Why Don’t You Think the CVS Gas Card Promo is a Good Deal? – Reader Question Series

Reader Gail asks “Why don’t you think the gas card promotion at CVS is a good deal?  It’s $10 of free gas!”

First, I calculate the value of an item in a multi-purchase deal.
Let’s use some items from next week’s ad: Digiorno, Kellogg’s and Doritos

The Digiorno are on sale 2/$11.  I would need to buy 6 to push me over the $30 mark. 
6×5.5= $33
$33-$10 gas card = $23
$23/6 = $3.83 each

The Kellogg’s Cereals are on sale for $3, so I’d need 10
10×3 = 30
$30-10= $20
I’ve got coupons for $1/2, so another $5 comes off.
$20-$5= $15
$15/10= $1.50 each

The Doritos are on sale for $3, so again I’d need 10.
10×3= $30
$30-$10= $20
$20/10= $2 each

The final prices are the same or higher than common sale prices that I can get, even including the coupons for the cereal.  I don’t want to pay tax on an extra $10 for these items only put that $10 into something else that’s taxed on it’s own system.  I’d rather keep rolling my ECBs, but that’s just me.  Figure up the prices on the items you’d like to buy and see if the price for each one is a good deal.  If we used 2 liters and sports drinks more often then I would pick up those 2 items and some palmolive this week.  Other than that, I’d skip the deal completely.  Again.