Loudoun County Limbo

Loudoun County Limbo
How Low Can You Go?

Monday, December 16, 2013

My Money Making Gift Card Extravaganza!


I took advantage of 3 different gift card deals today to maximize my gas and grocery savings:

First, I went to Food Lion and got the $100 Visa card that I posted about HERE

I then bought another Visa gift card and a few groceries:
- a 3 lb bag of apples at $2.49 or only 83 cents per pound
- a box of Pop-Tarts on sale for $2.00 that my daughter needed for a Christmas gift (and used a $1.00 coupon from Kellogg's Family Rewards)
- a package of marked down steaks for $5.44 with a kiosk coupon for $1.00 off a $5.00 beef purchase.

I tried to use the $15.00 catalina from my first purchase, but the cashier would not accept it towards the gift card purchase. I did, however, use the first Visa towards my purchase, so my out of pocket cost was $13.88 and I left the store with 2 catalinas worth $15.00 worth of groceries each. Those will go towards my Christmas dinner!

Next, I went to Rite Aid to get the Kohl's gift card for $25.00 and use the $3.00 Facebook coupon that I posted about HERE. I paid for that with my 2nd Visa gift card, leaving a balance on it of $78.00. The Kohl's gift card will go to my son as a Christmas gift, since he wants pants.

Finally, I went to Giant, where I got a $50 Shell gas gift card and a bag of Purina One dog food, because we were low. The 4 lb bag cost $8.68 and I used the coupon for $5.15 that you can print HERE to pay $2.53. I paid for my total of $52.53 with the Visa gift card from Food Lion, and used the 300 Bonus Point coupon to earn 30 cents off my gas. 

My total outlay:  $105.95 + $13.88+ $2.53 + Tax= $125

My total take:
- $50.00 Shell gas gift card
- $2.00 box of Pop-Tarts
- $2.49 bag of apples
- $5.44 worth of steak
- $30.00 in Food Lion catalinas
- $25.00 Kohl's gift card
- $25.00 left on Visa gift card
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$139.93 in merchandise and gift cards, plus I earned $6.00 off a tank of gas at Shell - a $20.00 money making trip! 

7 comments:

  1. You are my hero!!! :-) Great Job!!!

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  2. I need to learn the gift card game because I never feel like I come out ahead with them but I just need to follow the way you do it!!! How great and taking care of Christmas gifts at the same time :) Big bonus.

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    1. The trick is to roll the gift cards to buy more gift cards - then you only have your initial outlay. Then, don't squander the gift cards you end up with, but use them to cover gas, groceries, or other purchases that normally would come out of your checking account. You should end up with more money I the bank, in the end.....

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  3. I noticed on the back of the coupon on my giant add that gift cards do not count towards the $50 purchase? Mine says offer excludes alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, gift and phone cards, milk, lottery tickets, gasoline, pharmacy items, postage stamps, western union or money orders? Is yours different?

    Lisa

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    1. Lisa, mine says the same thing, however the register doesn't know about it, because any gift card except for a Giant gc will trigger the bonus points catalina. However, my store does not have the new updated software that is coming to all Giants and Stop & Shops. If your does, then it probably won't work.

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    2. thank you, it's worth a shot to buy a gift card i will use anyway.. thanks again, great blog.

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    3. My Giant has the new system so the coupon would not take - I did not read the fine print. However, with that being said I politely asked the cashier to cancel my order so I regroup & take advantage of the 300 bonus points. She was very nice and said don't worry. After my transaction she manually loaded 300 points on my card. Giant customer service was very nice. Two thumbs up

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