Monday, October 17, 2011

Birthday Gift Card: Part 1

A couple of friends very generously bought me a $40 Target gift card for my birthday. I had a few ideas of how to use it:

a) Buy a foot bath to make my at home pedicures more impressive and relaxing
b) Buy a bunch of necessities for myself so they won't have to come out of my regular budget
c)Buy Christmas gifts for other people

I decided on option B, but also added in a few things for my Halloween costume. I spent $48.15 (so only $8.15 out of pocket). I used coupons from the paper to try to get even more bang for my buck. Here's what I got:


Dryer Sheets-$1.99
Lysol Kitchen Cleaner-$1.97
Crest Toothpaste with free travel sized toothpaste-$1.99 after coupon
Two boxes Tampax Pearl Comak-$3.99 for both (buy one get one free coupon)
Sulfate Free Conditioner-$5.99
Twin Pack Dove Deoderant-$3.14 after coupon
Neutrogena Face Wash-$4.99
Ten pack pencils (for work)-$1.00
Neutrogena Foundation-$9.99 after coupon
False Eyelashes (for Halloween)-$3.00
Red shirt (for Halloween)-on clearance for $5.60

I'm sure the extreme couponers out there could have done better, but I'm pretty pleased with my purchases. I made myself buy Neutrogena foundation instead of Clinique. If I like it I am saving over $15. Here's hoping I can make the switch.

Some would say I should have gone with option A and treated myself...but honestly I had fun finding items on sale and I'm pretty excited about getting all of these items for only eight bucks (which is coming out of the $50 I budgeted for Halloween). I've seen some posts about how PF bloggers are not like most people...I think this is one of those times where that is proven correct. Especially since I photographed and blogged about my trip to Target.

How do you use gift cards?

7 comments:

  1. Love it! When I get a gift card I do basically the same thing. For instance, it was my birthday a week ago and I was given a gift card for a local coffee shop. I usually budget some money in my entertainment jar for coffee. I took what I would normally budget and put it towards my debt repayment. Now I can enjoy the coffee and boost my debt repayment!

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  2. I hoard my gift cards, and stack them with sales and coupons whenever I can to get the best value for my money. I don't care what anybody says about "free" money - money is money! :)

    Now, I also buy them from Plastic Jungle if I can't redeem points for them to get an additional discount if I know I have to spend the money anyway.

    In general, though, I hoard them as much as I can, just like I hoard my cash. :D Not like my cash, though, I don't feel twinges when I spend it. Not until I get to the end of the card, anyway.

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  3. I agree with the others; you did quite well!

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  4. I read your blog all the time and have never commented. But I had to when you said you wanted to make the switch from Clinque to Neurtogena. I did it 2 years ago and my skin has never looked better!

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  5. I had never thought of how to use it....Can it be used for Custom gift card?

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