Extreme Couponing Strategy #11 – Gift Card Offers
One of my new favorite savings strategies for both small every day purchases and large purchases revolves around Store Gift Card Offers. During the year we see these frequently from stores like CVS and Target. During the holidays we have started seeing more and more of these offers on Larger ticket items at stores like Walmart, Toys R Us, Best Buy and Amazon. Regardless of the store or the item they are a great way to save money on things you need. These deals are perfect for stacking with coupons but even if you’re not a fan of coupons this is a nice strategy for those of you who don’t want to mess with coupons.
One of my favorite versions of Gift Card Deals come from Target, often they have great gift card offers for Food and Health and Beauty Items.
There was a recent Kellogg’s deal where you could Buy 5 Kellogg’s Products and get a FREE $5 Target Gift Card. This was a great deal even without coupons because it was like saving $1 per item.
You can also stack these Gift Card Deals with Store Coupons and Manufacturer Coupons, An Example would be the pop tarts that were featured in this recent ad:
Buy 5 – Kellogg’s Pop Tarts (12 count), $2.75
Use 1 – $1/3 Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts or Pop-Tarts Mini Crisps, exp. 4/14/13 (RP 03/03/13 R)
Stack With 1 – $1/3 Pop Tarts Target printable
Pay $11.75 and get a $5 Target Gift Card
As low as $1.35 ea. wyb 5 after coupons and Gift Card!
That’s a savings of over 50% off the sale price, and that’s a great price on Pop Tarts for the larger 12 ct. boxes.
CVS also runs specials similar to this all the time. They call them “CVS Cash Cards” But it works in a similar manner, at CVS when you spend $30 on Specially marked items you can get a $10 Cash Card. This offer can also be stacked with coupons since typically you only need to reach the $30 before coupons!!!
If you have been following all the Extreme Couponing Tips you have probably started to pick up that Store Sales + Manufacturer Coupons + Store Coupons = HOT DEALS! It doesn’t take long to realize that the combined savings of all methods of savings is where you find the best deals, Sure using coupons are great, or using Gift Card Deals can save you a lot of money but it’s the power of combined strategies that really starts to give you savings that affect the bottom line of your budget.
Another place you can find big savings with Gift Cards is on High End Electronic Items. During the Holidays and all year long we see big gift card offers on Name Brand Items like Apple products, Kindles, Dyson Vacuums, Keurig Coffee Makers and more. These high ticket items have price limits set by the manufacturer so most of the time the retailer can’t drop the price in order to be competitive so they choose to offer store gift cards as an incentive. Once you factor the gift card into the cost of the item it’s a Great deal on most of these high value items!
Target, Toys R Us, Best Buy, Amazon, Staples, Office Depot and more are all jumping on this Gift Card Band Wagon, it’s a great way for them to “Discount” High Ticket Items without lowering the price.
A few of the disadvantages are that you do have to pay tax on the full amount. So it’s like paying tax on your gift card :( If you live in a state with a high tax rate make sure you calculate that into the purchase total because it can add up fast. Another disadvantage is that you have to spend that money at that store. This is one reason I’m more tempted to buy at Target vs. Toys R Us. I know I can spend the money at Target on other items I need where as Toys R Us might not be the best use for my money.
One more thing to keep in mind. Remember that you can’t price match gift card deals. So you actually have to go to the store where they are being offered. Most stores are making these offers available online which is a nice bonus. So if you’re looking to grab a deal and the store isn’t close to you make sure you check out the online website because you might be able to get a similar deal.
Don’t Forget: You can Download the Stockpiling Price Sheet to see all of the estimated prices you could expect to pay for the basic items we buy each month. There is also a place to compare unit pricing. This is just a guide, but a great way to help you learn the prices of each item.
Tomorrow we will be talking about another strategy for getting the most out of your coupons!
Make sure you check out our Saving Money Blog and also our How to Coupon Page for more tips, tricks and videos on saving money and using coupons.
View all the posts in the Extreme Couponing Strategies series.
