Prime Time Money

Update: $150+ Earned in Gift Cards To Kroger and Best Buy

Last month I wrote how you could use your Economic Stimulus payment to get free groceries and gas. I wanted to provide you with a quick update on how that transaction went for us.  Oh, and since we didn’t have our actual stimulus check yet, we just used money from savings (to be more precise, we used a rewards credit card and will immediately pay it all off with money from savings).  I digress…here’s how it went down:

Kroger Gift Cards

Late last month, Mrs. PT and I went to Kroger and purchased 4 x $300 Kroger gift cards, for a total of $1,200 spent. Because of the current Kroger promotion, our 4 gift cards have $330 each on them, for a total of $1,320. Therefore, we quickly made $120.

The cards can be used at Kroger for groceries and gas. They never expire. So far this is working out great for us. We each carry one of the gift cards with us for gas and have two in our home safe for future use.  We’ve each used the cards for gas and groceries and no problems so far.

In a side note, the manager at Kroger told us we could do the gift card promotion once for every Kroger Plus Card account.  If you had more than one you could take advantage of this deal more than once.  Just a head’s up for those that might spend more than $1,320 annually at Kroger.  We may do this just before the July deadline.

American Express Spring Fling Promotion

While we were there in Kroger I also took advantage of another gift card deal: the AmEx Spring Fling gift card promotion. Which gives you $50 in Best Buy gift cards if you purchase 4 x $25 Amex gift cards in two separate transactions.  Therefore, I purchased 4 x $25 AmEx gift cards in 2 separate transactions, paid the $3.95 fee to activate each $25 AmEx card, filled out the rebate forms (which are hanging by the gift cards), and mailed off the forms and receipts the next day. 

This process was a little more time consuming (because of the mailing and waiting) and not near as profitable ($25 minus the two $3.95 fees).  All in all, I’m getting $50 in Best Buy gift cards less $15.80 in fees, for $34 in profit.

Bottom Line

Using both promotions we’ll have earned $154.  Was it worth it?  The Kroger promotion is definitely worth it for us because we get gas and groceries at this store all the time anyway.  If you’re in our same position I say go for it.

I wouldn’t normally do the AmEx promotion, but I’m looking to make a nice purchase at Best Buy soon and will be able to combine this with other Best Buy cards for increased savings.  As for the $25 AmEx cards themselves, I carry one in my wallet for little purchases here and there.  Although, my goal is to not use the AmEx cards to overspend on frivolous stuff I would never purchase unless I had the card.  We also plan to use them on a vacation we’re taking next week.

For more details on how to work these promotions, visit Hu$tlerMoneyBlog.