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Isn’t it awesome how you can earn points that will take $$$ off of your fuel prices by doing what you are already going to do? Since I commute back and forth, I tend to need tanks of gas over the month and can’t really take full advantage of the Kroger Plan, but it never fails that we will get a $1.00 off per gallon each month. How does one get these valuable points towards money off your gas? Let me list the ways…
First and foremost, if you have prescriptions, you’ll get 50 points for every script you have filled. Next, you’ll get 1 point for every $1 you spend in the store and 2 points for every gift card you purchase. If you watch the papers and digital coupons, you’ll also see specials that will give you bonuses to add to your allotment for the month. One example is fuel point weekends where you get 2 points for every dollar spent.
Some things to remember, you cannot join points from month to month. In other words, what you get for one month is good for next month but doesn’t combine with points being earned that month. They will also expire after next month, so make sure you use them! One last limitation that you need to be aware of is that it’s only good for 35 gallons of gas. This is important as it means that you are generally able to fill up two vehicles meaning you can save a maximum of $35.
My wife and I do our best to take advantage as much as possible, her on one side of the pumps, me on the other. I’d love to always have an empty tank, but can’t always end up that way. Today was one of those days, I had 2/3 of a tank of gas and could only tank limited advantage of this perk. As seen by the receipt, I still saved $23 today so I’m not complaining too much!
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What did I do before Kroger came up with the most wonderful idea ever? How did I ever get groceries before the ClickList Service, soon to be rebranded Kroger PickUp, was introduced? I remember the old days… aimlessly wandering around the store trying to figure out what I wanted. Looking at the coupons in the app, then looking for the grocery item in question. No more since this service was introduced!
What is it exactly? It’s a service that allows a person to use the Kroger app or simply go online and choose your groceries. Before any of this happens, you must first have an account, easily remedied by registering online. Once this is done, you are prompted to select a time period that you’d like to receive your groceries. If you plan ahead, actually wanting your groceries the next day, you’ll have a chance to make edits to your order before midnight. After midnight, your order is locked in and your card will be charged.
For me, the best thing feature I have found of the service is when you are going through coupons. I recommend visiting this section, look through the coupons, and click on the ones that interest you. From here, it will show you grocery items that the coupon applies to. I do this on every trip and in the end, the cart is full of items that I know will work with my coupons. If you have paper coupons, you can go to the cart and search items that way as well. In the end, it’s a good process to go through if you want coupons and to save money.
As with every service, there are some notable issues.
- For instance, if something is not in stock, they can substitute if you mark to allow substitutions — otherwise, you don’t get the item. When the sub the item, they also price match it to the item you would have had. It’s a good compromise and sometimes you’ll end up with more expensive items, other times you get the Kroger brand. When these items are subbed, it can also affect the coupons you have selected. I tend to mark on the notes of mine which ones use coupons so that I can tell in the end what has happened. If I mention this to the baggers, they’ve always went in and applied the coupons — it just takes time.
- There is a $4.95 fee involved to use this service, which in my eyes is more than worth it. You can get this fee waived by looking at special ClickList offers that allow you to get the fee waived by buying certain items, number of item or even dollars of some brand. My guess is these sponsors are paying your fee. If you need the items (or don’t), pretend like your putting your $4.95 into the grocery bill.
- The app and online website also has issues sometimes when you are looking through coupons as it will default to a set number, not letting you look through all of the available coupons. This is pretty annoying as you might have to exit and go back in. It doesn’t lose where you were, but it’s still more time.
- One other issue is that if you look through the ad, you can only add to the shopping list but not directly to the cart. How hard would this be to make a change that skips a step?
In the end, I can’t imagine my life without this service. It has saved me time nine times out of ten. The baggers have been courteous and thoughtful.
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Blog / Business / Lifestyle / Ramblins / Reviews / Technology / ThoughtsJanuary 14, 2019
2 Min ReadDuring the Christmas season, Hulu ran a special where a person could get Hulu with commercials for $1.00/month. Even though I had used Hulu before, in its infancy, I figured it was time to give it another go. Afterall, my cable bill is now approaching $200/month including Internet. Personally, if I had 10 channels, I would be more than happy as everything my wife and I watch can be found on those 10 channels — especially if I can watch them whenever I want to.
My thoughts so far? The picture is already much better than what I get from Spectrum. The audio is comparable at the very least and in some instances, even better! It’s a bit getting used to the My Stuff area, but so far it has done a good job of collecting what I want to find.
I’m used to using a DVR and having everything in a folder but ordered by Most Recent. Truthfully, I’ve not spent a lot of time to see if there is a way to set this or not. In any case, I don’t see any benefit of cable over Hulu or even some of the others I have seen mentioned, except for Sports.
As long as I can see the Kentucky Wildcats play, I should be okay. I don’t watch them Live now, so it shouldn’t really matter. I’ll spend some time trying to find the options for this, and then I’ll make a choice. Another key will be if Jacque can find what she wants to watch as well.
Want to give it a try? Here’s a referral link that you can use: Hulu Referral Link
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Today was another adventure using the Ninja Air Fryer. Instead of making homemade fries, it was time to take some Ore Ida frozen tots and fries and give it a try. Initial thoughts? Success! The fries and tots were both crispy and done without the use of any oil at all. I was actually impressed with the flavor and taste of what appeared to be restaurant-quality.
As a quick note, these were cooked at 390 for 20 minutes with the tots on the extension and the fries on the crisper plate. Once done, they were switched for 10 more minutes to get the extra crispiness wanted. Salt was added when the fries were done. -
Today was a test run for the Ninja Air Fryer… and the results are in. So far, in my opinion, I don’t see what the fuss is. I like that I didn’t use oil, or much of it, but the results were marginal at best. For my first attempts at using this gadget, I chose to make Home Cut Fries, Fried Green Tomatoes, and Creole Battered Shrimp. The time it took to cook everything wasn’t anything special and the end coatings were a bit odd.
My featured image shows the overall plate of food, which did taste good, but again just a bit odd. I think I expected the shrimp to turn into a golden color, but it kept it’s whitish color of the cornmeal. The fries did pretty good, but since they were not eaten immediately, they lost the crispiness that they had.
Finally, the Fried Green tomatoes did the same as the shrimp and really didn’t change colors to that nice fried-looking color. The remoulade I made was fantastic, but it had nothing to do with the air fryer. I made sure to put a lot on the sandwich under the shrimp and on the under layer of the top bun. Without it, it might have been difficult to eat with the overall taste of the coating.
Hey, did I mention that the color of the batter coating didn’t end up looking like a fried item? I think in the end, this was my biggest disappointment. Recipes for the Shrimp Po’ Boy and remoulade to follow.
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The Brown Household has a new kitchen gadget being added to its arsenal — another Ninja. This Ninja is the AF101, a 4 quart air fryer which should go along quite well with the other Ninja equipment that we have in the kitchen. So far, the other items, a blender and food processor –part of the Ninja Mega Complete Kitchen System 1500, has performed nicely! I am anxious to test it out, and plan on doing so tomorrow. See the Po’ Boy recipe’ coming up next…
