I Don’t Know When To Use Gift Cards

I hoard gift cards. Unintentionally. But my wallet can be classified as a weapon of mass destruction if I carried them all around in there.

I just never know when to use them. I don’t want to just use them for the sake of using them. I always saw them as bonus money, for special reasons. Or ‘just in case’ funds, if I needed to buy something I didn’t want to pay for properly.

But if I’m buying something, I can pay for it properly. Thus, my gift cards sit aside, full.

Right before I started university in 2014, my godmother gave me a $100 gift card to Shoppers Drugmart (sort of like a CVS, for you Americans). I figured I’d use it eventually to get some toiletries or mascara when I run out. Shoppers isn’t really a place to go for fun shopping, so I saved it for a time when I needed something. I never used it. My godmother isn’t even alive anymore, but that gift card is.

I know I’m lucky and blessed to never have been in a scenario where a gift card is the only money I have. I know I’m lucky and blessed to have never urgently needed to buy something so outside of my budget. 

I like receiving gift cards. I like knowing that I have this special money ready for me to use when I feel like it. I just need to get better at feeling like it. For better or for worse, I’m not a treat yo’ self kind of person. Thank goodness gift cards usually don’t expire.

Because my other problem is that I simply forget I have them. Since I have such a hefty collection, I can’t carry them with me always, so I forget about them. Even if I do have them on me, I still forget sometimes. And of course I always remember about half an hour after the purchase has been made. 

How do you use gift cards? Do you go out of your way to treat yourself? Do you just use them at your earliest convenience? Do you hoard save them like me?

P.S. Mini Cineplex gift card rant. Cineplex only lets you use one gift card per transaction, so I have about 7 cineplex gift cards with like 5 or less dollars on them, and I can’t simply use them all up at once and get rid of them. I don’t go to Cineplex often, so this will likely continue to be a problem in my life.

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