I wanted to quick post this because I wanted to show you that you don’t have to have a 30 gallon tank or use gas jugs to make gas deals worth it.
I have seen/heard so many overlook gas deals because they have small cars or tanks. I don’t have a really small tank, but it is 18 gallons. I use 18 gallons to calculate my deals each week. It is a personal decision of whether or not gas cans work for you – it just doesn’t for us.
Anyway, I am putting gas in my car anyway, if you own a car – I am guessing you do to. So I am going to fill up 18 gallons in my car every time I am on Empty. I am spending $66.42 per tank (with todays gas prices), whether I like it or not. So, when I do gas points, I am just getting gas and some food/cleaning/supplies for the same money. So whether you look at the gas or food free – it doesn’t matter. The reality is you are getting them for the same money.
So, today I spent $69.80 out of my pocket. I got a few rebates and OYNO catalinas, so I will calculate my number at $61.80. I am going to turn around and get $57.60 off my 18 gallons of gas. So, I only spent $4.20 more for all of the items.
If you are not doing gas points, I ask you – would you pay $4.20 for what you see above? If you don’t need it, so what is is FREE – donate it, because someone out there does!
Have a great week doing your Giant gas deals — if you have questions, please leave them in the comments and visit the Giant thread here.
Anonymous says
We bring gas cans with us to take advantage of the. 35 gallon fill up limit
Stacie says
Thanks for responding Shannon. I must have missed that post, as I had no idea things had changed. I was not understanding the “coupon being attached” lingo. I did not realize the manufacturers had changed things. You are correct, I made a mistake about CVS. They do, however, accept two coupons on a BOGO, as does Rite Aid. I do not understand that. If it is not okay with the manufacturer, I guess they should not be accepting them. Oh well, live and learn.
Shannon says
Rite Aid is weird.. the whole BOGO with a BOGO doesn’t make sense that they won’t accept — goofy!
Ruchama says
I just checked with my local Weis, since they have Super Pretzels on BOGO this week, and I had a ton of 50 cent coupons for those. The manager said that I could use two coupons when buying two. Since they doubled both coupons, I ended up with two boxes for 69 cents.
Stacie says
No, it does not make sense. Coupons are in lieu of money. The cents off coupon is my tender for what I am buying, and the BOGO is my tender for the free item. So, when Giant submits these coupons to the manufacturer, they will be reimbursed, $1.00 for the item I purchased, and $3.50 for the free item. Rite Aid and CVS allow this, as stated in their official coupon policy. Giant does not say anything in their coupon policy. I am not sure what you mean about the confusion. I was not using a cents off coupon on a free item. Some stores will allow a cents off on a free item if it is their BOGO. I would like to know what Shannon has to say on this issue.
Andrea says
Where in CVS official coupon policy does it say that?
Shannon says
Stacie,
Back in 2011/2012 when barcodes changed and how they attached, we no longer suggest using a cents off with a BOGO coupon, as they do attach to both items per conversations with manufacturer and retailers on the coding of the coupon.
There was a time we could tell the total intentions of the coupon. Back when we could see the codes 01,14, we could tell if it was a free without it attaching and if it was a 14, we would never use coupons with a BOGO.
When coding changed, we changed our policy of what we would post on FTM. This really comes down to an ethics question and for me, I just feel like the coding clearly is for it to be attached to both.
I explained in this post https://forthemommas.com/articles/learn-to-coupon-understanding-buy-one-get-one-free-coupons on 7/2011 why we updated our policy and thinking.
This is one of those ethical / grey areas for couponing and while each one is entitled to do what they feel is right,ethical – it is just something we don’t /won’t post here.
HTH.
Shannon says
Oh, PS – CVS Policy does not address this – I think you are thinking with a BOGO sale with A BOGO coupon.
Stacie says
@Sarah K.-I am not sure what you are saying. I routinely use two coupons on a BOGO. The cents off coupon is my tender for the item I am buying, and the BOGO coupon is my tender for the one I am getting free. The coupon states: Limit one coupon per purchase. Cannot be combined with any other coupon. I used one coupon for each purchase, and did not combine any. I purchased ten items, and used nine coupons. Now, are you saying that Giant specifically states in their coupon policy that a cents off coupon cannot be used with a BOGO?
Andrea says
Think about it this way. Your coupon attaches to the amount of items that the coupon states. So if the coupon is BOGO, then it attaches to 2 items – the item you are buying and the item you are getting for free. So no. They should not have allowed you to use a BOGO AND a $1/1 item since the BOGO attaches to 2 items and the $1/1 attaches to 1 item and you are buying only 2 items to use for those 3 coupons. The “per purchase” wording applies to the number of items on the coupon. Store policy does not come into play. It’s straight up the terms of the coupon and proper usage.
Now if you are talking a $1/1 STORE coupon…well then by all means, use them together!
I think the confusion is using a coupon on a free item during a BOGO sale. Different stores have different policies on that and that’s where the store policy would come into play.
I hope that makes sense =)
Sarah K. says
I don’t typically take advantage of the gas deals, but this post sure did make me think twice. I wish my car had a slightly larger tank. Even on “E” with lights blinking and the car beeping at me my tank takes 9-10 gallons. So $0.40/gal savings is $3.60-$4 for me on a fill up. I did just as well shopping at an instant savings this week– bought 10 Ziploc and saved $8 at checkout w/o having to worry about timing my empty tank with a drive to Giant (which is 20 minutes away). Maybe when we (FINALLY) get a Giant in town it will be worth it for me. I’m jealous of all the free gas receipts I see!!
Ruchama says
Sarah, I’m in a similar situation. This week’s deal ended up working pretty well for me on the Ziploc, though, when combined with coupons and SavingStar. I did two transactions, each buying 5 packages of bags, and using two $.75/2 coupons. So the first coupon in each transaction doubled, meaning the 5 bags were $10, and the coupons were $2.25, so I paid $7.75 on each transaction, or $15.50 in total. The $20 before the coupons should count for the SavingStar offer, so I’ll get $5 back, bringing it down to $10.50. Then I’ll be saving roughly $8 on gas, so it’s $2.50 for ten boxes of bags. Still not free and not a money-maker, but probably the cheapest bags that I ever bought, and I won’t have to buy any more for a few years.
Stacie says
Thanks for that advice, Sonja. As it turned out, I went to Giant this morning (one of the ones I do not normally go to) and they had 10 Windex Touch-Ups. I used 5 BOGO and 4 $1.00 off one. I paid $14.73 and will get back $24.00 in gas, a $9.27 money maker!! I had actually decided that I would do another soup deal, but they had the cleaners and it was more profitable. I am glad to know that we can do 10 deals of each, I thought it was ten total. Now I can go and buy more soup, which will also be a money maker.
Sarah K. says
Just FYI/future reference, the BOGO coupons apply to both items you’re buying, so if you bought ten and used 5 BOGO coupons, you shouldn’t also use the $1 off coupons. Most BOGO coupons say something like “one coupon per purchase of items/quantities stated”– meaning you can’t use another coupon on the two items you’re buying for the BOGO coupon.
Ruth says
I have a question. Since this week, there are 2 different gas deals. buy 6, get 400 points, buy 8, get 300 points. This does means we can do 10 deals of each or is it a limit of 10 deals for gas point overall?
Lisa says
You can do 10 of each grouping.
Anonymous says
Can someone please help me with the answer to this question. can do just one big transaction or do i have to do 10 separate transactions to get the maximum points allowed.
Kira in Pa says
Can some one break down this transaction/s please?? With coupons
Shannon says
Kira,
All these deals are already on the site, all you need to do is go to the Giant thread — https://forthemommas.com/category/store-deals/giant-food-store
Ruth says
You can do one big transaction and get use up your 10 deals and get your points. The reason that most people do separate deals is if you are using coupons. Since Giant only doubles one like coupons per transaction, we tend to do multiple transactions to get more money off. There was a post that Giant may be doubling 4 like coupons now but we haven’t really confirmed it.
Shannon says
Ruth, I tested it yesterday at two stores (doubling more than one), no go here :(
Ruth says
Thanks, I won’t try it then.
Stacie says
The problem I am having right now is that all 3 Giants that I have gone to are out of the Touch-Up cleaners and the SB with Fantastic. Maybe they will restock.
Sonja says
Don’t wait for restock — go to the service desk and ask for a raincheck. Then you have 60 days to go back and get the items when they aren’t in such huge demand, and still be given the sale price and the gas points. I prefer the rainchecks, because then I can spread out my points and purchases . Just make sure they mark the gas deal points on the raincheck slip!
Shannon says
Great advice. :)
Shannon says
Stacie,
I went to a Giant I didn’t normally go to last night and they were stocked to the max. I guess no one does gas deals in that area. It was like a little gem :)
Alena says
My husband and I LOVE gas deals. We bought 3 gas cans so we can get all 30 gallons. Even I am not a huge fan of sleeping above gas cans (our bedroom is above our garage) they save us so much money. My stockpile is growing even I do not spend more than I used to on groceries. We used to have two separate budgets for gas and groceries but now they are combined into one because I pay more for groceries but I get free gas. I have a friend who complains about gas prices but at the same time refused to do gas deals because of the extra work involved. I LOVE gas deals, especially prepaid card gas deals.
Danielle says
Has anyone used the BOGO touch up coupon to purchase 2 of them? Does that count as me buying 2 items or 1?
stephanie says
yes I used the bogo coupons yesterday and they count as buying 2!
Kira in Pa says
So we could actually get like 6 of them to count for the .40 deal if we wanted to and only pay for 3?
stephanie says
Kira – what I would do is mix and match the gas deals. So maybe do 4 touch ups and a cleaner or something like that to get the most bang for your buck!
Kira says
thanks a bunch Steph… she has the cereal in this deal.. is that getting gas rewards too?
Shannon says
Yep!
Bonnie in PA says
In the beginning I was against gas deals. Than my husband got laid off and ended up taking a job over an hour away in New Jersey. Learn to love the gas deals than, even with our little 15 gallon tank(if it was on E). Plus it helped that he drove past a Giant gas station each day. As long as it’s a product we use and it’s a decent sale price we buy it to get free gas.
I’d rather spend $50 on food we can eat rather than gas.
Kathy says
I love the gas deals. I had over $7 in gas points in the last session. That was one free tank of gas and 4 free cans of gas. Had $3.40 left and got one tank of gas and 4 gas cans full for only $6ish dollars. Since it’s just my husband and me, there are some that I don’t consider doing. And if what I want isn’t there, I do not hesitate to get rain checks. One thing I do before I leave the store is to check my receipt to make sure all the deals I am doing has posted to my account. There have been occasions where they haven’t. Especially on the first day the deals start. Takes to For the Mommas for sharing all these super deals.
Kathy says
Sorry that was to be THANKS to For the Mommas!!
Kurt says
I don’t look at the deals as buying groceries. I go to Giant on Sunday morning to buy gas. This week, I spent $106 and purchased $150 worth of gas. Additionally I got a boatload of Scrubbing Bubbles, Windex, Ziploc bags, and Campbell’s soup for free.
Andrea says
Nice job, Shannon =) I’ll be killin’ Giant on Wednesday!
alex says
but itsnt the amount you spent on all those groceries more than the amount you would spend on gas? how much do you really save? especially if its items you dont eat or use??? just curious,…
Andrea says
Alex,
Let’s do this the most basic and simple way.
You are filling up a 30 gallon gas tank.
Gas is about $3.60 so to fill that up completely, you’re going to spend $108.
If you bought just Ziploc bags at $2 each, for every 5 you buy, you get $.40 off per gallon. That’s $10 you’ll spend to get $.40 off.
You do that deal 9 times. You spend $90 and have (9x$.40=) $3.60 off of each gallon of gas.
So if you’d have gone to the gas station and just filled up your tank, you spend $108. If you buy 45 boxes of Ziploc bags and spend $90, you get the same amount of gas AND you have 45 boxes of Ziploc bags.
Ruchama says
I’ve been able to get some pretty good deals out of these gas deals, and I probably go through less stuff (both in quantity and variety) than most people on this site, since I’m single, I live alone, and I’m vegan. When the gas deals are on things that I know I’ll use, and that will keep for a while (like the one a few weeks ago that included peanut butter, tortillas, and salsa, all of which I eat a lot of), I’ll snap them up. Of the gas deals this week, one is entirely meat and so useless to me. Another is mostly stuff I don’t use, but one of the included items is Ziploc bags, which I also have coupons and a SavingStar deposit for, and I know that, however many Ziploc bags I buy, I’m going to have to use them all eventually, and it’s not like they’ve got an expiration date or anything. So, that one works out pretty well for me. The other one, the only things I use are the pasta and the V8, so, if the whole wheat pasta is included, I’ll get that, since I know I’ll eat it. (If the whole wheat isn’t included, then I’ll skip that one this week. But I eat a lot of whole wheat pasta, and it’ll keep for a while, and with this deal, I’d essentially be getting 8 boxes of it for $5.) You need to figure out what works for you.
m. says
I only buy the items we will use. When these deals first started, I remember red wine vinegar being part of the deal and watching a guy buy 4 CASES of it! How will you use that in your lifetime? I have saved tons of money…..how else can you save on gas? Might as well but some food in your kitchen! (as long as it’s something you can use or donate)
Shannon says
Melanie,
I know this sounds silly but the food pantry will take that :)
Ruchama says
Awesome!
Anyone know if the San Giorgio Healthy Harvest pasta is included in the gas deal this week?
tabby says
for some people it seems to be, for others, their stores don’t carry it. you’ll have to check your Giant.
Ruchama says
Thanks! I’ll check when I go to Giant tomorrow.
Anonymous says
Why would you NOT do gas deals? :)
Kristen M. says
This is wonderful!!!
Sandra Hetrick says
AWESOME!