If you have not joined Swagbucks, now is a great time because the site has doubled the bonus you get for signing up, from 30 to 60 Swagbucks using a special code below. The bonus is to celebrate their second anniversary.
Swagbucks is a site that rewards you for searching for stuff on the Internet. Basically, you sign up, install the Swagbucks toolbar and every few searches you do you’ll earn a few Swagbucks. Then you trade in Swagbucks for gift cards and prizes. I’ve earned more than $300 in about six months of using the site. Where do you think I get all those Amazon gift cards for BargainBabeLA.com, eh? Hehehe.
If you join by March 4 and plug swagcode BARGAINBABE1 into the box that says “Enter your swagcode,” you’ll earn 60 swagbucks instead of the normal 30. The code is case sensitive and only works for new members.
Note, as part of the second anniversary, Swagbucks decided to inflate their currence, so everything is not multipled by 10. So if you had 45 bucks in your account you will now have 450. If a prize cost 45 swagbucks, it not costs 450. The ratio is the same the prizes still cost the same amount, relatively.
Get 20 percent off your entire purchase at J.Crew when you and three friends each spend $125. Group buying has its perks.
Get a $25 gift card to Rite Aid or Kmart when you transfer a prescription using this coupon.
Michaels coupons – there are 8 of ‘em! – give 20-50 percent off all kinds of stuff in the store.
Remember Friendgiftr? They sell gift cards that you can swap among 125 retailers and they just lowered the fee to $.99-$1.99 per card (it used to be as much as $5).
Here’s a new Borders coupon for 30 percent off much of the items they sell, with the normal caveats.
Check out all the deals on my WalletPop blog.
Super fab deals on my WalletPop blog today!
Spirit Airlines is having a major air fare sale with one way flights starting at $16. Holy cow! But you have to book today.
Barbie, Hot Wheels, Toy Story, Dora the Explorer and everything else at Mattel is 20 percent off! Spend $50 and get free shipping,too!
Looking for a free movie rental code from RedBox? Now there is an iPhone app that aggregates all the codes and shares them every 12 hours. Downside is the app costs $.99, but if you use it once it’s a money maker. More info here.
Get a $5 gift card at TGI Friday’s when you buy one for $25 through Dec. 31, 2009.
My self-imposed gift card challenge – spend all 9 of my cards worth $431 before the new year – is not going so well. One down, eight to go. Here are my plans:
Anthropologie – $91.04. Should be easy to spend as me and my sisters luuuuv their clothes. I just need to make time to shop!
CVS – $12.04. I’m going to use this for a gift basket for one of my sisters. Through Tuesday there are some great deals at CVS, including:
- Essence of Beauty Bath and Body $4.99; Earn 4 ECBs Limit 2, Pay $0.99 each after ECBs
- Revlon Cosmetics or Beauty Tools (psa $1.99); Spend $15 Earn 7 ECBs Limit 1, Use $2/1 coupon from the 11/15 SS insert or $1/1 Beauty Tool from the 11/15 SS insert, Free after coupon
- Neosporin Lip Health $5.49, Use $2.50 off CVS Clip-Free coupon, Use $3/1 Printable HERE (IE) or HERE (FF), FREE after coupons
Dollar Tree – $20. There is one two miles from my house, gosh dang it. Perhaps I’ll use it to buy new holiday decorations.
SPENT! Gelsons – $20. I can’t bring myself to shop at this overpriced grocery store, so I gave the card to a friend to buy groceries for a turkey dinner we cooked. She bought a sweet potato pie, which we have yet to eat.
J. Crew -$211. I’d love a new pair of chords or maybe a cashmere sweater.
Jo Anns – $4.37. I’m going to add money to this card and gift it to a crafty friend of mine.
Marie Callender’s – $10. I could use this to buy a pie for a holiday party.
Old Navy – $12.46. The clearance rack is calling me.
TJ Maxx – $50. BINGO! TJ Maxx is great for gifts because there is a wide range of items for sale.
Meanwhile, I acquired a $5 Starbucks gift card, but I don’t think I’ll have any trouble using it. Hmmm, lattes.
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Time for a refresher on how and where to get discounted gift cards.
At PlasticJungle.com you can buy gift cards others have sold to the site for anywhere from 5-40 percent off. Look for cards from mainstream retailers like Sears, Gymboree, Kmart, and lots more. They guarantee all the cards they sell. Once you register on the site, you can sign up to receive an email when a gift card you want becomes available. That’s pretty cool.
GiftCardRescue.com is another great site to buy discounted gift cards. Expect to see cards mainstream retailers like Bed, Bath & Beyond, L.L. Bean, and Victoria’s Secret. You can also sell a gift card you have or exchange it for another on this page.
GiftCardBuyBack.com is a sister site to GiftCardsAgain.com. Sell your unwanted cards on the first one, buy discounted gift cards on the second one.
If you are a Costco you can get discounted gift cards to spas, restaurants, theme parks, gyms, movie theaters and more. The selection varies and some cards sell out (like Starbucks last year). For instance, a $50 iTunes gift card is $47. See all the discounted gift cards at Costco.
I’ve been carrying around a secret stash of $431 for months, maybe even years. And no matter how big my credit card bill gets I can’t seem to use this $431. What’s the story?
The $431 is tied up in gift cards. Am I alone? I doubt it.
So to reduce my gift card stash I’m putting up a challenge to use all my gift cards by the end of the year, especially before I spend out of pocket on holiday gifts. It just doesn’t make sense to spend cash when I have a good deal of money tied up in plastic.
For some reason, I am terrible as using gift cards even though I love to receive them. The last two times I got rid of gift cards (totaling $94, mind you) it was because I gave them to friends who were about to shop at these stores.
Here are the gift cards filling up my wallet:
Anthropologie – $91.04. Should be easy to spend as my and my sisters luuuuv their clothes.
CVS – $12.04. Remember to USE it, Julia!
Dollar Tree – $20. There is one two miles from my house, gosh dang it.
Gelsons – $20. I can’t bring myself to shop at this overpriced grocery store.
J. Crew -$211. Time I start a cashmere sweater collection?
Jo Anns – $4.37. Maybe I’ll gift this to a crafty friend of mine.
Marie Callender’s – $10. I could use this to buy a pie for a holiday party.
Old Navy – $12.46. The clearance rack is calling me.
TJ Maxx – $50. BINGO! TJ Maxx is great for gifts because there is a wide range of items for sale.
As an incentive I’m going to take myself out for a fabulous sushi lunch (so much cheaper than dinner) IF I can find meaningful uses for all the gift cards by the end of the year.
What gift cards do you have in your pocket? How much money is on each? And how LONG have you been trying to spend them? Spill it. There’s no point in being shy – blog comments are anonymous!
My $25 gift card giveaway ends tomorrow, June 9, 2009. To enter, sign up for BargainBabe.com emails and you can win a $25 gift card to Target or Trader Joe’s! Here are the rules for the gift card giveaway.
1. One new reader who signs up between May 26 and June 9 to receive my free daily OR weekly emails will receive a $25 gift card to Trader Joe’s or Target.
2. One existing reader who already receives my weekday OR weekly emails will win a $25 gift card to Trader Joe’s or Target. If you already receive my emails, you are automatically entered to win. You do not need to do anything to be eligible. You do not need to email me to double check.
3. If I am in your RSS feed, you are not eligible to win. You must sign up to receive my emails to be entered in the giveaway.
4. The drive ends June 9, 2009 so sign up now!
5. Winners will be chosen at random on June 10. I will email those readers to make sure the email address is valid. Readers will have 48 hours to respond. If readers do not respond, alternates will be notified.
6. Winners will be announced on the blog June 13. Gift cards will be mailed to the winners.
Any questions? Leave a comment.
My post about the hassle I went through to redeem a $2 gift card from Subway generated a storm of comments, including this one from a reader named Summer Sweetie:
I appreciate your steadfast effort to breakdown the bad Subway tactics. I do hope that the cashier didn’t have to pay for their company’s error but in the case that they did I hope the next time you go you add something to their tip jar. Working in the food industry myself it makes me upset with my employers when I’m made to look like a fool to a customer, but it’s even worse if I have to pay for their mistake.
As it turns out, of the 30 readers who left a comment on this post, only 5 had trouble with their own cards. Another 10 had no problem and 15 either had not tried their cards or did not receive a card. I’m glad to hear most people did not have any trouble with their cards. Subway has been (slightly) redeemed, in my eyes.
