These are my observations and what I do obviously this depends on the region of the country you live in because it relies heavily on Meijer, a Midwest grocery chain.
Meijer tends to run gift card promotions of spend $50 get 5000 points. This caps at a $500 spend and is frequently around holidays, such as Valentine's Day, Mothers Day, Easter, Fathers Day, Halloween, Christmas (this list is non-exclusive).
Technically they occasionally run other sales and promotions but I'm focusing on big wins not $50 here or there.
Occasionally the promotion will be spend $50 and get 7500 points. Points can be used for money off merchandise/groceries, gas discount or other things. For our case we will math it as money off.
I would contend that gas isn't always the best option as we drive smaller cars, I work remotely thus we don't use a lot. You would need to calculate what works best for you.
At $50 per 5000 points if you bought the max of $500 that's $50 or 10% off
If you get $50 per 7500 points at the maximum purchase that's $75 or 15% off
Meijer codes as a grocery store. You can use this to your advantage by using a credit card that pays cash back so in my case using the
AAA Daily Advantage card I'm adding another 5%. TECHNICALLY this against the rules of the cardholder agreement however if I was really thirsty and got a soda oh and some gift cards while I was there.
This would increase
50/5000 to 15%
75/5000 to 20%
You can also use PayPal debit card if you select grocery as your category. This is also 5% cash back with a max of $50 cash back so a $1000 spend. This is free and very handy for our next store.
Sam's Club tends to run Disney gift cards on sale the first full weekend of May and November each year. It's been $180 for $200 with a limit of 4. As of 12/19/2025 PayPal Debit has been coding Sam's Club and Costco as grocery which means you can get 5% cash back. This could be changed at anytime. So stacking these together will get you 15% off.
These are the strategies that have been serving me well and seem to be repeating however things can obviously change.