My Saturday Supermarket Sweep!

I am a Boujee Budget Traveler who likes to save money on my travels with points and miles. To do that I use strategic spending habits to earn the most points and miles which we can then utilize whenever we are planning a trip.

I am not really a Kroger shopper because the closest store is across town from me and it has a wonky layout. It’s much easier to shop at another supermarket closer to home. That being said, occasionally there is a deal too good not to tough out a shopping trip to Kroger. This was one of those weeks.

Deals, on top of deals, stacked on top of more deals. Yep, that got my attention. But to make it all work, it took a bit of planning.

The Plan

I had 2 different American Express offers which I added to our Hilton Surpass card. The first one was for 15% back at Kroger up to $10. That meant in order to get the full $10 that I would need to spend at least $70 on this shopping trip.

The second American Express offer was for $10 back on a $150 grocery purchase. So the plan needed to be increased to spend at least $150 to stack the deals and earn both credits.

Kroger also had 3 key digital coupons. The first coupon was for $10 off of a $75 purchase (good through 8/5…which is today)! My plan needed to be increased again to $160 so that when the $10 Kroger coupon was deducted there would still be $150 left to trigger the Amex Grocery offer.

Because this was a large amount to spend for 1 week of groceries, I also purchased a gift card for a friend (which earned 4X Fuel Points) and some bulk household supplies. I actually had to use my calculator as I shopped to make sure that I didn’t come up short at the register. Since I also used other digital coupons for items that I purchased on this shopping trip, I just deducted them from my running total as I went along.

The other Kroger coupons were for 2X Kroger Fuel Points when shopping on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday and 4X Fuel Points on a gift card purchase. Since I was already planning a Saturday (8/5) grocery run it worked out perfectly.

I earned 581 Fuel Points on this trip! However, I didn’t use those points this time around. Fuel Points expire the last day of the month after they are earned so it’s always best to use your oldest points first. Last month I earned 351 points on a shopping trip, so I opted to use 300 of those points for 30 cents off per gallon on my 11-gallon fuel purchase. A savings of $3.30

Kroger Fuel Points are redeemed as 10 cents off per gallon in 100-point increments and you can choose how many points you use at once up to 1000 for $1.00 off per gallon.

But Wait…There’s More!

My Chase IHG Premier card also had an offer for 5% back on a Kroger Fuel Purchase. Utilizing that offer gave me another $1.93 in savings.

Combining the Fuel Points discount and the statement credit dropped my 11-gallon gas purchase from $41.80 to $36.57. That’s a total savings of $5.23.

This one took some preplanning but it was literally one-stop shopping!

Kroger Fuel Points add to your account immediately. The Gas station is in the parking lot of the supermarket, so it’s easy to redeem your Fuel Points after you shop.

Here were the steps it took to make it all work:

Loading the grocery offers onto the same American Express Card to save $20
Choosing to do so on our Hilton Surpass card which earns 6 points on grocery
Clipping the digital coupons on the Kroger App
Scanning my Kroger Shopper’s Card at check out to apply all the coupons and earn Fuel Points
Making sure that I spent enough on my shopping trip, shopping on the right day of the week, and before the offers expired.
Loading the Kroger Fuel offer onto my Chase IHG credit card and paying with the correct card
Using up my oldest Kroger Fuel Points before they expire

The Check Out

The subtotal for this shopping trip was $207.42. They scanned my Kroger shopper card and applied all my digital coupons including the $10 off/$75 for a savings of $31.59. That brought my order down to $175.83 out the door. Enough to trigger both of the American Express offers which means I will receive another $20 back in statement credits bringing my grocery total down to $155.83.

How is this a Budget Travel Hack?

How does this tie into my Travel Hacking hobby? Having the right credit cards with useful offers set this deal in motion. In addition to the cash and statement credits, I will earn 1050 Hilton Rewards by paying with our Hilton Surpass card and earning 6X per dollar on groceries. In addition, we earned 5X on gas with our IHG Premier card for our fuel purchase which is worth 192 IHG hotel points.

These may seem like small things, but they really do add up!

Dream, Plan, Save, Adventure!