Passive Family Income » holiday gift ideas

Don’t forget to Redeem Your Gift Cards

John S. — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 11:50:55 +0000

Do you ever forget to redeem your gift cards that you receive for the holidays or other occasions? I am a big fan of purchasing gift cards for friends and family during the holidays. My wife and I also like to receive them – provided they are from a store or restaurant that we like. I understand that they can be viewed as the easy way out in terms of gift giving and lack that personal, thoughtful touch. But I ask – Is it better to give a gift card that the person will use or spend the money to purchase an item that they will never use?

Several of our holiday purchases were gift cards this year. We were able to buy gift cards at discount prices for several of our family members by taking advantage of special promotions offered. For example, a local shopping mall was offering 25% of the card value on some of their gift cards. These cards could be redeemed at most stores located in the mall. We ended up purchasing a $100 gift card for $75 plus a small activation fee. I love to get deals like that! While I believe that gift cards are a viable option to give to others, it is very important to recognize the potential downside of them. From personal experience – I have seen family members forget to redeem their gift cards. I myself have actually done this in the past. That is why it is very important to recognize the possible negative impacts of gift card giving when you purchase or receive one.

The following list are a few things to keep in mind that will help you remember to redeem your gift cards you received for the holidays.

Keep Track of Gift Cards – Tracking holiday gift cards is an important step in preventing them from expiring. I remember years ago I received a Blockbuster card for Christmas and put it in a secret hiding place in my wallet. We will just say that the secret hiding place was “really secret” – even to me. I found it about two years later! Of course it was worthless when I took it into the store.
Read the Terms – Make sure you read the terms on the gift cards. It seems that most are good for 1 year before they start losing value. Paying attention to the terms of the card will help you to make sure you are able to maximize the value on the card.
Multiple Stores – Check to see if you can use the gift card at multiple stores. Sometimes you may receive gift cards that could be used at a different store or restaurant. Read the details on the card to see if it can be redeemed at a sister store or restaurant. You are more likely to use your card up quickly if it is somewhere that you like to shop or eat.
Use them early – I recently heard a scary report that almost 50 national retail chains could go out of business this year because of the recession! You don’t want to end up holding on to cards for companies that may be going out of business. Most of the time, when companies file for bankruptcy, you can’t redeem your cards. I think it is very important to redeem your cards soon after you receive them because of the struggling economy.
Redeem for Cash – You may want to consider selling the gift card at a discount to someone else if you don’t like the store or restaurant. Why sit on it and not use it if you can get something for it. You can sell unwanted gift cards for cash using several websites.

Do you like to purchase and receive gift cards during the holidays?

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Gift Giving Guide – How to Plan Ahead

John S. — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 13:24:01 +0000

photo credit: Caro Wallis

At the beginning of each new year, my wife and I sit down and develop our gift giving guide for the upcoming year. Our Christmas decorations haven’t even been put away for a week and already we are starting our planning. This annual exercise between my wife and I is similar to a budget planning meeting. We write down how much we want to spend on Christmas gifts and for whom, birthday gifts, upcoming weddings, anniversary’s, etc. This is a working document that is constantly being updated and modified throughout the year. I am a firm believer in planning ahead as much as possible. While this gift giving guide may change throughout the year, it gives us a plan to work from. That plan allows us to then figure out where this money is going to come from. This is a necessary ritual in our lives that allows us to live comfortably off of one income.

Here are some tips of things we do to plan ahead and save money to support our gift giving guide. Please feel free to comment on how you plan ahead on gift purchases and save money so everyone can benefit!

Credit Card Rewards – I love to redeem our credit card rewards throughout the year to support our gift giving guide. We have two credit cards that earn us cash back or rewards that can be used to redeem gift cards. Approximately 90% of our yearly expenses (excluding our mortgage) are paid through these credit cards. We simply let our rewards and points accumulate throughout the year and then redeem them when we plan to purchase a gift. I estimate we will accumulate around $400 this year through our credit cards rewards to use on gift purchases.
Shop Clearance – Throughout the year, we hit the clearance aisles at the retail stores looking for some good marked down items. Our oldest son is now 5 and has started going to a lot of birthday parties, so these types of purchases come in handy. We specifically look for items like backpacks and other school supplies as well as educational toys and board games. Stocking up on these types of gift items really helps save money. For example, last year a store was running some really great prices on the board game Candy Land. We picked up several of these and put them away to be used for later. If you are worried about not using these gifts, then you can always look to donate them to a charity.
Special Promotions – We also keep a lookout for special promotions throughout the year. A great example of this is the special savings that Restaurant.com typically offers. Certain times of the year they have been known to run discounts of 70 – 80% off their promotional gift certificates. We tend to snatch these up and then use them for anniversary gifts for our parents.
Extra Change – We also try and throw any lose change laying around in a jar and use it to purchase gifts later in the year. Any small amounts of money that we have goes into this jar. It is actually fun for our oldest son to look for lose change and add it to the pot. Another thing to try – some states have a deposit on soda (pop as I call it) cans. Use this extra money to put away for your gift giving guide budget.
Be Creative – This point is a little vague but the most interesting. I believe that I am a very creative person – not artistically, but financially. After we create our annual gift giving guide, I have a dollar amount that I need to come up with for the year to fit with our budget. Figuring out how we are going to pay for these items requires some creative thinking which I think is fun! Looking for little pockets of where we can save money or come up with some extra money can help you meet your goals and stay within your budget.
Product Rewards – Think about using product rewards to redeem gift cards or other products. We have used the My Coke Rewards program to redeem points for special gifts. Look for these types of promotions on items that you frequently purchase.
Re-Gift – Some people don’t believe in re-gifting, but there are times when it makes sense. Every once in a while I may get a gift card from work for a certain project I worked on. In the past, my wife and I have received gift cards for restaurants that we don’t really like. I think it is acceptable in these situations to pass along the card to someone who would use it.

Do you plan ahead on yearly gift purchases?

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Money saving techniques for holiday gifts

John S. — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 22:16:00 +0000

photo credit: SpacePotato

The holiday’s are almost here and there are just a few shopping days left until Christmas. My wife and I have finished making the majority of our purchases with just a few small items remaining on our list. We have tried very hard this year to reduce our gift expenses and have looked for any alternative to help us meet our goals. Overall, I think we have done an excellent job and wanted to provide some of our shopping highlights to my readers. Hopefully there are some tricks or tips that some of you can use for years to come. I know we will be looking for more and more ways to save money next year!

The following list are examples of how my wife and I were able to stay within our family budget while still purchasing gifts for the holiday season.

Store Rewards – Earlier this year we purchased our new dining room furniture at Cost Plus World Market. At the time we made the purchase, the furniture was on sale and the store was offering 10% off your purchase if you opened up a store credit card with them. To sweeten the deal, they also offered 0% interest for 12 months on your purchase and $15 in store rewards for every $300 you spent. We ended up saving a lot of money from opening up the card and also got $60 in store rewards. Just last weekend we used $30 of our store rewards to purchase gift items for my boss at work and a few other neighbors and co-workers. I didn’t really have these purchases figured in our gift budget, so using the rewards allowed us make these purchases. Without these rewards, we probably would have skipped purchasing gifts for my boss and co-workers this year.
CVS Extra Care Bucks – As I mentioned many times before, I love to shop at CVS. It is my favorite place to shop and get deals. A few weeks ago, CVS had some tremendous deals for a 3-day period over the extended Thanksgiving weekend. We ended up spending around $16 total and got back almost $40 in CVS Extra Bucks from our purchases. We have since used these Extra Bucks to buy several stocking stuffers for our children and a few other people. The $16 spent got us several household items that we will use throughout the year as well as $40 worth of stocking stuffers. Not a bad deal!
Gift Cards – I know there is growing concern about purchasing gift cards these days. Companies that are going out of business like Circuit City and Linens-N-Thins may not be able to honor their own gift cards anymore. However, there are still some safe ways to purchase gift cards for the holidays. A local outdoor shopping center in our area was selling gift cards last weekend for a 25% discount. These cards were good for the majority of the restaurants and stores in the development. By offering several options in stores and restaurants, you lower your risk of losing the value of the card. The nice thing about the deal we got was the 25% discount they offered for a one-day special. We purchased a $100 gift card for my parents to use, which cost us $77.50. There was a $2.50 card activation fee, but spending $77.50 for a card with $100 value is an excellent deal. The card will begin to lose value after 1-year but they should have no problem spending this money. In addition, we saved $22.50 to go towards other purchases and expenses.
Discover Rewards – Earlier this year, I opened up a Discover Open Road credit card to use exclusively on gas purchases. The card will pay you back 5% on gas purchases up to $100 per month. So, if you spend $100 per month on gas, you can get $5 back each month. A few weeks ago, I received notification that if you spent $200 on non-gas and auto maintenance purchases in the month of December, you could get $10 cash back. We are taking advantage of this opportunity and used the card actually to buy the gift card mentioned above, along with other charges to get to the $200 requirement. These opportunities are not always available, but when the opportunity arises, you need to take advantage if you can.
Citi Rewards – As most of my readers already know, I am a huge fan of using credit cards that pay you back in rewards. As I had mentioned previously, we redeemed several of our rewards that we had accumulated throughout the entire year to receive $150 in Target gift cards. Those gift cards have been used to buy many gifts for our children and a few others. The end result is that we got $150 in free money to use at a store that we like to shop at. This was actually planned by my wife and I throughout the entire year. We had a goal to build up the points on the card so that it could help us with our Christmas budget.

Those were just a few of the ways that we try and stretch the dollars that we spend. While those specific examples were just for this year’s holiday purchases, we use similar techniques throughout the entire year. I love to use the example I mentioned above about purchasing the gift card for my parents. We spent $77.50 out of pocket to buy the card. The end result was that we got a gift card worth $100 but at the same time we made a purchase on the card that would eventually get us another $10. So in theory, we will get about a $110 value for spending $77.50 along with another ~$130 or so on normal expenses. I would love to hear how others stretch their dollars.

What types of techniques do you use to stretch your spending?

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Advantages of a Recession

John S. — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:48:15 +0000

All you have to do is turn on the radio or television news to understand that we are in a global recession. The stock markets seem to be on a never-ending downward spiral. The financial sector is still shaky and the automobile industry is in turmoil. There are many bad things about a recession that make you want to stay in bed in the mornings. Whether it be heavy job loss, record level home foreclosures, companies going bankrupt, or individuals not being able to get financing – this list is long. But what are the positive things about a recession? I would like to focus on some of these positives that my family can benefit from during this holiday season.

I have noticed that many of the local restaurants and some of the national chains have been offering incredible deals for getting customers into their place of business. Just the other day, we got a voucher in the mail from Lone Star Steakhouse for $10 off our next visit. There were no requirements on the deal, other than you get $10 off your bill. My wife and I are going to go and split an appetizer and drinks this weekend when we are out shopping. I have also noticed that Restaurant.com is offering very good deals at a higher frequency. Earlier this week, they ran their 80% off promotion which they do from time to time. Then a few days later, they extended the promotion even longer. I think the voucher and the deals noted above are a strong signal of just how bad things are. I believe the restaurants are really in a fight right now just to get people in their doors.

Check out this great deal from Restaurant.com good through 11/24/2008 – 80% off Savings on $25 Gift Certificates. $2 when you use code SURPRISE.Now thru 11/24/08.

Retailers are also feeling the pinch and are doing everything they can to get people into their stores. Kohl’s, J.C. Penny, and others have stated they will be increasing their marketing and discounts this holiday shopping season. Target has also came out saying they will be slashing prices even more to follow the lead already set by Walmart. All of this news is good for the consumer, provided you are in a position that you can afford to spend money on gifts and presents. My wife and I always enjoy holiday shopping and are really looking forward to getting some rock bottom discounts this year.

Sears and Kmart are taking a similar approach, but have actually been promoting their holiday sales and programs through SocialSpark, among other media. Just in the past week, I have posted two sponsored post articles promoting Sears layaway program and Kmart’s 25,000 deals under $25. As I mentioned above, I believe retailers are doing anything they possible can to stay afloat this holiday season. While this is not good news for shareholders and the overall economy, the consumer can at least take advantage of these opportunities.

Every day when I drive home from work, I see gas prices drop by a few cents just from the morning. I got so excited earlier this week when we finally dipped below $2.00 / gallon! It cost me under $20 to fill up my car this morning when I got gas for $1.87. While we are not planning any extra trips or vacations, cheaper gas has a direct impact on our bottom line. We have a $200 per month budget for gas. Back in the late summer, we came within a few dollars of this mark. Since that time, our monthly gas expenses have been cut in half! Provided gas stays under $2, we should be able to stay under $100 per month in gas expenses, which puts the other budgeted $100 directly into our short-term savings.

Our local phone service provider called us last evening and informed us of a new set of deals in an effort to help people save money in these tough economic times. They mentioned that if you remain loyal to them, you could get some incredible savings. I will admit that some of the deals they were offering are very impressive. We are considering a few of the options they have available.

My wife and I plan to take advantage of these opportunities when they become available. However, we are not going to go on a spending spree and purchase items we don’t need. After all, the economy is in really bad shape and I believe we need to save as much cash right now as we possibly can. I think it is very important to pick up on these small clues given to us by retailers and restaurants mentioned above. They are realizing that things are bad right now and are fighting to survive. It would be wrong to simply ignore these signs and assume everything is going to be fine.

Check out my new eHow article titled – How to Reduce Stress During a Recession

What type of deals are you finding?

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

4 Free Holiday Gift Ideas

John S. — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:26:04 +0000

photo credit: Creativity+ Timothy K Hamilton

With the holiday season upon us, my wife and I have started our planning and shopping for gifts for family and friends. We plan on being patient in our shopping this year, looking for the best possible deals. We have already planned on cutting back this year on spending, as most American families are doing because of the economic crisis. That makes it more prudent to stretch our dollars as far as we can to maximize our spending. It appears that retailers will probably be offering incredible deals this year, struggling for every dollar they can get in this week economy. In addition to shopping for the best bargains and deals, I have identified 4 gifts for this upcoming season that will cost us no money! I wanted to share this list to inspire others to be flexible and look for ways to save money. This is a working list of free gifts we will be giving away this year. I will be updating it if any more come along in the next couple of weeks. Please feel free to comment on any ideas that you have for free gifts for the upcoming holidays.

1 – My Coke Rewards -
photo credit: moogsI have been collecting rewards points from Coke products for several months now. These points can be redeemed for various prizes, coupons, and coke products on the My Coke Rewards site. One of the products that I will be redeeming is an 8 1/2″ x 11″ Classic Photo Calendar from Snapfish for 380 rewards points. The 380 points has taken some time to accumulate as it is equivalent to 38 12-packs of Coke products. No, I have not been consuming that much Diet Coke, but have been asking co-worker’s, family, friends, and neighbors for their unused points. Most people don’t care to spend the time entering the codes for redemption, so they have no problem giving me their codes. I am planning on having our oldest son help me put this calendar together with pictures of our family. My two boys can then give the calendar to their mother for Christmas.

2 – Discover Card My Rewards – Within the next month, we will have accumulated $20 in rewards from our new Discover Open Road Card.
photo credit: Aim and shoot!Once we reach this amount, we will be redeeming the $20 for a $30 Blockbuster gift card. The Discover program actually offers better discounts if you choose to redeem your rewards for gift cards instead of cash! We will be using this $30 Blockbuster gift card as a holiday gift for a close friend.

3 – Citi Thank You! Rewards – We have a Citi Rewards Card that we use to make 90% of our purchases. We use this card simply to establish good credit and to redeem Thank You! points through the cards reward program.
photo credit: JaxPhotographyWe keep track of our monthly purchases and pay off the balance each and every month so that we don’t incur any finance charges or late fees. This year, we will be redeeming 18,000 rewards points and will receive $150 in Target gift cards. My wife and I will be using these gift cards to purchase holiday gifts for our two boys on Black Friday (day after Thanksgiving), or when they have great holiday deals. This $150 will go a really long way in helping us stay on track with our holiday spending. We have been saving up our rewards points throughout the past year so that they can be used to help buy gifts for the holidays.

4 – Walgreens Email -
photo credit: selvaA few weeks ago, I signed up for an online account at Walgreens in order to submit a rebate for some candy I purchased. By signing up, you also receive email notices for special savings, coupons, promotions, etc. This week, I received an email notice to redeem 1 free 8 x 10 photo. I am going to use this free gift to get a nice 8 x 10 photo of our two boys so they can give it to their mother for the holidays. All I need to do is upload her favorite photo of them and then get a frame. I was not counting on this special promotion as a gift idea, but am taking advantage of the offer!

Several of the free gift ideas that I posted took several months of planning to work up to. Unfortunately it may be too late for some to use these examples for this holiday season. However, these practices could be applied for next year’s season and may also inspire others to think of ideas for this year.

How do you stretch your holiday gift budget? Do you take advantage of special programs and rewards to help fund your holiday purchases?

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.