Our attic ladder in the garage broke this week. It’s hanging wide open – both a fire hazard and a serious pain. I’m totally creeped out thinking some sort of attic creature will climb into my garage, eat my stockpile and bother my baby chickens. A replacement attic ladder is $150 at Home Depot. Boo. We are lucky to have this in our emergency house repair fund, but instead of just taking the money and going to Home Depot, I got creative and went to Safeway!
This week Safeway has 4x gas reward points on gift card purchases. I purchased two $100 Home Depot gift cards.
- For every $100 I spend at Safeway on gift cards, I earned $0.40/gallon (4x the normal amount), so the $200 I was going to spend anyway at Home Depot comes out to $0.80/gallon the next time we gas up. We’ll let the tank get close to empty to get the maximum savings. We have a 15 gallon tank, so we’ll likely save between $10 – 11.
- I paid for the gifts cards using my Alaska Airlines credit card, which we pay off every month to earn miles – that’s 200 miles toward our next free trip! We record all our transactions – just as if it was a checking account, so we never pay any interest.
You can then use the gift cards to shop HomeDepot.com and go through your favorite online cashback programs – earning as much as 3% cash back and using the rare coupon codes that are available for online purchases. You can opt for in-store pick up to avoid shipping charges and to make it a quick and easy trip – as your order is ready when you arrive!
Home repair costs are never fun. But at least I feel like I’m getting a little something more back by purchasing the gift cards ahead of time and earning gas rewards. You can get gift cards for Amazon, restaurants, most stores at the mall and more to save. I did this last spring when Albertsons had a gift card promotion – I ended up getting $110 worth of FREE groceries when we built our chicken coop.
Find other Safeway deals here.
Do you do this too? Have you ever purposely bought gift cards at Safeway (or other retailer) to earn rewards for a purchase you’d be making anyway?
Beth Johnson says
Don’t forget about matching coupons! If you buy in-store you can use that nice 20% off Harbor Freight coupon!
Maija says
I bought 4 $5 scratch tickets this morning and earned a $.10 fuel discount, but I’m not aware of any promotions for that…
Safeway carries JC Penney gift cards, and right now JC Penney has a promotion for 20% off your puchase (or 10% off furniture) using online promo code SPRINGUP, or you can print it on their website (good through 4/17/13)!
Patrice says
Someday I will tell you about how I bought our new Pottery Barn sofa all with GC I purchased at Safeway. I like to think I made the most of points, points, and more points.
Heather says
I would LOVE to hear that story Patrice! Did you see the Olympia Farmer’s Market is open for the summer. Would love to meet you for coffee one sunny Saturday morning. 🙂
Patrice says
Heather, that sounds great!
Kaeli says
1) I would love to hear the Pottery Barn story
2) I’ve never been to this coupon site and randomly found it through google… And BAM people are talking about my local little farmers market! Weird!! Lol
Heather Clarke says
Hi Kaeli – I’m Heather and this is my blog! I’m in Olympia!! I blog about deals in Washington and the Pacific Northwest. I hope you’ll stick around!
Shari B. says
I love it when Safeway has the 4x on gas rewards points promotion. When we get it up to close to $1.00 off a gallon on gas, we maximize our savings by bringing a few 5 gallon gas cans with us (in addition to the car fill-up) and get every discounted drop we can.
lyndsy says
I Do this all the time with out dinning out and fast food budget.
lise says
when will i win