How much in gift cards?

[disny_luvr]

I know in my case, cash tends to evaporate from my wallet. I budget $100/wk for groceries and my incentive for using coupons and sales shopping is to get a Disney gift card at the store when I am under budget. It is a great way to save up for our next trip....it really adds up.

In our case though we go at least 2X a year so if we have any leftover, we just have a head start saving for our next trip

Puffkin - I love this idea! I budget $125/wk for groceries and yesterday at the grocery store, I spent $110. I should've bought a Disney gift card for our trip next year. I think I'll use this same incentive in the future. BTW, I see you are from PA. I live in Hershey. Do you shop at Giant by any chance? If so, do they ever run any special offers/promotions on their gift cards? TIA!

 

[puffkin]

Puffkin - I love this idea! I budget $125/wk for groceries and yesterday at the grocery store, I spent $110. I should've bought a Disney gift card for our trip next year. I think I'll use this same incentive in the future. BTW, I see you are from PA. I live in Hershey. Do you shop at Giant by any chance? If so, do they ever run any special offers/promotions on their gift cards? TIA!

Hi! Yes, I LOVE Giant!!! Actually we were just in Hershey Park on Saturday using my free tickets from the Giant/Hershey promo they ran the other week!

Normally the giftcard purchases don't count for their gas rewards. Every now and then they do run a promo though where they will give count. They just had that at Father's Day where you got double reward points for gas. They also usually do it around Thanksgiving. I try to get Southwest cards during those promos too! Those gas points really add up...I paid .69/gallon the other week and pumped my car and 2 gas containers worth of gas for about $15!

 

[eliza61]

Thank you SO much. I was afraid I was going to get flamed for not being fiscally responsible. It's just gift cards!

And I LOVE your idea of using the leftovers towards the next trip. Perfect! You made my day!

Actually you are fiscally responsible. You know your weak areas and you make adjustments.

I too tend to overspend if I have cash on hand but I would probably open up an on line savings account that is hard to get to. Like every one else said, if you're not sure how much you'll be spending gift cards can be a hassle (not a major one though).

I voted 450 bucks. I know you have a rough idea of how and where you plan on eating but when I'm on vacation I like to budget for "unplanned" things. LOL. for example, one year I thought I could do the "pop tart" breakfast thing also (especially since I'm not a big breakfast eater in real life) Then I actually got to disney, for some reason I need some serious fuel to get through the morning. So I ended up spending a bit more to have a filling breakfast.

50 dollars/day would be cutting it a bit close for me.