A year or so ago my friend Krista gave me a great idea that
she lives by. I thought it was such a great idea that I am going to give it a
try this year. She calls it her Christmas Gift Card Savings Plan.
Every payday she buys a gift card that does not have an
expiration date like for instance a Wal-Mart Gift Card. She stores her gift
cards in one place and then stores a sheet of the gift card numbers in a
different place just in case something happens to them.
She knows her daughter Casey loves Macy’s so she will go buy
a $25 gift card there one pay day, and the next pay day she might get one at Sephora.
Nope none of them expire.
Krista buys a lot of stuff at Wal-Mart during the holidays,
in truth I think she does the majority of her shopping there, so she always
make sure she purchases the majority of her gift cards from Wal-Mart.
She also knows that her Dad always wants a gift card for a
sporting goods store, her mom a hobby store, her sister and brother in law love
to eat out, that’s another gift card, her kids love iTunes, and Amazon, and her
Mom loves anything from Bath and Body works.
When Krista walks into Bath and Body Works right before
Christmas she can pick her Mom up some sweet deals and pay for it all on the
gift cards she may have bought in June! The great thing is she stays within her
budget, and the money has already been set aside for her Mom’s gift.
By the time Christmas Rolls Around in 2013 Krista will have 25
Gift Card because she doesn’t buy any in December. At $25 each that’s a grand
total of $625 dollars.
WOW that’s a lot of money you don’t have to worry about at
the last minute. She is so smart that she even buys two gift cards from Home
Depot throughout the year because she knows they are going to buy their
Christmas tree there. No cash needed she just whips out her Home Depot Gift
Card!
Okay so you know the critics are going to have something to
say about this…
“Why not just put the money in the bank and draw interest on
it?”
Although I would agree with you … you could put it in the
bank, but how many people are so disciplined? If you are GREAT! That is
wonderful, but if you know yourself better than that you could always try the Christmas
Gift Card Savings Plan. You are not going to be losing much in interest anyway!
Just remember to do your homework and only buy Gift Cards
that don’t expire. Do you think this is something you could do? I think the
biggest problem I would have would be remembering to buy the gift cards each
payday!
Thoughts?
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