I am a big believer in the pay-it-forward concept, and I refer you to my previous entry on kiva.org.
But today, it was a day to cash in on the past. Our grocery store gives gas for groceries, where you earn points for purchases of groceries on your card, and then get a discount at the pump. So Beth gave me the current card last night, knowing I had a meeting on the other side of town this morning, and I filled up for 0.939 today - $12 for a full tank :o)
Since I knew I was going to be on the dark side today - that is what I call the shopping district (people come from miles away to shop the mall and other stores), I went through our collection of gift cards from the past year or so. I took an assortment of Barnes & Noble, Borders, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Meijer cards, plus my AEP Wellness gift card.
I hit the mother lode today. Turns out we had $148 in the store specific stores, plus the AEP Wellness Visa card. So I picked up the new Batman DVD, two new release books, a few groceries, a new Skill saw, a drill bit set, and a set of fire extinguishers (PSA: if you do not have one in your house, please go get one, you can never be too safe and they cost less than $20. During this time of year, with lights and plugs and such, invest in prevention, because the correction price is too high).
So take a look in your junk drawers, or your wallet/purse, or anywhere else you store partially used gift cards, and make a travel itinerary and use up those bad boys :o)
Hope you are having a wonderful and relaxing Saturday.
What a score! And a great reminder to use those gift cards. A lot of places start nibbling away at the gift card total after a certain time, so use 'em or lose 'em.
ReplyDeleteI'm also a big believer in rewards credit cards, with an equally big caveat to pay off the balance in full each month. AmEx offers store gift cards when cashing in your points, so you can use your points to get things at stores that you frequent.
Glad you had a good shopping day! I'll wait until Monday--no shopping for me on weekends at this time of year!
B.
Oh that is great. Sounds like you had fun. I still have two starbucks card left to use. lol.
ReplyDeleteI manage to get most of my gift cards used by March. lol. Hope you all are having a good weekend.
Sonya
Hi Bucko,
ReplyDeleteYou're right ... In my case I have a drawer full of foreign currency I need to exchange, "a multitude" of Amex reward points and thousands of rewards points from my company redeemable for electronic gizmos ... Time to start using them!
Best,
Marty
sound like you had a good time! i dont have a problem using a gift card, if i get one i cant wait to get my hands on it! hope a good rest of the weekend. hugs
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea... I have quite a few I should go spend... Thanks for the reminder!! And for the reminder to get an extinguisher, guess I haven't really thought about it, but it's a great idea to have one around!!
ReplyDeleteWhat does that say about you Ken? That you have gift cards that still have money on them from some time ago says to me that you and Beth are blessed with a good life and not tooooo many worries. Good for you and glad you had fun.
ReplyDeleteHugs, Joyce
If I hadn't been looking around online - at travel dreams I'd have forgotten about my $100.00 coupon on Expedia! So, I booked a nice hotel and took that mini trip to the waterfalls. And we almost had to cancel that trip! When I get gift cards, they usually get used right away.
ReplyDeleteMonica
Wow, I want a gas card like you have!! Good for you!
ReplyDeleteI wish I had some gift cards with unused balances!!
whuuuu huuu sounds like the jackpot for you. Just used a gift card for dinner the other night... it was marvelous.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the weekend
hugs
That is some gas card!
ReplyDeleteI stopped all my rewards on my credit cards and only accept cash back policy now. With so many stores shutting down...I enjoy a few hundred dollars at the end of the year in cash instead of points or rewards.
I used to wait to accummulate enough points for an airline ticket and then when I had enough....could never fly on a day I wanted to so it was too annoying for me.
Hugs, Rose
I will have to check out the balances on all those cards that my kids have gotten that are just laying on thier desk upstairs. Linda
ReplyDeleteNow that's a great gas deal. Congrats! I haven't been to the mall yet and I'm dreading it.
ReplyDeleteJimmy
hugs and Happy Holidays
ReplyDeletenatalie
What a windfall! How cool...I'm off to root around my drawers.
ReplyDelete