1. Swagbucks- I knew I was saving them for a reason! One of the prizes (for 45 SwagBucks) is a $5 Amazon gift card. Getting 45 bucks takes me about a month of my searching (about two searches a day). I get more through my sign ups, and you can too! If you're not on Swagbucks, you're missing out!
2. Serendipitous Kohl's giftcard/coupon: We recently made a major purchase at Kohl's during their "Spend $50, get $10 in Kohl's Cash" promotion. (Now expired.) We had $50 in Kohl's cash to spend. I combined that with sales and a 15% off coupon I had, and managed to get gifts for three people with very little out of pocket. Awesome!
3. Yard Sale/Thrift store finds: I shop all year, and have a few gifts already from yard sales and thrift stores. You can find a lot of new in box things if you keep an eye out.
4. Paperback/DVD/CD Swap: I come from a family of readers. Paperback Swap is providing several of our gifts this year for free! Go here for more info. You can also use your Paperback swap credits for DVD Swap and CD Swap if that's more your thing! If you have no credits, you can buy them for a small fee. Depending on the item you're getting, it may be significantly less than buying new.
5. Ebates: I do most of my shopping online. Why have I just discovered Ebates? You get a percentage of your purchase back (ranging from 1-21%) in cash! I've ordered a few magazine subscriptions through them for gifts, and bought a few other planned items. It's not much, but even a little bit is something! Have you signed up with Ebates yet?
6.. Suspending "our" big gifts, celebrating another time. My husband and I are not big on gifts anyway, so we agreed to limit our gift giving to $5 a person. I've gotten him several things through Paperback Swap and a few small things. I've postponed the big item I'd like to get him. (Which I'm not naming just in case he's reading this! Hi honey!) Christmas is more than just gifts, and we can postpone that for now.
6 comments:
Ebates was awesome last year! We ended up getting back 75 bucks from them after the holidays because I did all my shopping online. They increased the percentage around the holidays to make it an even better deal!
We don't give each other christmas gifts. We do this thing called 7 days of Christmas, where we give each other silly little stocking stuffers for the 7 days up until the big day. We started doing it when we were engaged and broke and it's now the best part of our holiday.
That is a REALLY cute idea Amiyrah! I think we may have to do that next year. :)
How is your guinea pig post-surgery? I hope all went well and she's recovering nicely!
Anne Marie, she is much better. Even with the staple stitches, she looks amazingly better and is much more active.
The part she was chewing on was actually a tumor, and she had cysts on her ovaries and a mass in her uterus. As long as it's not cancer, (cross your fingers!) she will be fine. We get the lab results in the next week or so. If it is cancer, we may have to put her down. :(
I'll be praying it's all benign, then. I know that would be heartbreaking to have to put her down. But I completely understand.
If you have a Upromise account, I
discovered last month that you can request a check for the balance. Upromise is intended for college savings, but I didn't see any conditions on the withdrawal form. I have not tried an actual withdrawal yet.
If you don't have an account, it's probably not worth signing up. Mine's hovering around $10, primarily from the 2% incentive at Bed, Bath, and Beyond for all the wedding presents over the last few years. On the other hand, if you buy a lot from, say, Drugstore.com (5%) it may be worthwhile.
Just thought I'd toss it out there. Hope your guinea pig is doing better now!
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