Supervalu, you made my day.

The company announced today that it is launching a “Refund Rewards” program to help consumers stretch their food dollars.

Basically, for every $250 or $300 gift card you purchase, the grocery store will tack on an additional $25 $20 or $30, respectively. This tax-time deal is good from March 15th through April 15th. Each household can buy a total of $1,250 worth of gift cards, not including the bonus amount.

The program is similar to the program Cub offered when we received our lump sum stimulus rebates last year….except you don’t need to bring in a tax refund check or deposit slip to take part. That’s good for me, because I owed a fair amount to Uncle Sam this year.

I took advantage of last year’s deal and plan to again this year. If you shop at a Supervalu-owned store and you’re organized enough not to lose the gift card, what’s to lose? If you purchase a $300 gift card, it’s like shaving 10 percent off your grocery bill or earning a 10 percent return on your money. Either way you look at it, it’s definitely a deal of the week!

Even if you mix up where you shop, it’s worth consideration. These gift cards don’t expire; I just finished my card from last summer in February.

If you were planning to use your tax refund to pay off debt, that’s probably the better choice. But if you were simply planning to save it, given the low return on CDs and savings accounts these days, you’re probably better off prepaying for your groceries and then transferring the dollar amount you normally spend on food into savings on a weekly, or monthly basis.

That’s the message of these new Federal Trade Commission videos promoting www.annualcreditreport.com.

The Dow closed up 5 percent today. That’s the biggest point gain for the closely watched index since Nov. 21st.

I don’t often blog about the stock market because I think for most of us, a buy and hold, don’t look at it every day strategy is best. But since there’s been scads of negative stock market coverage in recent weeks, I just had to point out that the market had a good day.

Hope you’re having one too.

This just in from a survey commissioned from ING Direct:Four in 10 Americans believe the current economic climate will force them to retire up to 10 years later than originally expected, or not at all.

There’s not a lot of detail in the release about how that sentiment breaks down by age — I’ll try to get more details and update soon. The survey of 1,223 adults was conducted in mid-Februrary and as I’m sure you know, things have taken a turn for the worse since then.

As someone in my early 30s, I figure I won’t retire until I am 70, if not later. A 30 year retirement period is not sustainable for most people today and I figure the likelihood of such a prolonged vacation is itty-bitty for my generation.

Given my age and my commitment to taking a long-term view, I doubt the events of the last 15 months will set me back a decade or prevent me from retiring at all. But I admit I haven’t run the numbers. That might just be too depressing. I’ll keep my head in the sand for another few months, thank you very much.

Is your retirement on track despite the downturn? Are you planning to retire with a smaller portfolio, or postpone the start of your golden years until things settle down? If you’re younger, like me, are you staying the course? Saving more? Less?

If you’re in the market for a job, or want to be prepared in case you lose yours, head to FedEx on Tuesday, March 10th. for 25 free copies of your resume on resume quality paper. One day only. Click here for deets.

I love free stuff and I know I’m not alone, especially in this economy. So…if you know of any other great freebies out there, comment and add a link below, or shoot an email to kmcguire@startribune.com.