6 Food City ValuCard Rules That Cost Kentuckians at the Register
Your Food City fuel discount stops at 20 gallons, no matter how big your tank is.
Kentuckians who shop there learn about limits like that at the pump or the register.
Here are the Food City ValuCard rules that cost Kentuckians at the register.
1. Purchases Excluded From Fuel Bucks
Food City’s ValuCard earns one Fuel Buck for every dollar you spend on groceries, alcohol included.
Several items at the store add nothing to that count.
The Fuel Bucks page excludes tobacco, lottery tickets, fuel, stamps, money orders, sales tax, Food City gift cards, and prepaid Visa, MasterCard, and American Express cards.
That means $50 of groceries earns 50 Fuel Bucks, while $50 of gas or $50 of lottery tickets earns none.
Fill your tank and your cart on one trip, and only the groceries earn Fuel Bucks.
You also need the card in hand when you pay.
The ValuCard must be scanned at the pump or presented to the cashier at the time of purchase to receive or redeem Fuel Bucks.
2. Month-End Fuel Bucks Expiration
Food City’s Fuel Bucks expire on the last day of the month after you earn them.
Earn them in January, and they run out on the last day of February.
A Fuel Buck from January 2 gives you about eight weeks, while one from January 31 gives you about four.
Let 300 Fuel Bucks lapse, and you’ve given up as much as $6 at the pump, which is 30 cents a gallon across 20 gallons on a Wednesday.
A 150-Fuel-Buck balance that expires costs the same way, since at 15 cents a gallon over 20 gallons that’s $3 gone.
Food City uses the oldest Fuel Bucks first, so a balance spends down in the order you earned it.
A promotion can change the date.
Food City’s FAQ says Fuel Bucks expire at the end of the next month or during the promotional period.
So read a bonus offer’s dates before you plan around it.
Your balance shows on the register receipt and online in your dashboard, so you can check it before the month ends.
3. 20-Gallon Fuel Cap
Each pump discount covers up to 20 gallons.
Redeem 150 Fuel Bucks, and you save 15 cents a gallon.
On Wednesdays, 300 Fuel Bucks save 30 cents a gallon.
Say you drive a truck with a 26-gallon tank.
Six of those gallons ring up at full price.
On a Wednesday, that’s $1.80 of discount you never see.
Fuel Bucks work at any Food City Gas ‘N Go fuel center, and Food City says those centers sell unbranded gasoline.
4. Grocery Discount Capped at $5
At select Food City stores without a Gas ‘N Go fuel center, you may redeem 300 Fuel Bucks any day to save 5% on your grocery order.
The discount applies only to the first $100 in a single transaction.
That tops out at $5, so a $250 cart gets the same $5 off as a $100 cart.
At the base earning rate, the 300 Fuel Bucks behind that $5 come from $300 of groceries.
Food City says it has 18 locations in southeastern Kentucky.
Its store finder shows Gas ‘N Go fuel centers at the Paintsville, Prestonsburg, Hazard, and Pikeville grocery stores.
What Food City’s Fuel Bucks Are Worth
At the base rate of one Fuel Buck per grocery dollar, 150 Fuel Bucks means $150 spent.
A full 20 gallons at 15 cents saves $3, which is 2 cents back for every dollar spent.
On Wednesday, 300 Fuel Bucks and 30 cents a gallon save $6 over 20 gallons, also 2 cents for every dollar.
The 5% grocery offer returns $5 on 300 Fuel Bucks, about 1.7 cents for every dollar.
Those are the best cases, since a smaller fill-up or a cart under $100 returns less.
5. One-Coupon-Per-Item Limit
Food City’s FAQ says you save a digital coupon to your ValuCard by clicking “Load to Card.”
Coupon savings are also limited to one coupon per item purchased.
So a digital coupon and a paper coupon can’t both apply to the same item.
Say you hold a $1 paper coupon and a $1 digital coupon for the same box of cereal.
Only one counts, so that box saves $1, not $2.
A coupon with a multiplier, such as 5x, must be used in one transaction under Food City’s Digital Coupon Policy.
So a 5x coupon needs one big checkout, not five small trips.
Expiration dates appear at the bottom of each coupon, and expired coupons are deleted from your account automatically.
Load a coupon and forget the date, and its savings disappear with it.
Psst! How much do you know about Food City? Take our quiz and see if you can ace it.
Quiz
Food City Savings Quiz
Answer these questions on Food City and its coupons. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
Which coupon deal does Food City say it doesn’t offer?
6. 150-Buck Redemption Minimums
Food City prices the three redemption offers the Fuel Bucks page spells out at 150 or 300 Fuel Bucks.
The 5% grocery discount carries the same 300-Fuel-Buck price, so a 299 balance misses it too.
A balance of 149 Fuel Bucks is one grocery dollar short of the 15-cent discount.
On a Wednesday, 299 Fuel Bucks can't reach the 300 that the 30-cent offer lists.
You can still use the 15-cent offer, which saves $3 over 20 gallons instead of $6.
That one missing Fuel Buck costs you $3 at the pump.
