Photo Credit : http://www.thedigeratilife.com/

Let’s chat for a minute.

So first let me start off by saying that I am writing this post not to offend anyone but to hopefully be informative or helpful in some way.  When I go on my various rants and rambles, it’s not because I am trying to upset people or that I am looking down on anyone – I really just want what is best for you in all aspects of life, but my focus is on your savings.  If I feel that there is a chance that you may be getting conned whether it be by someone else or even yourself, then I am going to speak up.

Today we are going to talk, Gasoline promotions at grocery stores.  I am not sure how the entire country does their gas deals so I am speaking mainly with my local grocery store, Tops Markets, in mind but this applies to all other grocery stores that give you some sort of gas savings for buying certain items or spending a certain amount.

I had started writing the following on the blog post that I did this morning on the Softsoap body wash at Tops Markets but I didn’t think you would want to have to search through all of my writing to get to the deal so I am going to post the deal again for visual purposes.

Here’s the deal:
Buy (4) SoftSoap Bodywash 15-18oz. $3.00 ea
=$12.00
Use (4) $0.75/1 Softsoap bw printables 
= 4 for $6.00 ($1.25 ea) AND get $0.20/gallon of gas (up to $6.00 value)

It’s important that you DO NOT think this way:

I just got 4 FREE body washes! Then 2 weeks later when filling up my gas tank, I say “yippee, I just got a free tank of gas thanks to all of the awesome gas pts. deals that I did!”. It wasn’t FREE. Don’t forget that you paid out of pocket already for all of those gas point deals that you did and all of the products that you bought but at the time you considered those to be FREE deals so the product AND the gas can’t both be FREE.

It’s easy to think this way but you are losing money. Don’t double count your savings! I see it on almost every blog, facebook page, comment etc. when concerning gas point deals and hardly do I ever see anyone NOT double count their savings when it comes to the gas point deals. That’s why you never hear me going nuts over the gas point deals like everyone else. They can be awesome and I happen to think this soft soap one is pretty great but don’t let the marketing departments of these companies and your own mind, trick you into thinking that deals are better than they really are.

I am not trying to discourage you on doing the gas point deals, I just want to make sure that you pick which savings sounds better to you and stick with it.  When figuring out the gas deals are you going to a.) deduct the gasoline savings ahead of time from the products that you buy or b.) enjoy the savings when you fill up your gas?  If I were to do the soft soap deal then this is how I personally choose to look at it so as not to lose any money or give myself a headache:

I just got 4 bottles of body wash for $1.25 each and then come time to get gas, I like to let hubby celebrate on the gasoline savings.  In my mind, I never actually deduct the gas savings from my products price but I do know that savings are on the horizon. Since buying gasoline is inevitable for most people, it is definitely good to look at the bottom line which for the above mentioned deal is that you are going to get up to $6.00 in gas savings when you buy 4 softsoap which is the same amount that you will be paying out of pocket after coupons.  Just don’t forget it’s one or the other, free gas or free product.  Whichever tickles your fancy.

More often than not, people double count their savings and I honestly don’t think they even realize they are doing it.  There is nothing wrong with getting excited over the great deal you got but using the body wash example again, you didn’t get $6 in Free gas AND 4 body washes free because at some point, there were $6.00 (+ tax) that came out of your pocket and that needs to be factored in.  This same rule can be said of store money (ECBs, +UPs and RRs) just pay close attention to what you are REALLY paying and what you are REALLY saving!

*If this seems a little all over the place, I do apologize.  I had to stop like 10 times and kept losing my train of thought. 

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