy, but they were sold out of it. On the first day of their sale. Big surprise, that seems to be the norm around here. Put out a few of the free items and they're gone early the first day of the sale and too bad for everyone else. By the way, I got the last can of the Del Monte tomatoes. I could have gotten another one free if they would have had it.

I also stopped at Weis Friday night since it is literally right around the corner from Super Fresh. I wanted to get some of the Heluva Good cheese that was on sale 2 for $4 since I had coupons to match up with it. But again, they were sold out of the flavors I liked, I did manage to get two extra sharp, but I prefer the sharp or even jack.

Today, against my better judgement, I decided to stop at Safeway. My recent experiences there have left a lot to be desired, but I decided to go for it since they're doubling coupons up to $0.99. I will say that it went much better then my last few visits although I did still have to stop at Customer Service to get them to correct the price on an item. They always have something ring up a few dollars too high. Anyway, here is what I picked up at Safeway:

• Banana Nut Cheerios $3.49
• Ragu Spaghetti Sauce $8.91 ($0.99 * 9 jars)
• Mango Juice $1.59
• Muir Glen Stewed Tomatoes $4.98 ($2.49 * 2)
• Muir Glen Tomato Paste $3.10 ($1.55 * 2)
• Cottonelle Ultra 24 pack $15.99
• Cascade Crystal Clear Rinse $9.98 ($4.99 * 2)
• Jello Sugar Free Rice Pudding $3.50
• Horizon Single Serve Milk $3.58 ($1.79 *2)
• Windex Antibacterial $3.50
• Colgate Weekly Clean Toothpaste $2.49
• Red Delicious Apples $0.94 ($0.99/lb)
• Yellow Sweet Onions $1.35 ($1.00/lb)
• Bosc Pears $1.95 ($1.00/lb)
• Broccoli Crowns $1.47 ($0.99/lb)
• Fresh Express Salad $1.00
• Total Before Coupons $67.82

Coupons Used

• Banana Nut Cheerios $1.50 ($0.75 doubled)
• Ragu $3.00 ($1.00 on 3 * 3 coupons)
• Muir Glen $6.00 ($0.75 doubled * 4 coupons)
• Cottonelle $6.00 (catalina coupon)
• Cascade Rinse $9.98 (2 free coupons from Home Made Simple)
• Jello Sugar Free Rice Pudding $3.50 (free coupon from Kraft First Taste)
• Windex $1.10 ($0.55 doubled)
• Colgate Weekly Clean $3.99 (free coupon from Vocalpoint, the cashier keyed in the regular price instead of the sale price)
• Safeway $5.00 off $50.00 coupon from my Entertainment book

Total spent at Safeway $27.75 + tax. My coupons saved me over $40. Yeah! All in all I was happy with my trip to Safeway. I'm still not crazy about their customer service or policies, but I did well enough there this week that I would go there again if the deals were right.

This weekend I spent $47.29 on groceries which leaves me $32.71 in my weekly grocery budget. Since I still need milk and didn't get much meat that is pretty good.

Oh, and the picture is from Safeway today. They had samples of the Right Way pudding out and my daughter rather enjoyed the chocolate pudding. She and hubby naturally stopped to sample while I was shopping.

Edit: I just realized that I received three $2.00 catalinas for the Ragu I purchased at Safeway. That means that all my spaghetti sauce was FREE! I love it. Now I have to decide if I want to go back and get more since I do still have a couple coupons.

Safeway Craziness Again - When Will I Learn?

Despite the problems I have previously had at one of my local Safeway stores in the past, I decided to make a stop there last night to quickly pick up a few things. I figured I was stopping at Walgreens right next door so I could swing into Safeway too. Silly me.

When I arrived at Safeway I realized that I didn't have my $5 off coupon from the Entertainment book with me. It wasn't worth going back home for so I just decided to pick up fewer items from my list. This Safeway has a Starbucks inside and Sunday is my Starbucks night so I figured I would just pick up my iced tea there. Wrong. They had absolutely no tea made so that was a bust. I did manage to get the items on my list and go wait in the one open check out lane. It is a regular occurrence for this Safeway to have nowhere near enough check out lanes open so this really wasn't a surprise.

After making it through the check out and getting everything loaded in the car I decided to check my receipt before I left. Well, they charged me too much for the Charmin I picked up so I had to go back in and get my $3.00 plus tax back for that. Once that was taken care of I headed back to my car and decided to go ahead and just get gas while I was there. When I pulled up to the pump and went to get my Safeway card out of my purse I realized that she didn't give me back my Safeway card after processing my refund. By that point I had enough and wasn't up to driving back across the parking lot to the store just to go back in and get my card. Plus my poor dogs were with me in the car and they were done too. So I left without getting gas because I refuse to pay full price when I can get a $0.03 discount just for scanning my card.

I feel like my trip out last night was bust even though I did get the main thing I went out for. It was just a frustrating experience. I really need to stick with the other local Safeway if I am going to be doing any shopping at Safeway.

In a way maybe the frustration was good for me because as soon as I got home I got on the Wii Fit to work out some of my frustrations. I wound up staying on it for 40 minutes and then hubbie and I played Rampage on the Wii. Nothing gets your frustrations out quite like senseless destruction.

Gas Discount Frustrations

In a previous post I mentioned that I had spent enough at Safeway to earn a $0.10 off per gallon of gas. I didn’t know their price per gallon, but I figured that with the $0.10 off it should be at least a few cents cheaper then other gas stations. I decided to stop there yesterday on my way home. Their price was $3.59 so with my discount it would be $3.49. That is the same price that the store near my daughter’s daycare has it without a discount. Since I was already there I figured I would get it anyway.

Well, I couldn’t get the pump to scan my card and without it I wouldn’t get the discount. You can walk in and get help, but then I would have had to get my daughter out of her car seat and go through all of that hassle. I decided it just wasn’t worth it and wound up leaving without getting gas. Tonight I will have to get gas after I pick my daughter up, but at least that station has someone right there to help if there’s a problem and it’s $3.49 without the discount. They are almost always the cheapest place in my driving area to get gas. The really cool part is that I am really close to earning a $0.10 per gallon discount from there too. Now that discount I am excited about.

At this point I’m pretty much done with gas from Safeway. We’ve had problems getting gas there in the past so this incident was pretty much it for me. This is one “discount” that just isn’t worth it for me.

Are there any gas discount programs out there that you have had success or frustrations with?

Safeway Deals

Safeway has some great deals this week. In the past I had avoided Safeway because I feel their prices are high. I still feel that way, but you can also get some great deals if you look. Right now I've been getting some really great deals with their save $5 when you buy 5 participating items promotion. I've spent enough now to get $0.10 off per gallon of gas. That's the first time that has happened to me at Safeway. Now I just need to remember to stop and get gas there before the end of the month.

For the full listing of this week's Safeway deals, check out Mommy Making Money. Here is the listing of the deals I took advantage of:

Super Coupons:
$0.99 5 pounds white potatoes
$7.00 3 Oscar Mayer lunch meat
$4.00 2 Pepsi 6 packs (These are also part of the $5 on 5 deal)

Saturday/Sunday Only
$1.88 Oreo cookies

Buy 5 and save $5.00 Deals
$1.50 Old El Paso Taco Shells
$2.50 Progresso Chicken Stock
$3.00 Pillsbury Cookies
$2.00 Pepsi 6 pack (using Super Coupon, limit 2)

Weekly Deals
$2.89 Ragu Spaghetti Sauce - Buy 1 get 1 Free. There are also $1.00 on 2 coupons in today's paper making this $1.89
$2.50 Quaker Instant Oatmeal - I used the $1.00 coupon for the High Fiber version to get this for $1.50

Register Reward Deal
$1.99 Glade plug ins - Use the BOGO coupons from a week or two ago, these generate $2.00 register rewards for your next purchase. So if you buy 2 using the coupon you pay $1.99 and get $4.00 in register rewards.