Holiday Gifts

Other women slipped me their business cards and told me to call them if I needed anything. Other women called me and asked me how I was and if they (the management) had mistreated me. Still others called me up and invited me to bar-be-ques that would be held in my honor. I received letters and note cards and little gift certificates from women who just wanted to tell me how lovely I was and how much I had helped them while I was there. They urged me to keep in touch with them and to let them know if I was going to be in the area and we “could do lunch” and just “catch up.”

Maybe I should just learn to hold money for more than 2 days, or maybe people should just buy me Amazon gift certificates.

Saturday we got up fairly early and Chris and I both got massages. Since Chris graduated from the massage school, her massages are free. And, when she graduated, she received a stack of gift certificates good for free massages. I use those. So, mine too was free. Sweet!

As I mentioned, I like supporting Amazon, and I like earning free $25 gift certificates. When I say I charge everything, I mean everything. I charge as many bills as will let me, including power, cable, and my cell phone. Add in groceries, meals out (Chic-Fil-A, $5.22 for a #1 with no pickles is a constant on my statements), and any other imaginable chargeable expenses. I charge it all.

Armed with a pile of unused Barnes & Noble gift certificates, I’ve proceeded to further blur the line between reality and that which goes on only in my head by ordering 3 books by Philip K. Dick:

They gave everyone a gift wrap of different products the company sells… Prizes for the evening included wine, gift certificates for different stores (IKEA, Montreal Shopping Centres, etc) from 25$ to 500$, weekends getaways in Quebec hotels as well as one 2500$ gift certificate in a travel agency! I did not win that. I won the wine. And of course me… I don’t drink wine! I’ll bring it at the next dinner I attend… Probably back home this Christmas!

Or, of course you can get me gift certificates for books or music. If all else fails, socks and underware.

i know everyone hates that i always say this, but gift certificates are awesome presents in my eyes. it lets you be specific by choosing a store and lets me get exactly what i want. and there’s not much stuff i really want exactly, unless you want to buy me undies. yeah, that’s what i thought. and thus begins the list of favourite stores/places i love to get gc’s for:

To make a gift certificate a more special thing, try wrapping it up beautifully in a box or in a pretty gift bag, with lots of ribbons. This way they still get the thrill of opening a package (which is at least half the fun of a gift anyway!). I have been known to tie it on a string around an accompanying bottle of wine, or hide it in a beautiful tin of nuts with a bow around it. Whatever you do, try making a gift certificate a little more special than just an envelope next time!

I really need to start shopping, or for that matter- start planning my shopping. I have no idea on what to buy people this year, which everyone may end up with gift certificates this time around. Now, what to get for my wife… (She would not go for the gift certificate philosophy.)

So now if you use Coinstar, you can get Amazon.com gift certificates without losing any of the money you put in. Nice!

My advisor finally got around to handing out our Christmas presents the other day. And by got around I mean he can move now. He gave us gift certificates to Barnes and Noble again, which is awesome but is also really evil for people who are just encouraged to spend way more than the gift certificate, such as myself. I managed to keep the total to about $45 with a $20 gift certificate which is quite impressive for me. I think part of the reason for that is that I didn’t actually purchase any books. I went in knowing that my reading list is enormous and that I wasn’t going to purchase any paperbacks that I could get any time, just hardcovers. Probably a hardcover of a new release. So, since I had a hard time deciding what to get without having read a review of some of the books and knowing that any history/nonfiction would lengthen my reading list more than a fiction book I decided on a CD and DVD.

Even during the most stressful weekend of the semester, there's got to be time for a break. Thanks to some love from home, my roommate and I will share a pizza this weekend. The 'rents sent pizza gift certificates inside a card. That's a smart care package! Kudos to the 'rents.

I imagined myself surrounded by 50 women going on and on about how nice our towel sets we just received were and stuff, but it really wasn’t bad. We had some good food, then snacked on some fruit and pretzels dipped in a chocolate fountain. I refrained from just cupping my hands and drinking chocolate out of them, so kudo’s to me. Jen and I got a lot of nice stuff. Tons of gifts, enough to fill two Chevy Blazers really, and some Target gift cards, some green $tuff, and some gift certificates from our travel agent for our honeymoon. That’ll help alot, thats NOT cheap.

I love my iPod and I love iTunes but I can't stand the Canadian iTunes music store. The selection and special features are brutal. I am extremely happy that I have a sister who lives in the U.S. and sends me gift certificates for a store that actually has some product.

Thanks EMI for this nice protection, who made me lose 30 minutes. Not being a geek, and using some basical software, I can imagine that your protection only bothering regulare person without advanced knowledge in informatic: like grand parents trying to listen to their christmas gift on their nice computer (the one to play card during winter).

All entries received are also entered in a drawing for $100 gift certificates to buy books at the WVU Bookstore. Three gift certificates will be awarded in May.

Surf4theEarth is running a shopping contest through the end of April. The member who spends the most at Surf4theEarth’s shopping center, bookstore, and/or site merchandise will win the contest. The top prize is a whole year of upgraded membership to Ranger account ($60 value). You can earn site credits on most purchases and these credits can be used for advertising, given to charities, or saved to cashout for paypal or gift certificates. Check out the link on the member’s page for more details.

Some credit card companies will take things one step further and even pay you to take their cards. These payments will take the form of gift certificates, bonus cash back, and/or bonus credits. There is one minor catch in that most companies will generally require that you use the cards at least once each to get those benefits. That's never a problem for me as I will use them once to get the benefits and then toss them into my "inactive" drawer.

Here’s your friendly reminder for the day - the Ratboy will be turning 17 this month. Advice in the gift arena devolves down to gift certificates at the local game shop, since he got an X-Box for Xmas last year, and wants to expand his game collection. For those wishing to give him something actually useful, he is (of course) wearing through his wardrobe again.

Don't know what to give your teenager for a birthday? How about "the ultimate driving experience"? That's right, your teenager can attend the BMW driving school at the Performance Center in Spartanburg, SC.

The employees at Casey's General Store & Pizza in Postville truly demonstrated the joy of giving during the holiday season as they decided rather than buy gifts for one another they would remember area young people who are serving our country in the Iraq.

Manager Katie Kerr-Scheffert said, "We felt we wanted to help the service people who could not celebrate the holidays at home with loved ones. We thought sending them phone cards would brighten up their holidays a little."

It has arrived. I’m referring to the Apple Store gift card that was arranged rather quickly days before Russ’ birthday. Looking back at it, I’m pretty amazed that a group of friends scattered throughout the world with a common love of mobile technology brought together by a guy named Russ was able to pull it off.

Sometimes it's really hard to know what children want for a birthday gift or holiday gift, even if you are a responsible adult who has good conversations with kids. Prepaid credit cards are a good way to avoid buying the wrong gift and give kids a way to learn to use credit cards responsibly. Here's one example.

Hello Kitty will turn more plastic than ever by staring on a MasterCard debit card.

"We think our target age group will be from 10 to 14, although it could certainly go younger," said Bruce Giuliano from Sanrio.

Since only parents (or at least anyone older than 18) can sign up for the card, Hello Kitty thinks it's a great way for adults to "help teach their children how to manage their finances." Next up, is a ...

A great holiday gift idea when you want to shop online and want to give someone a special treat.

Restaurant.com is a website that offers $25 restaurant gift certificates for $10. You type in a zip code and it shows all of the available restaurants within a certain number of miles and then you choose which ones you would like to purchase a gift card for. Then you just print the gift certificate right on your home computer - no waiting for the gift card to arrive in 4-6 weeks! Each restaurant can place restrictions on the use ...