Does anyone ever do this?

I've done it with Starbucks here and there. I'll buy like a $20.00 gift card and use it for that month. Once it is gone, then I don't use I don't go to Starbucks for the rest of the month ... of course sometimes, once the card is gone, I'll just use my debit card and that pretty much just defeats the whole purpose to begin with.

I was thinking about doing this some time ago. My supermark has gc's for all sort stores old navy, gap, target, kmart and so on. I was going to purchase a 10.00 gc when I went food shopping include it as part of my food shopping expense and purchase one each time I went and then use them at one time to purchase something I really wanted. But with stores closing lately I am afraid I would be stuck with all gc's and not be able to use them.

That's a pretty good idea for something like starbucks.

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It's not what you make; it's what you spend.

We have started doing this for McDonalds and Subway. Those seem to be the places we out at if we eat out so we buy gift cards at Kroger and get the points for cents off gas, then we use those cards during the month. I try to only buy the gift cards for places that I know will not be going out of business anytime soon...

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McDonalds would be great for our new love of sweet tea! Their dang sweet tea is taking my business from Starbucks the stuff is sooooo good!

Don't forget to register the McDonald's cards at Upromise and earn some money that way!

My boys school has a program where you buy gift cards to certain stores and the school receives a profit from it. At the end of the year the school shares a small percent of the profit with you depending on how many gift cards you bought.

If I buy $500.00 worth of Hannaford gift cards a month, I will get $90.00 back at the end of the year.

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When I want your opinion I'll remove the duct tape.......K?

Its an interesting idea but wouldn't really work for us as we are huge fans of not going to national chain stores. Still I can see doing it for the gas savings if nothing else.

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006 &

Organizer of the Coupon Clippers of Tacoma

I have done it and it worked very well for me.

Stick to big name stores and you don't have to worry about them going out of business. Also make sure you stick with stores that have no fees and no expiration dates. Like some stores if you don't use it within a certain amount of time they start taking off a dollar a month, but that is normally a smaller store that you want to avoid anyway.

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A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.-Eleanor Roosevelt

Actually, I am going to buy some cards this week. Our supermarket is having a promotion: if you purchase $100 in gift cards, you get a catalina for $20 off your next grocery order. I am not sure which ones I am going to buy. If they don't have any that I think I will use quickly, I may just get some for Christmas presents. I got burned for $25 when Steak & Ale folded and I am still bummed about that! Unfortunately, the stores own cards aren't included in the deal.