Save Money On A Lowe’s Shed: How I Did It & How You Can Too
It has been a while since I did one of these stacking deals breakdown for a large purchase. I have always enjoyed writing them, and hopefully you enjoy reading them. I have long said our travel hacking skills help us in a ton more areas than just travel. Whether it is saving for college, discounting dinner or helping you save money on new appliances (or a shed) our skills come in handy. We know the tricks of the trade and are deal hunters at heart. That comes in handy for things like this. Here is how to save money on a Lowe’s shed.
Why We Needed A New Shed & Why We Chose Lowe’s
Our old garden / storage shed is looking pretty rough. It has served us well for the last decade plus but it has rusted out in spots and it is one of those sheds that you need to bend your neck to move around in. We needed more space, i.e. more storage, overall so we wanted a shed with more space. The width and length dimensions are the same as our current shed but the new one has space to stand up, as well as a loft for storage.
We decided to go with Lowe’s because they put together the shed on site. Most companies will put it together elsewhere and then deliver it assembled. That didn’t work for us since there is no access point to the backyard wide enough to do that. And, I wasn’t looking to get into crane rentals for a 10×10 shed. So Lowe’s it was!
How To Save Money On A Lowe’s Shed
Now that we know why we needed a new shed and why I selected Lowe’s let’s get into breaking down the savings. I used a variety of deals, including Amex Offers, discounted gift card sales, fuel points promos and new card welcome offers to slash the price as much as possible.
The cost of the shed was $2780 so let’s see how I brought that price tag down:
- I had $500 in Lowe’s gift cards already that I had purchased with one of the 10% off discount offers a while back. Savings $50
- Next I stacked 2 Amex Offers. I used the $25 off $500 Amex Offer along with the 10% off $1,000 in Lowe’s purchases offer. After purchasing 2 $500 gift cards I had 2 x $25 off offers and 10% off the $1000 purchase. Savings $150
- Lastly, I purchased $1,000 worth of Lowe’s gift cards from Kroger during a 4X fuel promo. I used my Citi Premier card for 3X earning, as well as, I was working on my minimum spend for the welcome offer (hello fraud warnings!).
- The current welcome offer is 60,000 points after spending $4,000 within the first 3 months. That is like earning 15X per dollar on the first $4,000 in spend. When you add that to the 3X I earn for supermarket purchases that is 18X on my $1,000 gift card purchase. If I value the points at 1 cent a piece (their cash value) then I got $180 in value back from the purchase.
- But, it doesn’t stop there, because I earned 4X fuel points on the purchase as well for a total of 4,000 fuel points. Every thousand Kroger fuel points gets you $1 off a gallon of gas, up to 30 gallons. So this has a max savings of $120 (30 gallons x $4). I probably average in the 15-20 gallon range for fill ups. You can bring two cars to the station to max it out or bring a gas can and fill that up too. But let’s say 15 gallons per fill up to be on the lower end of what is possible. That is a savings of $60 in fuel.
- Total Savings $240
Final Tally
When we add it all up I was able to knock $440 off my cost by stacking deals. That is a discount of almost 16%, not too bad. Another thing to remember is that you can often buy Lowe’s 10% off coupons on eBay for $15-$20 and they can save you up to $100. That will make sense sometimes but since this involved installation I think my purchase was exempt from that.
Why Not Simply Use Pay Yourself Back?
This sounds great and all, but wouldn’t it have been easier to use Chase’s Pay Yourself Back feature? Home improvement stores are one of the categories after all. But if you remember I recently cashed out all of my points for some home improvement projects…this happens to be one of them. So I was able to knock $440 in cost off the top and then paid the balance with the points that I cashed out via other Pay Yourself Back means and with my Schwab Platinum. This played out better than simply “paying myself back” on the purchase because I was able to stack multiple deals with the purchase instead of just one.
Final Thoughts
Being able to knock $440 off a large purchase always brings a smile to my face. The fact that I paid for the whole thing with points after cashing them out makes me grin go ear to ear! Some of you probably don’t want to go that far, which is understandable, but you can still use the tips and tricks we have learned along the way to save on most everything. Remember to stack Amex Offers, discounted gift card sales, new card welcome offers, fuel point promos etc. to save on almost everything you buy. Simply buying a gift card at a store with a bonus earn rate (like a grocery stores) to use at a store without a bonus earn rate is something you should always try to do, at a minimum. Those points will add up in the long run, trust me!
So that is how I saved on my Lowe’s shed purchase, what is the last purchase you made with discounted stacking involved?
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So let’s see a picture of this wonderful shed!! ; )
Haha I did share it in our Facebook Group once it was up.
What about getting a new Amex card with the $200 Home Improvement credit?
That offer came out after I had already made the purchase but that is a great option now as well.
you can save the money from buying the coupon buy going to your local post office and asking for a movers special coupon packet that has the 10-15% off lowe’s coupon there also. hopefully you also checked amazon or other stores for a price match if possible.
Good point Pahill – that is a good way to avoid paying for it.
I did check other stores and it was comparable and they were one of the only ones that had the installation set up the way I needed it.
What really sucks about Kroger fuel points is that they are only good following the month that which you purchase them. It would be great if you could max out using those fuel points (only 1000 pts at a time ($1.00 off), up to 35 gallons) throughout the month.
I do not know anyone who could fill up, and max out, 35 gallons, four times in one month. We can barely do it in one month, and we take all of our vehicles to Kroger on the last day of the month to make sure we maximize our 35 gallon credit.
He probably left a lot of money on the table by not being able to maximize those 4000 points.
4000 points is equal to $140 of free gas.
I really wish that Kroger would let people, a) either roll over there points every month or use more than 1000 points ($1) per each transaction
My wife drives around a ton for work and I drive a decent distance as well so we will use the 4 fill ups in like 2 weeks haha.
You can actually roll over the points month to month by calling in. They only allow 3 roll overs per year so use a new account when you have exhausted them. Benjy wrote an article about this a while back
https://milestomemories.com/kroger-extends-april-fuel-points-but-you-must-call-today/
And there is a reminder in my monthly checklist that I post at the end of every month
https://milestomemories.com/end-of-month-checklist/
nice write up! couldn’t agree more with that first paragraph, we are truly deal seekers at heart! travel hacking skills have helped in many other areas since i’ve gotten into the hobby about 5 years ago. did something similar for 800 sqft of flooring and a mini split while finishing my basement this past year.
Very true – we love the hunt of the deal 🙂
Well done
Thanks Eric
The only thing you are missing is that you can bury 10% off coupons on EBay. Shawn has written about that in the past. I used your technique plus the 10% coupons (up to 5k) to buy carpet recently.
I did have that in there and said I didn’t think my purchase would be eligible (or at least the installation portion of it). I probably should have dug deeper and made sure before making the purchase though.