Robert D. Gibb is posting a stunning series of articles on Air Miles on the forum. I found the series very useful and enlightening so I’m posting it on the blog as well.

Robert D. Gibb is a Contributing Editor (DRIPs) at the Canadian MoneySaver Magazine.

This is a good week for the AirMile Deals

1. Buy 5 Get 50 AM House Brands

Safeway runs this offer on different house brand products over a 2 week cycle. Last weeks items hould continue this week. Whether the are still on sale is always a consideration in week 2. Items on sale in week one are usually not discounted in week 2. However, the house brands flyer that should have been in last weeks main flyer appeared this week instead so the sale items might continue this week as well.

2. Tuesday is “Spend $35 Get 10% Off Day”

If you have the We Care books you could basically get another 10% off using a $2 grocerty and $2 meat coupon.

This week there is a so-called EXTREME SPECIAL Pork Loin Centre Cut Chops $3.49/LB Buy 2 Get 20 AMs. I assume these are club packs. Regardless with some careful shopping and using the We Care coupons you could get 4 packs (40 AMs) and knock almost 20% off. This takes the value down to about $28 (almost $2.80/lb) and earns $5.20 in AMs at the same time.

3. Name Brand Offers

There are 3 offers this week:

Kraft: “Buy 3 Get 15 AMs or Buy 6 Get 35 AMs”. Prices range from $2/item to $4.99/item. For those looking for fast AM accumulation Kraft BBQ Sauce $2.

Garnier Fructis: Buy 3 Get 40 range: $3.99-7.99/item. Depending on the item this can be better than the Kraft. e.g.

6 x $2 Kraft BBQ = $12 = 35 AMs
3 x $3.99 GF Haircare = $11.97 = 40 AMs

The 5 AM = $0.65 advantage (ignoring tax) on the Garnier

Method Soap Products: Interesting offer. Buy 4 Get 50 AM plus Buy 2 different Get 20 Bonus. So you could split 4 items between 2 different items and get 70 AMs. Range $3.99 (hand soap) – $25.99 (mop). Most efficient example:

Buy 3 hand soap ($3.99) and 1 cleaner ($4.49) = $16.46 = $9.10 in AMs.

As always, these items only make sense if you actually use the product. Buying products just to accummulate AirMiles is not an effective use of your money.

OB

Good Hunting To All!

…

OK, just after I posted the above the Real Canadian Superstor flyer arrived with the morning newspaper.

A couple of the Kraft AM products are also featured this week at RCS. It’s interesting to do a comparison:

Kraft BBQ sause:
Safeway $2
RCS $1.49
Difference $0.51 or about 4 AMs/item. Buying 3 at Safeway gets 5 AM/item. Buying 6 gets almost 6 AM/item. That’s only a 1 – 2 AM difference or $0.13 – $0.26 per item advantage to Safeway if you are not a member of any RCS rewards type program.

However, using We Care (10%) and 10% OFF Tuesday at Safeway the numbers look much different.

SW: $2 @ 20% off = $1.60
RCS: $1.49
Difference = $0.11 approx. 1 AM

Now we’re looking at a 4-5 AM difference or $0.52 – $0.65/item

Miracle Whip:

SW: $3.99
RCS: $3.47

Difference: $0.52 or 4 AMs

However, buy on Tuesday with the coupons and the numbers look like this:

SW:$3.20 (approx.)
RCS: $3.47
Difference: $0.27 (approx. 2 AMs) to Safeway plus you’ll get the bonus AMs.

OB

Good Hunting To All!