I can’t think of an easier gift to give someone than a gift card. I love giving well thought-out presents that I planned and searched for, but sometimes, well, sometimes I just want to take the easy road.
And that’s OKAY.
But we can take the easy road AND save a little bit of money doing it too! 🙂
Here are my top TEN ways that you can save money on gift cards:
1. Use a discount gift card service! A couple of my favorites are Plastic Jungle and GiftCards.com. And at Plastic Jungle, not only can you BUY gift cards for less than their value, but you can SELL any used gift cards to them that you may having laying around!
2. Buy a gift card that gives you a bonus! There are so many companies offering BONUSES for buying their gift cards this year. Pick a gift card that gives you something back too. 🙂
3. Give a gift voucher instead! Why not take advantage of all of the great daily deal vouchers that we post all the time here on STS? You can print out the voucher on a nice piece of colored cardstock too if you want to. AND, one thing I love about this, is that if someone lives in a different city than you, then you can watch the Groupon, Eversave or other daily deals for that city and give them something that supports a local business in their area!
4. Check the daily deal sites for half off deals! Half off at The Body Shop… Old Navy… Amazon… Whole Foods… all of these half off discounts have been available in the past few months from one daily deal site or another. Watch Surviving The Stores for these great deals from January through December and save up those gift cards to use as gifts!
5. Use Swagbucks CONSISTENLY throughout the year! If you’re just now signing up for Swagbucks, then this isn’t really going to be helpful for THIS year. But be sure to sign up NOW so that you are prepared for grabbing awesome FREE gift cards for NEXT year! Instead of using a typical search engine, you use Swagbucks to search the web and earn points for doing so! Then you can use those points to get FREE gift cards to places like Amazon, Macy’s, Starbucks, & a TON more!
6. Earn Gift Cards Referring Friends To Shop It To Me! Shop It To Me is actually a pretty helpful service if you are looking for deals on specific name brands. Just sign up, enter the brands you are looking for, and they will send you the deals they find for those specific brands. But the best part is that you get gift cards for referring your friends! For every 10 friends that sign up with your link you’ll get a $10 gift card to a place of your choice!
7. Buy Gift Cards Through Ebates For CASH BACK! Everyone is using Ebates for cash back on their online purchases, right? Well, you can also use Ebates to buy Gift Cards and get CASH BACK too! For example, let’s say you wanted to buy a $50 Barnes & Noble Gift Card for someone. You’d go to Ebates and see that they currently have 8% cash back for B&N purchases. You purchase your gift card through Ebates and you’ll get $4 back in your Ebates account in a couple of days!
8. Buy Gift Cards With Your Coins! Did you know that if you get a gift card from a Coinstar machine instead of getting cash that you don’t have to pay a fee? Get the whole family to dig in the couches, under the beds, and between the seats of the car and round up all of your loose change. Then use that to buy a gift card at a CoinStar machine!
9. Sign up for My Points! My Points is a survey company where you earn points for taking surveys or doing other things on their site (like signing up for offers). Each thing you do on their site gets you points, and then you can redeem those points for gift cards!
10. Don’t forget to check eBay! Where is the first place people typically go to sell something online? Yep, either eBay or Craigslist. I personally feel more comfortable with eBay since there is at least *some* protection there from fraud. People sell gift cards for discounted prices all the time on eBay so I would definitely take a look there too.
And don’t forget that presentation is everything! 🙂
So here’s the question I want to know… if you could have a $100 gift card anywhere, where would it be? 🙂
Be sure to check out all of the other AWESOME blogs that are participating in the 12 Days Of Christmas series:
Christmas Homeschool Fun: 1+1+1=1
Christmas Decorations: Songbird
Tips for a Healthy Holiday: The Thrifty Mama
Travel Tips: Mom’s Travel Tales
Christmas Recipes: Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures
Christmas Family Fun: Life as Mom
Homemade Christmas Gifts: The Happy Housewife
Target
Target cause that’s where I spend all my money!!
just thot I would let ya know that the Emerils $1.00 Q sttaes in the fine print that it EXCLUDES the BAM meals so the coupon doesn't match the sale…bummer
target
Amazon.com
hmmm… anywhere? Hobby Lobby… I heart that place.
Target or Starbucks!
Kohls!!! We don’t have a Target close by or I would say that.
Amazon.com
Targer
Oops target
Khols
Amazon.com
Amazon!!!!!!!!!
walgreens, cvs or rite aid :))
Paypal!!!! Then I could use it for anything on line, plus some!!!!!
AMAZON
nutsonline I love that place!
red lobster
JoAnn’s or Target
Lowe’s for sure!! Because then I know I wouldn’t use it for something I don’t need!!!
Love the presentation :). If the gift card is for practical use then I’d have to say Costco or Walmart. For fun, then Lowes or Home Depot or to a restaurant.
I use my swagbucks engine all the time, I “search” for all my regular webistes that I visit regularly, takes me a few extra seconds, love it.
Target
Kroger!
It would be to REI so I could buy a new Timbuk2 coupon bag! 🙂
Amazon! Since they have everything!
eBay!!
PAYPAL!!!
old navy
Walmart!
Amazon.com since you can buy just about anything there and get some good deals too! 🙂
Barnes and noble they have a great variety
Amazon!
Pier 1 Imports 🙂
A high end store like Harry and David, Williams Sonoma or Pottery Barn. Places I don’t usually buy from, and it would be something for me!
Target!
Amazon.com
I think a VISA Gift Card is the best way to go.
Hi
First of all i like to thank you for giving such a great idea. Next i will gift some one with a gift card. I will follow all your instruction while buying gift card. Thanks for saving money.
If I could have a gift card to anywhere. It would be Walmart so that I could buy some groceries for my family for the up coming holiday.