Different Way to Save - Discounted Gifts Cards

Do you know about buying discounted gift cards?  When someone recieves a gift card or store credit and don't plan on using it, they might sell it to make a few dollars off of it instead.  As a buyer, YOU benefit by saving a little extra on your purchases. 

As an example, for a $50 gift card you might pay $45. It's not a huge savings, but it's worth it if you know you will be going to a particular restaurant or store anyway, and is especially great if paired with a coupon. I'll put it this way - I ended up with a 30% off coupon for Old Navy recently (the "Give and Get" promotion good through March 24th) - I like to shop the clearance there. So, I went to plasticjungle.com and ordered a $25 gift card for $22, free shipping. I like to think of it as an extra $3 off coupon. That, on top of clearance prices and my 30% off coupon...I got some decent deals on clothes for the kids for next season!

I also planned a mini-weekend-away and was able to get a gift card for the hotel I will be staying at and am now looking into restaurants that might be in the area or other activities (movie theatre, bowling alley) to make the vacation a little more financially worry-free.

Beware - if you are buying a gift card on this website to give as a gift to someone else, the website may not be able to tell you what the "theme" of the card is, so keep that in mind. 

Oh - as a side note, plasticjungle.com also has a notification service, so you enter the cards you're looking for (restaurants and stores you frequent, perhaps) and they will send you a daily email letting you know if they have cards available for that establishment.

Happy discounting!


*Although I am not particularly promting plasticjungle.com, I have used them and found them to be reputable.  Also, some other "discounted gift card websites" I stumbled upon lead you directly to plasticjungle.com, so why not go directly to the source?

Extreme Couponing

A couple of "extreme" shopping trips over the last month or so has got me thinking about blogging again...

On March 1st at Rite Aid I got:

7 bottles of Johnson & Johnson baby bath wash (15 oz bottles)

2 bottles of Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo (15 oz bottles)

1 bottle of Johnson & Johnson baby lotion (15 oz bottle)

4 tubes of Desitin (4 oz each)

2 Dove deorderants

4 Nivea lip balm

...and I paid $0.37 out of pocket!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THEN, on March 11th I went to Walgreens and CVS and I got:


2 (42 ct) Cottonelle flushable wipes

1 (84 ct) Cottonelle flushable wipes

1 Old Spice deoderant

1 Old Spice Body Wash

2 SoftSoap Body Wash

1 Excedrin PM (20 ct)

1 Excedrin Migraine (50 ct)

2 Excedrin Exrea Strength (20 ct each)

4 Dove +Men Deoderant

I paid $10.46 out of pocket (amazing deal - that averages out to less than $0.75 per item) and went home with $17 worth of store credit ($7 Walgreens Register Rewards and $10 CVS Extra Care Bucks) to use on anything in the store on my next shopping trip! They basically PAID ME to buy this stuff!

I hope to be posting things here and there, although I cannot commit myself 100% just yet, being so busy with the kids...but if you follow my blog, you will get insight to some great deals!

Happy couponing!