Like the old Christmas tune says.....
But it's also the most wonderful time of the year to buy Restaurant Gift Cards!
Around the Holidays, restaurant chains(as well as some local restaurants-check out your local places too!)offer bonuses for purchasing gift cards to their locations.
They want to get in on some of the money you are spending on Holiday gifts just like all those retail merchants do.
But I buy restaurant gift cards at Christmas time for my OWN use.
But ONLY those chains that are offering bonus incentives on a purchase.
Usually it's a $5 bonus gift card when you purchase a $25 or so gift card.
Sometimes it's a free item instead for a gift card purchase or a store "reward" at a grocery store or a drugstore.
This is the time of year, with the spare cash I have sitting around-NEVER go into debt or put these kind of purchases on a credit card that you can NOT pay off in January to do this!!-I load up on restaurant gift cards to places we typically go out to eat at during the year.
My list of local places includes Lone Star, Bob Evans, Logan's, Red Robin, TGI Friday's and now and again Red Lobster.
Just 2 weeks ago I bought $100 in restaurant gift cards at Rite-Aid, as they were giving a +Up Rewards bonus($12 in free script good at Rite-Aid). So I bought gift cards to spend at restaurants I would eat at anyway in the coming year and I got $12 worth of free toiletries/HBA/food at Rite-Aid.
While out Christmas shopping together, Hubs and I went to Bob Evans for a quick and filling meal.
I saw that they were offering an incentive to buy gift cards and I bit.....
Here's the deal.....
Purchase $30 in Bob Evans gift cards(can be 1 Card for $30 or multiple cards totaling $30).
Get a Coupon Book with $20 in Bonus Savings
AND get a box of 6 Sugar Cookies
Usually I wouldn't be too thrilled with a deal like this but I checked the Coupon Book out before I plunked down the cash....
1 x BOGO Adult Entrée Q wyb an adult entree
1 x $3 off $10 Purchase Q on meals
1 x Free Kid's Entrée wyb an adult entrée
1 x Free Slice of Pie wyb an adult entrée
You can use these coupons when you eat at Bob's and then pay with your gift card. It's actually more than $20 worth of freebies/discounts. We don't have any kids for the Kid Entrée Q but this restaurant will let me use it on an adult who wants a kid's entrée. Sometimes when we go I only want a small portion so this works for us.
Plus you also get these Qs in the booklet for Bob Evans products at the grocers...
These didn't inspire me much as I don't buy frozen premade foods much(frozen mashed potatoes....really??lol).
But I might use that sausage meats one.
Just be aware that the Coupon Booklet coupons good in the restaurants expire on 2/28/14, which gives you just over 2 months to redeem them.
The coupons for the grocery store foods are good until 3/31/14.
I might have purchased more than $60 worth of gift cards if these restaurant coupons didn't expire the end of February. Jan and Feb. the weather is touch & go here so I'll have my hands full getting to Bob's enough times to use those 2 sets of Qs I got.
And how awesome is it that I have a dozen Christmas cookies now and I didn't have to bake!? lolz
Now I have to get over to Lone Star Steak House and pick up some gift cards for there before Christmas.
Do you buy gift cards in December to use throughout the following year because they offer incentives during the Christmas season?
Sluggy
I've got to do this!!! And Thank you for the Christmas card!!! I just KNEW Santa needed help with his computer... FUNNY.
ReplyDeleteI never have and probably cannot afford more than one card. Since the good store shut down and Walmart has no deals like this, I will have to see if the smaller stores or drug stores do this.
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty neat! I don't go out to eat often, but I do look out for store deals (like JCP, now that they are taking coupons again, or Acme store giftcards), etc. Though they're rarely on any significant sale, it's something I'd use.
ReplyDeleteWill you marry me?
ReplyDelete