by Texas Homesteader ~
Maybe you’ve received a gift card recently and are anxious to put it to good use. But how often do you use the entire value of a gift card the very first time you use it? Not often, right?
RancherMan’s discovered an easy way to keep track of the balances for gift cards. Check out today’s Homestead Hack.
Gift Cards Make A Great All-Purpose Gift
Gift Cards, we all love ’em! RancherMan & I receive gift cards as gifts sometimes. Many of our family & friends say since we don’t like lots of ‘stuff’, a restaurant gift card is a good option. We agree!
Maybe after the holidays or graduation you have a stack of gift cards too. But as you thumb through your gift cards it’s hard to tell how much you still have available to you.
But no more!
Gift Cards Allow Indulgences
Going to a restaurant for a meal is a treat for us since we don’t get to do it often. Our credit card rewards allows us to cash it in on value-added gift cards. So we DO!
It’s an easy way we can treat ourselves without anything coming out of our pocket.
Keeping Gift Cards Together
We have a small collection of gift cards. Some are for restaurants, some are for home improvement stores, etc.
We keep them all in a small leather pouch in our glove box. That way when we’re out & about we can stop for a quick meal without it coming out of our budget. We just pay for the meal with our gift card.
Or sometimes when we’re out running errands we’ll stop at a home improvement store to pick up a part for one of the repairs RancherMan’s always doing around the Homestead. More times than not, those purchases are also paid with a gift card.
MasterCard Gift Card A Flexible Option
Recently we received a MasterCard gift card. This card could be used anywhere MasterCard is accepted.
But we didn’t use it all at one time. Once we pulled it out at a home improvement store to purchase a plumbing part to fix our sink.
Another time we used it at a plant nursery for a garden item, etc.
Since we were using it for several small purchases RancherMan came up with this easy way to keep tabs on the balance of this card. He uses the same method for all the other gift cards in our glove box as well.
Keeping Track Of Gift Card Balances
When we use the gift card he’ll bring it back into the house when we get home along with our purchases.
If the receipt doesn’t indicate the balance on the card he simply logs on to the website shown on the back of the card to check the balance.
That will tell him how much value still remains to be used on the card. And we want to use every penny owed to us, y’all!
Marking Gift Card Value On The Card
So RancherMan uses some white-out tape to place a writing surface somewhere on the card. Then he writes the remaining value on that white surface so it’s easy to see.
When we use this card again he’ll repeat the process, covering the previous balance with more white-out tape. Then he’ll write the current balance on that clean white strip.
So no more guessing if there’s anything left on this card. This is a super-easy way we can stay on top of those values and make sure they all get used!
~TxH~
This post categorized in 
Tagged in 
Other Frugal Tips
- When Financial Times Turn Tough Unexpectedly
- Build Financial Security With Less Effort
- A Financial Hit On The Homestead
- Simplify Your Estate – Document These Numbers NOW!
- Thriving Financially Without A Corporate Paycheck
- Make Your Slow Cooker More Efficient
- Is Food Past The Expiration Date Safe To Eat?
- Make A Cute Gift Box With A Repurposed Greeting Card
- Repurposing Empty Coffee Canisters
- Make A Cute Dish Carrier From Old Jeans
- Paper Napkins In A Paperless Kitchen
- Easiest Self-Sufficiency Steps To Take NOW
…and many MORE!
See ALL Our Frugality Articles
C’mon by & sit a spell! Come hang out at our Facebook Page. It’s like sitting in a front porch rocker with a glass of cold iced tea. Lots of good folks sharing! You can also follow along on Pinterest, Twitter or Instagram.
If you’d like to receive an email each time a new blog post goes live it’s EASY to
subscribe to our blog
Clever man you have there Tammy.
Thing to remember about giving or receiving gift cards: When fees are legally assessed, gift cards ( some, not all ) lose their value like water going down a slow drain. Monthly service fees, inactivity fees, dormancy fees and so on may be charged against the card balance until the entire value is depleted. A gift card that starts out with a balance of 50 dollars, for example, may be charged a non-use fee of anywhere from two to five dollars per month. At two dollars per month, the 50 dollar initial balance will be reduced to 26 dollars by the end of the first year. At five dollars per month, the balance will be gone before the first year is up. Getting full value is just one of many reasons to remember to use your gift cards as soon as possible.
You’re so right Colleen, it’s important when giving or receiving cards to be mindful of the card details. Any of the gift cards we give never expire nor are charged fees. The card we received for price-matching expires in 1 year. This information will typically be printed on your gift card, either boldly on front or in the small print on back. Check those cards and make sure to use ’em all! ~TxH~