What do you do when you have a gift card? This is always a toss up for my husband and I. If we're at a restaurant, do we order something crazy and new? Do we stick with the old standbys that we know we like? Do we do something we don't usually do, like get an appetizer or dessert? We go back and forth, but a lot of times we end up getting something new. It feels better that you're not spending your own money if it turns out to be yucky.
We recently had a gift card to Outback Steakhouse and faced this question. It turns out that they have a special menu through the month of April(so hurry if you want to try it!) because of the Bloomin' Onion's birthday. The things on the menu looked mighty tempting, but we have some old standbys that we know we enjoy. We don't get to eat at places like The Outback very often, so we wanted to be sure that we got something super yummy.
We ended up going for the special menu. I had the Sirloin, Shrimp, and Scallops which was excellent. I was especially pleased with the spinach. I love spinach but don't usually eat it by itself, but whatever they did to it at Outback made it especially delicious. My husband went for a standby, and we shared our meals. So yummy. Eating out is absolutely my most costly vice, so we love getting gift cards!
What do you do with gift cards? Go with the old standbys? Go wild and order the most expensive thing on the menu? Dessert?
3 comments:
I always have the same delima! We hardly ever try new restaurants, because if we are going to spend money on going out, I want to make sure it's a place I KNOW I like.
If we take a risk, and try someplace new, and then don't like it, it will be a long time before we get to make up for it.
With gift cards, whether they're for a book store or a restaurant, my habit is to splurge. They're a GIFT card, after all. Isn't the point of giving someone a gift to give them something they don't have/wouldn't buy for themselves? So, to me, picking something I'd normally buy negates the joy of receiving a gift card.
Last year, I went to visit a friend who doesn't drink coffee, while I love one cup every morning. He decided that to make me feel welcome, he would give me a gift card for the Starbucks that was literally across the street. The card was for a ludicrously generous amount, so I treated myself to fancy coffee drinks all week instead of a boring 'short' regular coffee. Had I done the latter, I would have had enough money to buy dozens of coffees, but it was so much fun to see the expression on my friend's face when I came in every morning with a different silly concoction.
This is a hard question. I work for a company that manages and tracks gift cards and we blog about all kinds of gift card related issues on savvywallet.com. For me personally? I'm around gift cards all the time. For some reason, I love to go ALL out. I feel like it's not real and I get to do whatever I want to do with it. It's also like free money to me, even though sometimes I buy my gift cards for myself. Don't ask me why.
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