It's MATH Time!

This is a post about Kroger. Shocking, isn't it?

While in recent days I have noticed several things about Kroger I do like (for instance, the price of milk, their free Friday download, other digital coupons for necessities you don't see often), I'm a Publix fanatic through and through.

And when I tell people this, along with my reasons for Publix-shopping, I most often hear "Well I shop at Kroger for the fuel points."   I usually just stare at them, and here's why:

Kroger fuel points is a scam. 


Ta-da!  That's it. They market the discount in the same way that gas prices fluctuate so it seems like a good deal. I.E., if Gas Station A is 10 cents more per gallon than Gas Station B, obviously you're going to go to Gas Station B to fill up. But, if you think about fuel points in terms of a flat-rate coupon, it does not make sense. And I can prove it to you using math, which is my favorite.

Say you spend $100 at Kroger to get your 10 cents off per gallon. Then say you buy 15 gallons of gas. (This is more than my car can hold. But say 15 gallons.) Using your Kroger fuel points, you save $1.50 on gas.

I don't shop at Kroger much, so generally we end a month with about 20 fuel points. But since we still have the Kroger card, we get a 3 cent discount every time we buy gas. So buying the same 15 gallons, I save 45 cents.

You've spent $100 at Kroger, and saved $1.05 more than I did on the same amount of gas.

My grocery budget is $250 per month. Last month, I was about $2 under budget (and spent about $48 at the Farmer's Market).  I also did the math on how much I saved versus how much I spent at Publix. I spent about 49% of what the groceries were worth. That's another way of saying that I got over $400 in groceries and only paid $200.

So, back to the point at hand, fuel points.  If I spent the same $200 at Kroger, I would save $2.10 on gas per month (assuming I bought 15 full gallons each time), but save less on groceries than I do at Publix with BOGO sales, doubling coupons, and using 2 coupons for 1 item where I can.

I still only go to Kroger for gas - it's usually cheaper than anywhere else, and I get the 3-cents-off-per-gallon deal.  I just don't buy into the 10-cents-off-per-gallon fuel point gimmick.