Use Discount Cards to Buy Gas?

Be honest, you have a few of these “discount” shopping cards, don’t you? Besides probably being a violation of your privacy since the company has a complete history of everything you purchase, they can help you save money on a variety of in-store purchases, but the part I want to focus on is the possibility of saving money on gasoline.

A few weeks ago I mentioned that gasoline was getting rather inexpensive and that you should do your best to stockpile gasoline for emergencies. That said, most of us have to buy gasoline much more often than for emergencies, often once or twice a week or even more. Over the course of a year that adds up to many dozens or hundreds of times we fill up. Monetarily, that’s a rather large sum of money. As such, it behooves us to attempt to save as much money as possible on gasoline if we can.

Now, though I tend to avoid such discount cards, I do have both a COSTCO card and a Safeway card. I assume there are others. Each of these cards allows me to possibly save money on gasoline so long as I fill up at their service stations… well, sort of.

While COSTCO allows me to fill up whenever I like so long as I have a membership, Safeway requires me to have made purchases which relate to some amount of gasoline savings. Obviously, I prefer COSTCO’S deal but that doesn’t mean Safeway’s gasoline savings can’t work so long as you regularly purchase from Safeway. Despite the technicalities, I can easily save about ten cents per gallon if I’m able to fill up at either COSTCO or Safeway.

As an example, if I were to fill up once a week (perhaps when I went grocery shopping) and got a mere five gallons each time–because I always ensured I filled up before my gas tank was half empty–I would conceivably purchase 260 gallons of gas (5 gallons x 52 weeks) and save $26 total (at ten cents per gallon saved). Honestly, that’s not a lot!

But the above example isn’t quite realistic. Most gas tanks take at least 11-13 gallons for sedans and upwards of 20 gallons for SUVs. Add in the fact that most of us are 2+ car families with active lives and chances are we buy gas a lot more often than once a week. When you start to add in “real life” math then it’s quite possibly–if you’re diligent–that you can save a substantial amount of money so long as you ONLY purchase using discount cards.

Personally, we’re not that determined but we do fill up at these places when it’s relatively convenient. If you’re “daring” then you may purposely wait to fill up whenever you know you’re going shopping at COSTCO, for example, and therefore let your gas tank get near empty. Honestly, I don’t advise this strategy whatsoever. Ensuring my gas tank is at least half full is far more important than saving a dollar when I fill up.

You could, however, do something like purposely allow your vehicle’s gas to get near empty and when it does rotate gasoline from a 5-gallon container and then fill up both your vehicle and gas can when you go shopping. Unfortunately, this strategy requires a bit of timing and some planning to work out. Again, it’s not the best of ideas.

What else can you do?

Well, you can use the internet and, in particular, apps to help you save money. For example, an app called Gas Buddy can help you find the lowest prices right now on gas. Searching on the app right now I see prices that range from about $2.20 to $2.60 which amounts to a $0.40 difference and is nothing to turn your nose up at. Granted, you might be willing to drive across town to get the deal which probably doesn’t make sense but at least you’re aware if there are any nearby gas stations that have relatively cheap prices.

What about you? What do YOU do to save money on gasoline?