One of my favorite shopping inventions in the recent past is the gift card. I love to give them as a gifts and I especially like receiving them for birthdays, holidays and other special occasions. There’s nothing like the joy of shopping on someone else’s dime.
For a long time, though, I would get a gift card–and then promptly forget where I’d put it. My kids, who also love receiving gift cards, would lose them as well. Or I’d put one gift card in my wallet, store another in my sometimes purse and another in the center console of the car. Sure, all of these gift cards were “safe” but none of them were practical or easily accessible if I wanted to use them.
Now that we are Suddenly Frugal, it’s critical for us to use gift cards and other valuable coupons if we want to keep our shopping costs to a minimum. To help us be able to use gift cards at all times, my husband Bill came up with a brilliant tool: the gift card wallet.
Basically, what we’ve done is created a wallet in which we store all of our gift cards. We also keep in this wallet any store membership or affinity cards that help us to get discounts when we shop, and we’ve stashed any “frequent buyer” cards in there, too. Ideally, we will always have our gift card wallet with us so that, whenever possible, we can cut our spending by using gift cards.
Today was a perfect example of how that wallet can help us out. Annie and I went to Target to pick up some necessities for camp, which starts tomorrow. We purchased shorts, Croc-like shoes, reusable water bottles and more. We were able to shave $56 off of our bill, thanks to two Target gift cards that we’d had since Christmas. Because Bill had organized our gift card wallet, we knew where they were before we got to the store and remembered to use them when we got to the checkout line.
I’m thrilled that we’ve got all of our gift cards in one place. Now I’m just going to have to remember to switch the gift card wallet if I decide to take another purse the next time I go shopping.
READ LEAH ON HOME GOES STRONG
Brilliant. That’s all. Brilliant. I, too, have cards, shoppers’ cards, $10 off prescription cards, 20% off Bed Bath and Beyond cards…I’ve got them saved. What I don’t have is all the cards in a place where I can check before I buy.
Now I do.
I took all of my store discount cards (and I was shocked to find I have about 20) and had my husband drill a hole in the corner of each. We then put them in alphabetical order on a metal ring. Now I don’t have to dig through my wallet to try to find the right discount card for the store I’m in – they’re all there in order, easy to pluck out of my purse and use.
Another great tip is to sell or trade those store gift cards that you might not want. THere are web sites that let you do this. I haven’t had to do it yet, but it’s always in the back of my mind in case the kids or I get one we might not use.
Brette: I like this idea of creating a ring for all of those cards. I would also include any supermarket “member” cards on a ring and then add them all to your keychain. Then you’re sure you never leave home without them–at least not when you’re driving. Thanks!
Great idea! Thanks for stopping by my blog and posting the link to this article, I’m sure it will be helpful to lots of my readers.
BTW-I had wanted to email you something, but don’t see an easily accessable “email me” link on your blog. You may want to think about adding one. And also if you could drop me a quick line at frugalupstate@yahoo.com I’d appreciate it, so I could email you
[...] can you do it on someone else’s dime? Remember how a long time ago I told you guys about the importance of creating a gift wallet? Well, I hope that you’ve taken this advice and have a gift wallet handy that might just still [...]
I just found your blog, and am loving all the great advice. Another thought: My husband pointed out that we never need coupons at our house. We have a small accordion file folder (recipe card size) that we keep IN THE CAR. I put all coupons we get for any restaurants/pizza/fast food places that we enjoy (DON’T KEEP Coupons to places you wouldn’t go to normally, you’re not saving money if you’re shopping more than you would) in it, so when we’re coming home and I just don’t want to cook or we want a treat, we can hit A & W and have all of our great money saving coupons at our fingertips. You get a new sheet, and you know to look for the old ones that have probably expired and recycle them (of course we don’t throw paper away
) Seriously, I’m kind of obsessive about my recycling. I love this blog and will definitely be reading often now that I know about it. Feel free to edit any of my comments for length, I tend to get wordy.
Sometimes you can also buy gift cards for pennies of their actual value. Someone once sold me a Target $10 card for $2, because they didn’t have a nearby Target. This rarely happens but I considered that a great buy. If you happen to trade for a gift card or buy one just be sure to check it’s value as soon as possible, so you don’t get burned on the swap/purchase. For $2 I risked it but if you’re trading your $50 gift card for someone else’s $50, that’s a considerable loss.
Everyone loves gift cards, but be very careful in reading its term and conditions, because some gift cards require you to make some purchase first before you can claim it.
[...] was able to kill two hours in Panera while my daughter was at sports practice was because I have a gift card wallet. It is stocked with all of the gift cards I’ve received as gifts or as incentives, and I keep [...]
[...] gift cards whenever possible. Hopefully, you have a gift card wallet at this point. If not now would be a good time to gather up all of those gift cards you have left over from [...]