PTL gas prices have dropped since last year, but the average household is still expected to spend nearly $2,000 at the pump in 2015. What if you could save $35 on one fuel up? Better yet, what if you could save hundreds over the course of a year?
Saving money at the pump is essential for our family because we are not easy on the ol’ odometer. My husband’s long work commute means at least 25,000 miles on his car alone each year. The cost of gasoline can put a huge dent in our budget. Because of this, we’ve managed to figure out how to rarely pay full price for fuel. In fact, we save over $600/year on average and in January of this year, we were able to get gas for as little as $0.73/gallon!
$1.00 off/gallon in January of 2015.
How is this even possible, you ask?
KROGER. FUEL. POINTS.
HOW TO GET STARTED
- Do you have a Kroger, Dillons, Bakers, or another Kroger grocery chain in your neighborhood? You must first sign up for a “Plus Card” at the store—it’s FREE and takes about two minutes.
- Use your Kroger Plus Card in various ways to gain points (details below). For every 100 points you rack up, you’ll earn $0.10 off/gallon of gas.
- Each receipt from Kroger will print out your total points. You can also set up an account to check your fuel points online.
- When you go to a Kroger gas station, simply swipe your Plus Card and it will give you an option to receive your discount.
FILLING UP — GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR FUEL POINTS
- Kroger allows you to use up to 35 gallons for one fill up. If you’ve earned 1,000 fuel points in one month, that can be a total of $35 OFF! If you earn $1.00 off/gallon at least once a month (filling up 35 gallons), you’ll save $420 in a year!
- In order to take advantage of this, my husband and I coordinate our gas up trips and make sure our gauges are concurrently on E. It’s a science, really. My minivan holds 18 gallons and his car holds 12. We bring along a gas can or two and VOILA—we’ve filled up 35 gallons and saved ourselves some serious dough. Even if we have only $0.20 off/gallon, we do this. That’s still $7.00 we’re saving if we fill up together.
- What if you don’t have 35 gallons to fill? Let’s say you’re single with a car that only holds 12 gallons. Bring two or three large gas cans with you. If you’re getting $1.00 off/gallon, you’re still saving $22-$27. You could also share with a friend. Have your bestie meet you at the gas station, use your remaining fuel points, and then write you a check for their amount.
Now, let’s learn how to rack up those points. Here are my seven best tips for earning the most fuel points possible.
#1 GROCERY SHOPPING
The most common way to earn points is to simply buy groceries. You know, that thing you do anyway to be able to, um . . . SURVIVE. Every dollar you spend at Kroger = 1 point.
STOP. I know exactly what you’re thinking: “So, you’re saying I have to spend $1,000 on groceries in one month just to save $35 in gas??? That’s not really saving me anything and I think you’re dumb.”
Dear readers,
First, calling me dumb is not nice. Second, groceries are just one of many ways to earn fuel points. You know what our family of four spends on groceries each month? $300. However, according to the USDA the average low-cost meal plan for a family of four in March of 2015 was approximately $719.30 and a liberal plan went all the way up to $1,287.80!
That’s ONE MONTH of food.
If this is your budget for groceries, you may not need to continue reading. You could earn your $1.00 off/gallon with groceries alone.
Look for specials like these to get extra points
#2 GIFT CARDS
This is quite possibly the most lucrative way to rack up your fuel points. Kroger has partnered with dozens of chains so you can buy gift cards to just about anywhere during your grocery run. Buying a gift card at Kroger = 2X fuel points. Buy a $25 gift card and you now have 50 fuel points.
About four times a year Kroger will offer 4X fuel points on their gift cards. This is the perfect time to stock up. It is now required for you to digitally download this offer to your Plus Card, so make sure you’re getting email updates to stay informed and be proactive.
Don’t limit the gift cards just for gifts. The key is buying them for yourself and then use like cash. Here are some scenarios for using gift cards to your advantage:
- You’re buying a $50 wedding gift for someone who registered at Target. Run to Kroger first, buy yourself a $50 Target gift card to spend on the gift. You just earned yourself 100 fuel points.
- Do you have a large housing project coming up? Buy yourself gift cards to Lowe’s or Home Depot and then use them at the store to pay. A few years ago we replaced the carpet in our living room—a $1,200 expense. We bought $1,200 in Lowe’s gift cards during a 4X fuel points promotion to use on the carpet. That alone gave us 4,800 points (the equivalent to saving $168 in gas).
- Dining out? We try to eat at locally owned restaurants, but let’s face it. Sometimes you just gotta have the salad and bread sticks from Olive Garden. Run to Kroger first to buy a gift card to that restaurant before you go.
Warnings about the Gift Cards:
- You do not get fuel points for purchasing Kroger gift cards. Yeah . . . tried that one.
- You CAN get fuel points for pre-priced MasterCard and Visa gift cards, but you’re hit with a $5.95 activation fee. Unless you purchase this during a 4X fuel points promotion, it’s honestly not worth it. Here’s why: A $100 Visa gift card = 200 fuel points (or $0.20 off/gallon). If you filled up 35 gallons, you would save $7. With the $5.95 fee, you’re only truly saving $1.05.
#3 DOUBLE POINT WEEKENDS
Get double the fuel points during weekends this summer.
Kroger offers double fuel points on weekends (Friday-Sunday) during the summer months (ends August 2nd). To take advantage of this, you must digitally upload the offer to your Plus Card. In the summer, we only grocery shop on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays to get twice the points. I don’t care if the only thing we have left in the house are potatoes and a bottle of mustard come Thursday, dangit! (Guess what’s for dinner, kids!) We’ll make do with what we have until the double fuel point days.
#4 STARBUCKS
Just about every Kroger has a Starbucks now, and if you’re going to grab that latte in the morning, you better get it from your neighborhood Kroger. Why? Because Starbucks inside Kroger allows you to swipe that Plus Card for fuel points, my friends. Want to work the system a bit? Consider this scenario:
You and your sweetie each get a venti frappuccino and a croissant for breakfast. Total cost is easily $15. Before you make the purchase, buy yourself a $15 Starbucks gift card. If you do this during a 4X promotion, you’ll get 60 fuel points. As you pay for your $15 order, use the gift card you just bought and swipe your Plus Card. You’ll get one point for every dollar you just spent. That’s an additional 15 points. Do all of this on a double-point weekend and you just earned an additional 15 points. That’s 90 points altogether.
#5 PRESCRIPTIONS
For every prescription you fill at Kroger, you receive 50 fuel points (no matter the cost of the prescription). My family has two prescriptions refilled monthly. You better believe we always have these filled at Kroger because it earns us 100 fuel points each month.
Kroger also runs two promotions when you transfer your prescriptions. One is a $25 credit to spend in the store (not for gas). The other is 1,000 fuel points. If you have 35 gallons to fill, that’s $35 saved.
Look for this on your receipt to take surveys.
#6 SURVEYS
This is my new favorite way to gain points because it’s FREE and only takes about five minutes to complete. Every once in a while your receipt will have a code for a survey to complete. For every survey you fill out, you get 50 fuel points. You can only do one survey per week though. I try to do my survey every Tuesday. If there are five Tuesdays in a month, I can get 250 fuel points. You can also enter a drawing to win $5,000 in groceries each time you do the survey. A nice extra perk. Go to http://www.krogerfeedback.com to take the survey.
#7 THE 1-2-3 REWARDS VISA CARD
I personally do not use this one, but it’s worth throwing out there so you know all your options. Kroger offers their own credit card called the 1-2-3 Rewards Visa card. If you sign up and use this, you get an additional $0.25 off/gallon for every 100 points you earn. WARNING! This deal only lasts for the first three months after you activate your card.
Now, sweet reader, if you sign up for this credit card, please never carry a balance. You don’t want to be paying a 22% interest rate on the hamburger meat you bought six months ago. Not only is that silly, but you’re really not saving on fuel cost that way.
STINKERS TO WATCH OUT FOR
- Your fuel points expire, so it’s use ‘em or lose ‘em. You have until the end of the following month to use your points. Let’s say I earned 1,000 points in June. I will have until July 31st before they go away.
- The maximum amount of points you can use for one fill up is 1,000. If you have an awesome month where you rack up say, 3,000 points, you don’t get $3.00 off/gallon. You will have to fill up three separate times at $1.00 off/gallon each time.
- Points do not roll over. Let’s say you earned 999 points by July 31st; you will only get $0.90 off/gallon while the other 99 points are completely wasted. If something like this happens, for gracious sake!, please go back inside and buy yourself a pack of gum. I try to plan so that I am right at a round number or just a little over. If you’re at 920 points, don’t go back in and drop another $80 just to earn an additional $0.10 off/gallon. Be smart about the math.
Do you have any other tips about earning fuel points or questions about this post? Leave them in the comments. Also, we want to hear about your successes using these strategies.
Happy saving!!!
Love,
alltheeverythings.com 
Also 5 fuel points for every reusable bag you bring in to use (10 bag limit per shopping trip). Or if you are just buying something you can carry and don’t use a bag just ask for the points for not using a bag.
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I wish my Dillons did that out here. I always use reusable bags, but they don’t offer the discount.
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Share your Kroger number with your family and share the points that y’all rack up together
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We used to do that, but then we would fight over who got to use the points. Haha. My husband and I fill up together.
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Is the X4 digital coupon , good for only one gift card or can you buy more then one in same transaction ?
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As many as you want to buy! 🙂
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I believe I have encountered one other caveat to the system. You can accrue points for the current month and still hold points from the previous month. However when you attempt to redeem the points for the previous month they will not deduct IF the balance of the current month is greater than that of the previous month. You must first used the greater balance accrued in the current current month before you can access the smaller balance stored in the previous month.
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No, you can do the previous month – you just need to type in the exact amount and it will use the older points.
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I was a little wrong!
Can I choose to use last month’s fuel points first?
At Kroger Fuel Centers , to use point amounts greater than 100 from prior month’s fuel total, simply select option 2 (CHANGE AMT) when prompted. Enter in an amount equal to or lower than your prior month’s total (savings amount displayed will be greatest amount you can save when filling up). For example, if you have 200 unredeemed fuel points from January and 300 fuel points in February, the display will show that you can save 30¢ per gallon. However, if you change the amount to 20¢, these will come from your January total, leaving you 300 points from your February total. Amounts will come from prior month’s total first if available. Amounts entered greater than what is available will round down, taking the highest amount.
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Hi Glen, I was going to write that exact thing to you! 🙂 If you don’t do that, it will steal your last month’s points. So, when you have points left to use, just type in the amount and you should be good! Happy savings!
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I’m still confused. Today I had 177 points for May and 531 for June. I wanted to use the May points first, so I selected option 2. It then gave me a choice of between a 30 cent and 70 cent discount. I expected to be able to choose a 10 cent discount to use my May points. If the May and June points aren’t combinable, where does the 70 cent discount come from? If I had chosen the 30 cent discount, would it have used up my June points?
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Hmm – I’m not sure about that. Is it possible that you had more fuel points than you realized? My husband and I share the same card, so sometimes he will use the card and we’ll have more points than I thought we did. I had just a little over 100 points leftover for May as well, and I had to select option 2 and had to type in 100 and it automatically deducted the May points. It doesn’t differentiate on the screen between the months, which can be confusing.
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I also have credit cards that offer bonus points each quarter for purchases made in certain categories. This quarter Chase rewards has 5% cash back for purchases at grocery stores.(Limit of $1,500 of purchases in bonus categories) Gift card at Kroger help me get the max cash back from the credit card in addition to the fuel points. Win. win.
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That is awesome, Tammy! I have a few cards like that too! Sometimes gas is one of the categories that earns extra points. As long as you’re paying it off every month, it’s definitely a money saver! 🙂
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You obviously haven’t heard about the issues with people trying to use previous months points just before they expire. Go here to see issues:
Please read all the comments; I did to see if I could find a clear answer.
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Hi Steve,
I was aware of that and it’s happened to me before. As stated in the comments though, when you have points from the previous month and points from the current month, you have to type in the amount you have from the previous month. If you do that, it will use those points and not your current ones. Whenever I’ve made a mistake and it uses my current ones, I have always been able to go to customer service and they will fix it for me. Hope that helps!
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i apparently I’m missing something – namely the provision at the pump to “change the amount”. All I have seen is “do you want to use your rewards” .” Yes or no ” When I click yes all the points disappear when I receive my 10 cents off per gallon. Should all Kroger pumps have the provision to use only 100 points? If so I haven’t seen the provision on the pumps at my store. I’m awaiting the embarrassing education.
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Hmmm, here in Kansas (we have Dillons instead of Kroger) it doesn’t do that at the pumps.
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Kroger also partners with Shell Gas.. we are going to buy gas anyway..so……we buy shell gift cards, especially when its 4x fuel points 🙂 we almost always have 1 $1 off fill up every month and with the gas cans (we do the dance with both cars at a fillup to get all 35 gallons) we rarely have to buy gas at full price.
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We do that as well! Nice work! 🙂
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I’m so confused!! I have 20 cent savings from Sept. and 30 cents for October. So you are saying if I go in and press option 2. And choose 20 cent, it will know to use my Sept points? How so?
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Yes let me see reply in email. Forgot to mark it.
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I wasn’t aware of this issue. Thanks for the heads up. I have a question though…. how can you tell how many points you have for last/current month? Does it tell you that at the gas pump? or are you keeping your last receipt in your wallet to glance at?
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I check my receipts and my account online.
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I get alot of Kroger points by following your suggestion mainly gift cards at 4× points and I save thousands a year on fuel. But I think Kroger is missing the buck on not allowing customers to redeem points for Kroger gift cards or in store grocery credit. I know gas is way less profitable than groceries and you need another option for people that get more points than gas they can use in a month. Thanks
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I think the reason they don’t do that is because people would get points for buying a gift card and then get more points for using the gift card to buy groceries.
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Do you get any points for money orders? That would be awesome!
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Haha. Don’t think so. 🙂
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I’ve always been curious how to fill up my car and my wife’s car on the same transaction, and thus reach our $35 savings. How do you orchestrate that without the gas pump timing you out? You hold the pump while he parks one car and drives the other one around?
Thanks!
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Hi Matt,
My husband usually parks right behind me. After I fill up my vehicle, he sets the pump down while I drive off and he pulls up to the pump to fill up.
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I’ve always been curious how to fill up my car and my wife’s car on the same transaction, and thus reach our $35 savings. How do you orchestrate that without the gas pump timing you out? You hold the pump while he parks one car and drives the other one around?
Thanks!
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How far back can I use receipts for survey entry? I still have some from December. Will the system take them that far back?
Thanks
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They are good the entire year and next calendar year. Example: I can use a survey code in December 2018 from a receipt from January 2017.
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Kroger Fuel puts customer service says to press 2 to get previous months fuel points if they are lower than current month. Can anyone confirm this? Also, if you call fuel points number 1 8662432333 you must press 1 and listen to first menu option to get to customer service, or else menu simply repeats.
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Hmmm – I have never tried that.
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I sometimes get a receipt without a survey, can I use the survey number from a previous already submitted survey but using the date and time on the receipt without the survey number?
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No, you can’t. I save the receipts with the surveys and keep them in a spot in my purse. I try to choose the same day each week and do the survey (since you can only do one per week). You can use surveys that are from last calendar year and the current year.
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