Gift card giving

Okay, so it's that time of the year again when you've got to buy a present for someone who has everything or is just too impossible to buy for. I have several of those people on my long list each and every year. Those people are why I tend to buy lots and lots of gift cards.

But you know what, you can do pretty well yourself if you buy gift cards.

During the holiday season, some companies try to encourage customers to buy gift cards at their establishments buy offering a "bonus" for the buyer. An example would be going to Home Depot, buying a $25 gift card and getting 2 free movie tickets for Bedtime Stories. Not a bad bonus for something you were going to buy anyway. I've created a thread with an ongoing list of bonuses like this. Check it out.

Now what I like to do is take advantage of gift cards for myself. Several restaurants offer bonus money on gift card purchases during the holidays. There's a local pizza place that I frequent quite often (twice a month often) that offers a $25 bonus gift certificate for each $100 gift card I buy. Well, given that I go there so much, I can easily go through a couple hundred bucks in a year. So each year around this time, I buy up two $100 gift cards for myself and pocket the two $25 bonus certificates. I'm going to spend the money there anyway, why not get more money to spend?

The one thing to be careful about this year, more than in years past, is the solvency of the establishment you're buying from. I suspect that one or two of the major restaurant chains may go belly up and then you're stuck with lost money. That's never any fun. But if you use your best judgment, I think you'll be fine.

So gobble up (hee) those bonuses and pocket some presents for yourself while you're shopping this year.