,I spoke briefly about the reward points offered by Speedway in the first post. My second point of this post is to explain how to follow logic when using the reward system. Speedway’s reward system is a great way to help offset the cost of gas and convenience food. I myself have trouble fighting the temptation for a convenient cup of coffee on the way to work, while stopping to fill up the car with gas. These losses in control, buying habits do however result in accumulated points with my rewards card.

Speedway also offers special promotions such as 1000 bonus points for the purchase of a $50 gift card to Speedway. I always take advantage of this offer because I spend the money on gas anyway so why not get the extra 1000 bonus points and pay for my gas with the gift card.

So, where does the difficulty in financial logic come into play with the rewards system? It’s the redemption process. Speedway offers several reward options such as merchandise, food, store gift cards and restaurant gift cards. I can easily avoid the merchandise and food offers. I’m not a big fan of convenient store food or merchandise so it’s easy for me to skip out on these items. However, the problem arises when I’m offered a gift card to a restaurant such as Applebee’s.

Below is a chart showing the reward options and point costs to redeem. I have based my values based on the $200 Speedway cash gift card redemption. This is the logical best value because it can be used for fuel. The food and merchandise are the best in-store value redemptions, but not the best actual redemptions, because these items are way over-priced if purchased somewhere else.

After doing the math 1 point is worth $0.001064, below is my chart.

Reward	Point Cost	Actual Cost
Any Size Coffee or Cappuccino	750	$ 0.80
Any Size Fountain, Speedy Freeze or Speedy Tea	750	$ 0.80
Pleasant Hill Ovens Pastry	750	$ 0.80
Any Roller Grill Item	750	$ 0.80
20oz Enon Springs Water	750	$ 0.80
Any King Size Candy	1,250	$ 1.33
7UP 2-liter	1,250	$ 1.33
Any Hot Sandwich or Speedy Snack	1,250	$ 1.33
Nachos	1,250	$ 1.33
PowerBar Pure and Simple	1,250	$ 1.33
Wrigley Five Rain Gum	1,250	$ 1.33
Shockwave 16oz Energy Drink	1,250	$ 1.33
Shockwave Energy Shots	1,250	$ 1.33
Slice of Pizza	1,250	$ 1.33
Coke, Diet Coke, or Sprite 1 Liter	1,500	$ 1.60
Any Size Iced Coffee or Frozen Specialty Drink	1,750	$ 1.86
Combos	1,750	$ 1.86
Evian 1 Liter	1,750	$ 1.86
Slim Jim Monster	1,750	$ 1.86
Any Cold Sub Sandwich	2,500	$ 2.66
20oz Coffee Travel Mug with Fill	2,500	$ 2.66
Speedy Wash “The Works” Car Wash	5,500	$ 5.85
Fuel Discount Rewards
Fuel Savings 10¢ per gallon discount	1,750	$ 1.86
Fuel Savings 25¢ per gallon discount	4,375	$ 4.66
Fuel Savings 50¢ per gallon discount	8,750	$ 9.31
Fuel Discounts are not available in MI & WI.
Gift Card Rewards
$10 Food & Merchandise Card	7,500	$ 7.98
$10 Speedy Cash Gift Card	9,850	$ 10.48
$10 Gaia Gift Card	10,000	$ 10.64
$10 IMVU Gift Card	10,000	$ 10.64
$10 Nexon Gift Card	10,000	$ 10.64
$15 iTunes Gift Card	15,000	$ 15.96
$25 Food & Merchandise Card	17,000	$ 18.09
Microsoft Xbox 3-month $19.99	20,000	$ 21.29
Microsoft Xbox 1,600 Pts $19.99	20,000	$ 21.29
$20 Sony PlayStation Gift Card	20,000	$ 21.29
$25 Speedy Cash Gift Card	24,500	$ 26.08
$25 Bass Pro Gift Card	25,000	$ 26.61
$25 Buffalo Wild Wings Gift Card	25,000	$ 26.61
$25 Hooters Gift Card	25,000	$ 26.61
$25 Outback Gift Card	25,000	$ 26.61
$25 iTunes Gift Card	25,000	$ 26.61
$25 Lowe’s Gift Card	25,000	$ 26.61
$25 Applebee’s Gift Card	25,000	$ 26.61
$25 Game Stop Gift Card	25,000	$ 26.61
$25 Barnes & Noble Gift Card	25,000	$ 26.61
$25 Vanilla Visa Gift Card	27,000	$ 28.74
$50 Food & Merchandise Gift Card	33,000	$ 35.12
$50 Fuel Card plus 3¢ off per gallon	48,500	$ 51.62
$50 Applebee’s Gift Card	50,000	$ 53.22
$50 Lowe’s Gift Card	50,000	$ 53.22
$50 Vanilla Visa Gift Card	54,000	$ 57.47
$100 Food & Merchandise Card	65,000	$ 69.18
$100 Fuel Card plus 3 cents off per gallon	96,000	$ 102.17
$100 Vanilla Visa Gift Card	108,000	$ 114.95
$200 Fuel Card plus 3 cents off per gallon	190,000	$ 197.78

I did all this work to say that I have redeemed my points 3 times at Speedway since I started the program. Each time I choose the $50 Applebee’s Gift Card. The best deal is the $200 Fuel Card + $0.03 per gallon but for some reason I can’t help but redeem for the Applebee’s Gift Card. It’s something that’s fun and it seems like I am getting a free meal. Why do I have such a hard time redeeming for the fuel card and spending cash at Applebee’s? Anyone else have this problem?

As most of you know it’s sometimes very difficult to make the best financial choices all the time, even when the logical side of our brain tells you its wrong, we still often make the wrong choice. It’s obvious this is the case; otherwise American wouldn’t be in the debt crisis we are currently facing. Millions of Americans wouldn’t have lost their home to foreclosure or be facing foreclose in the near future. With this article I however want to take this topic down to a simpler thought. I want to talk about why we make small dumb financial choices each day that may not have a major impact on our lives, but do affect our finances.

I want to start with an everyday example. There is a convenient store / gas station chain located in the Midwest and Southern parts of the United States called Speedway. Many of the Speedways that I know today were once Super America stores but this is just side information. The point is they have a rewards program. For all your in store and fuel purchases you are awarded points. These points can be redeemed for merchandise, gift cards to Speedway or gift cards to other partner stores. Sounds like a great deal, right? Wrong!

First, the term convenient store means you are going to pay a lot more for any item you buy there because it’s convenient. You won’t have to wait in a long grocery store line to checkout and you can get your can of soda already chilled and ready to drink, but it will cost you, sometimes as much as 500%! For example, just the past week soda was on sale for $2.50 for a 12 pack. I admit this isn’t typical, but you can sometimes find these deals. A convenient store may charge as much as $1.00 for a can of pre-chilled soda. $0.21 for a grocery store soda versus $1.00 for a convenient store soda is about a 500% markup.

How can you solve this problem of convenient store robbery? The answer is pretty simple and you have a couple obvious options. First, don’t drink soda; it’s not good for you anyway. Second, pack a small cooler to take in the car when you leave the house. Fill it with cold soda and even snacks. If you plan to be on the road for a while it’s a great break from driving to stop and grab a snack.

Remember I said this was a two part post, stay tuned for part two very soon.