How do you get those Air Miles?

It's an easy formula. I can break it down to 4 steps. The very same advice applies to the Shoppers Optimum program. It's another excellent program for returns. I highly recommend it.

My experiences are based on shopping for a household with 4 people. Would be MUCH harder to do as a single shopper, BUT, you would need fewer points for your personal redemption needs, so it will work out well regardless.

1. Shop when they "pay" you to shop.  Bonus reward days happen at least once a month. Watch for 20x Air Miles. (Also known as customer appreciate day. Generally first Tuesday of the month at Safeway.)  Shoppers Drug Mart offers their 20x on a Saturday or Sunday usually.  Shop on these days.

2. Buy the staples on 20x days. You will always need toilet paper, kleenex, juice boxes, chips, frozen vegetables, cheese, margarine, etc etc. Whatever your household burns through, plan to buy a month's supply if at a good price (always watch for sales).

3. Air Miles credit card.  You won't get a ton of miles this way, but an extra 40-100 a month will add up to a free domestic flight every 18 months or so.

4. Buy your gas at Shell and your beer at the MLCC and always keep your eyes open for bonus Air Miles.

It's ultimately a re-training of the way your grocery shop, but it can pay huge rewards without affecting your monthly budget.  Rather than buying a little of everything each week, buy a month's supply of things you always use on bonus reward days and just buy fresh goods (veggies and milk) in the alternate weeks. If your monthly grocery bill is $400 plan to spend about $280 of that on your "big shop" once a month and about $40 on the 3 alternate weeks, rather than $100 each week.

My way, you net about 286 miles at Safeway in a month, in just basic Air Miles. (No product bonuses). At $100 per week, you would get 20 basic Air Miles for the month.  See the difference?

With product bonuses, I expect to get about 400-500 Air Miles each time I do a "big shop". Based on this alone, I would collect about 5000 or so Air Miles a year. That's 2 domestic flights, or gift cards (think Christmas gifts) etc.

At Shoppers Drug Mart, I use the same formula, but buy products like body wash, hand soap, laundry detergent, feminine products, vitamins, razors, perfume, makeup etc etc only once a month. They have excellent sales on these items, so when the rewards days and sales match up.... yahoo!

For me, it's all about finding ways to subsidize travel. Free flights or hotel bookings can really add up to some great vacations at a really affordable overall price.