I just read a crazy statistic. According to USA Today, almost half of all people in the US have at least one unused gift card laying around. The total worth is more than $20 billion!
Now, I really love giving gifts. Holidays, birthdays, whatever, it’s great to see the people you love open their presents, especially if you’ve put a little thought into understanding what they really like and finding something that lines up with their needs or interests. And while finding that great gift is great, there’s also nothing wrong with that great go-to: gift cards. I think my family has gotten my dad a Home Depot gift card for his birthday for the last three or four years. If you know my dad and how handy he is, you know nothing makes him happier than a trip to Home Depot!
Here’s the thing: I know he’s going to use that card immediately. The rest of us might not be so eager to spend that plastic cash. In fact, as that opening statistic proves, we’ll even forget we have it laying around! Just this past Christmas, while I was shopping online for gifts, I found a $100 Banana Republic card just waiting to be used. I can’t even remember when I got it, but I had no problem scoring a fabulous pair of gold sequin pants to wear on Christmas Day. They were on sale for ninety bucks. Score indeed!
Normally I would have never splurged and bought those for myself, but with a found gift card? Heck yes! As you can probably guess, this year for Christmas and my birthday, I received a few more gift cards. So, instead of saving them and forgetting about them, I went shopping right away and took advantage of the big sales, getting some comfy slippers and three sets of super-cute PJs from Victoria’s Secret.
Getting these gifts a few days after the holidays just extended the holiday magic, and it was great knowing I had shopped without trashing the budget. There’s a really good chance that you have an opportunity to treat yourself to an unexpected gift in the exact same way! You know I’m the last person to say that just buying stuff will make you happy, but in this case, you’re not impulsively burning through the household budget. You’re just cashing in on money that was already spent expressly for you in the first place!
So, here’s the mission: This weekend, find fifteen or twenty minutes to search through your purse or wallet, dig around that desk drawer or that random basket of stuff in the kitchen we all have, and see what gift cards you have laying around. See what you find, and then it’s time to shop! That’s exactly what they’re for! If you’re feeling generous, you can certainly pass a card on to someone less fortunate, or buy a surprise gift for your favorite person -- either way, you’ve brought a little extra cheer into the picture for everyone, especially yourself. Nice!