The other day, I was waiting in line at the grocery store, coupons in hand. One of the items in my cart was some Ragu pasta sauce. It was on sale for buy one get one free. I was combing that offer with a coupon for a free jar (click here to learn how to get one) and essentially getting two free jars of sauce.
The woman in front of me in the line also had a jar of Ragu pasta sauce in her cart, along with what looked like the makings of one meal (pasta, the sauce, a bagged salad and bread). I introduced myself and told her that there was a buy one get one free promotion on that sauce.
“Oh don’t you need a card for that?’ she asked, and I nodded. “Well, I don’t have one, and I don’t have time to go sign up.” I offered her the use of my card for her purchase, so she could get the free jar. The bonus or savings card has been the new way for grocery stores to offer discounts, taking the place of those old “cut the store coupons out of the flyers for discounts” technique. Use the card and you get the sale. Don’t use the card, and you pay full price.
I didn’t mind lending the woman my card, not only because it is great to help out another person, but also because her purchases will count towards big rewards for me.
She was probably in a rush, and I don’t want to scare people with my obsessive frugality, so I didn’t share with her what I will tell you now. Make sure you sign up for that bonus card. Keep it with you at all times. Sure you can ask someone else in line or even ask the cashier to swipe a card for you, but then you would be missing out on a lot of extra rewards.
Here are some of the different types extra rewards you can get by using your grocery store bonus card.
- Free or discounted gas. I typically save 40 or more cents off a gallon using my reward points.
- Free holiday food. You can get free turkeys, lasagna, hams and more during the holiday seasons. This not only includes Thanksgiving and Christmas, but Easter and Passover, too.
- Register coupons. In an earlier blog, I talked about all of the secrets behind maximizing grocery print-out coupons. Click here to read that article.
- Special cash offers. Stores and manufacturers team up to offer deals when you buy in bulk. For example, just recently, my store ran a promotion that gave me an instant $4 off at the check out when I bought four boxes of General Mills Cereal. I combined that with manufacturer coupons and stocked up on that one for the cereal hogs in my family.
What extra rewards does your grocery store offer?
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