“Give your grocery budget a boost” – this slogan in the Albertsons circular caught my eye while I was looking over the weekly grocery store inserts that appear in our mailbox every Tuesday. Actually I had kind of been looking for this tax season promo since we had taken advantage of it last year. With your store “Preferred Card” you can buy a $250 Albertsons gift card and they will give you $20 free – or, for a better percentage, buy a $300 card and get $30 extra. Where else these days can you get a 10% no-risk return on an investment?
Actually when we got to the store’s Service Center where you bought these cards, the deal was even better – you had to pay only $230 and they gave you a $250 gift card or, in our case, we had to cough up only $270 to buy a $300 card.
The fine print about this deal included the fact that you were limited to $1250 (before the bonus amount) so we bought four $300 cards. There is no expiration date on our cards. Also it says you can’t use this card to buy other companies’ gift cards that Albertson sells – although I have heard that some people have been able to do so. Since this is a “tax refund” promo (although you don’t have to use or show your IRS refund check), the last day to buy these cards and get the bonus is April 15.
Of course, as you would expect from me, I found frugal ways to make this promo worth even more. First, we paid for the cards with a credit card on which we earn cashback. And, since Albertsons doesn’t have the cheapest prices in town, I send Brad there (he does most of our light shopping duties) mainly just to pick up sale items or specialty purchases we can’t get at Food for Less or Wal-Mart, the two grocery stores in Las Vegas that have the lowest overall prices and where he routinely shops.
You can go the Refund Rewards Web site to see other Supervalu stores besides Albertsons that offer this promo. They include Acme, Jewel-Osco, biggs, and Farm Fresh.
I hope many of you will find a store near you that is offering this bonus!