A few days ago we were asked what the gas budget was for our road trip. Although we have a $100 per day overall budget, we don’t have a specific amount of money set aside for gas each month.
Mary’s question did encourage me to take a look at how much we’ve spent on gas so far on the road trip. In 2018 we spent $1,982.43 on gas after driving 27,643 miles which means we spent 7.17c per mile. In 2019 we spent $1,430.46 on gas after driving 25,006 miles which means we spent 5.72c per mile.
That means we saw a ~20% decrease in how much we spent on gas per mile driven in 2019 compared to 2018 and there’s a couple of reasons for that. The first is that average gas prices were slightly lower in 2019 compared to 2018. We’re not able to compare apples-to-apples though because we visited different states in those years and so that could have affected pricing too.
The second reason we were able to decrease our per-mile cost is because I made a more concerted effort to save money on gas. Although a lot of us aren’t driving much right now due to COVID-19, I thought the strategies we’ve used might be helpful in cutting your own gas costs. As a result, here’s a list of 8 ways we save money on gas.
1) Fuel Points
Many of the larger grocery store chains offer some kind of fuel point program. Kroger and their affiliate stores (Ralphs, Fry’s, Smith’s, King Soopers and more) have one, Albertsons and their affiliate stores (Safeway, Vons, Randalls, Tom Thumb and more) have one, Giant, Martin’s and Stop & Shop have one too.
You earn fuel points on your grocery shopping, but buying gift cards can often juice those rewards even more – here’s how.
Albertsons/Safeway
Albertsons and its affiliate stores use the Just For U program where you can redeem rewards for savings on gas or groceries, with gas generally offering better savings than groceries unless you have a very small gas tank.
The Just For U program often has digital coupons offering bonus fuel points on gift cards. Rather than being valid on all gift card brands, Just For U digital coupons are usually for specific brands such as 8x Reward Points on Bass Pro Shops gift cards or 10x Reward Points on Panera Bread gift cards.
To calculate how much those digital coupons can save you on gas, multiply the bonus by 2.5. For example, if they offer 10x Reward Points on Panera Bread gift cards, that can save you up to 25% on gas. That’s based on being able to fill up with 25 gallons; if your gas tank takes less, your savings will be lower.
Kroger
Every few weeks Kroger releases a digital coupon offering 4x fuel points when buying third party gift cards. Third party gift cards are non-Kroger and non-Visa, Mastercard and American Express gift cards – basically all the other gift cards you’ll find on their gift card rack. That includes gift cards for restaurants, department stores, clothing stores, Amazon, Best Buy, etc.
You can redeem fuel points on up to 35 gallons at a time. If you can refill to that limit, buying gift cards in-store during a 4x promo period will save you 14% on gas based on the money you spent on those gift cards.
Giant/Martin’s/Stop & Shop
These grocery stores are part of the same overall company. They each have a differently named reward program, but they run the same way for the most part.
Most weeks they offer bonus points when buying certain gift card brands, such as 6x on Home Depot gift cards or 10x on Barnes & Noble gift cards. Unlike the Kroger and Albertsons programs, you don’t have to load digital coupons – you’ll earn the bonus points when checking out provided you swipe your loyalty card or enter your Alt-ID.
To calculate how much those bonuses will save you, multiply them by 2. For example, if they offer 10x on Barnes & Noble gift cards, you can save up to 20% on gas. That’s based on being able to fill up with 20 gallons which is the savings limit at those stores.
Bonus Tips When Redeeming Fuel Points
All the gas savings I listed for the grocery chains above are the maximum savings based on being able to fill up to the relevant limit for that grocery store’s program. Many of us don’t have gas tanks that large, but that’s not to say you can’t maximize your fuel points.
If you have more than one car in your household, take them to the grocery store’s gas station at the same time and refill them during the same transaction. Let’s say you have a truck that takes 20 gallons and a car that takes 15 gallons. If you refill them both at the same time, you could max out your Kroger fuel points seeing as they have a 35 gallon limit.
Another option is to fill up a gas can or two at the same time as filling up your vehicle, thereby getting gas savings for your lawn mower too!
2) Gas Gift Cards Bought At A Discount
I mentioned above how gift cards purchased at grocery stores can earn you fuel points that save you money on gas. Another way gift cards can save you money is by buying gift cards for gas stations at a discount.
One way of doing this is by taking advantage of Amex Offers and Chase Offers. These are offers that you can load to your credit card(s) that offer savings at specific retailers. The nice thing is that some of these offers can be used at stores that have a gift card rack.
For example, at the time of writing there are a couple of targeted Amex Offers that give you 10% back when spending money at Staples and Lowe’s. Both those stores have gift card racks, so you can go in one of their stores, buy a gift card with a credit card that has the offer loaded to it and American Express will give you 10% back a few days later.
You can buy any gift cards you like, so you’re not limited to buying gas gift cards. I tend to stock up on some Shell and BP gift cards though so that we always have some on hand for when we end up filling up there.
If you live near a Publix grocery store, they often have coupons in their weekly ad that offer $10 off a $50 gas gift card when also spending $50 on groceries in the same transaction. Publix doesn’t have a fuel points program, but this type of offer still enables you to save 20% on gas.
3) Gas-Specific Amex Offers
In addition to Amex Offers which can be used at stores that sell gift cards, there are sometimes gas-specific Amex Offers. This might be ‘Spend $25 at Exxon/Mobil at the pump and get $5 back’ or ‘Spend $30 in the Shell app and get $10 back’.
These offers can be a bit of a pain if you have a small gas tank as it can be hard to spend the required amount; in that case, it might pay to fill up with premium gas.
For example, our car takes a maximum of 12 gallons. Let’s say a Shell gas station charged $2 per gallon for regular and $2.50 for premium. On the face of it, filling with regular would seem the more economical choice as that would only cost $24. However, if we filled with premium and used the Amex Offer shown above, our net cost would be $20. We’d therefore be saving $4 and getting a higher grade of gas.
4) Gas Station Fuel Programs
All the main gas station chains have their own fuel programs. Shell has Fuel Rewards, BP has BPme Rewards, Exxon/Mobil has Rewards+, etc.
Most – if not all – of these programs offer some kind of gas savings simply for being a registered member. Shell Fuel Rewards members can usually save 5c per gallon, Exxon/Mobil Rewards+ members earn 3% back which can be redeemed off the cost of a future fill-up, etc.
While these savings aren’t anywhere near as good as those you can get with fuel points from grocery stores, one benefit is that you can stack this opportunity with other options. For example, you can save 5c per gallon at Shell as a Fuel Rewards member and additionally pay with a Shell gift card you bought for 10% off or take advantage of a Shell Amex Offer like the one listed earlier.
5) Credit Card Rewards
Some credit cards offer bonus points or cashback when filling up at the gas station. For example, at the time of writing this post the Discover It card is offering 5% back at gas stations (along with wholesale clubs, Uber and Lyft). From January to March 2020, the Chase Freedom card offered 5% back at gas stations.
6) Wholesale Clubs
If you have a membership for Sam’s Club, Costco or BJ’s, there’s a good chance your local store has a gas station. Wholesale clubs often offer cheaper gas than nearby gas stations, so that can be a good option.
7) Google Maps
There are times when we’re on the highway and need to fill up with gas. When that happens, we don’t necessarily have the opportunity to find a gas station attached to a grocery store where we can use fuel points.
We don’t want to overpay for gas, but we don’t know the area and so have no idea about comparable prices wherever we are. That’s where Google Maps can be incredibly useful.
If you’re already using Google Maps for directions to your destination, click the ∧ symbol in the bottom right corner, tap ‘Search along route’, then tap ‘Gas stations’. This will then display a list of nearby gas stations along with their price for regular gas.
You can drag the map to further along your route and then tap ‘Refresh’ to see gas stations further on your journey. This can be worth doing as driving a further 10 minutes can save you a lot of money. We’ve had cases where we could’ve stopped straight away, but by using Google Maps we’ve saved something like 50c per gallon because the earlier gas stations were much more overpriced.
You can do a similar search even when you’re not driving somewhere. Simply open Google Maps and tap the ‘Gas’ button just beneath the search bar and that’ll show you gas prices nearby.
8) GetUpside
GetUpside is an app that offers cashback when filling up at eligible gas stations. The cashback can be as low as 1c per gallon, but I’ve seen it at 10c cashback or more. I’ve written about GetUpside in much more detail over at Frequent Miler, so check out this post for more details.
GetUpside doesn’t stack with fuel point savings or discounted gift cards, but you can pay with a credit card that earns more at gas stations to make it more rewarding.
It also offers a referral program where you get 15c off per gallon on your next fill-up when you refer a new user, while they get 15c off per gallon on their first fill-up too. If you refer multiple people, you get multiple 15c per gallon savings. If you’re new to GetUpside, I’d love it if you signed up using my referral link.
Bonus Suggestion – GasBuddy
This isn’t one that I use nowadays, but it can be a good option for some people. I used to use GasBuddy to check gas prices nearby as you could enter your zip code and it would list the cheapest gas prices nearby. I now use Google Maps for that, but GasBuddy is a good alternative.
They also offer their own kind of fuel savings program, but when looking at how it would work for us, it didn’t seem like we’d really save anything compared to the other methods I’ve listed above. It probably makes sense for some people though, so check out this post on Miles to Memories where they go into much more detail about GasBuddy.
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