Earn free gift cards to help stretch your Christmas budget and reduce your stress. It doesn’t take much time or work but can make a big impact.
Christmas stress is often related to money, rather not having enough money. It can be an expensive time. We do need to remember the gifts and the stuff isn’t the important part but I know we still want to do some of these things.
Having a budget is a good start. I like to keep track of mine in my Christmas planner. It helps me make sure I really follow it and helps me be prepared.
Another thing that helps is saving money throughout the year. Around the summer I start saving my change and wait to cash it in until I’m starting Christmas shopping. It’s like surprise money.
The other thing I find useful is earning free gift cards throughout the year. There are many ways to do this and it can really help take some stress off of your budget.
How to Earn Free Gift Cards
- Use Fetch Rewards when grocery shopping. Fetch Rewards is a cashback app that you use to earn money back on your grocery receipts. It works for any stores, unlike many grocery cash back apps, and it’s super easy to use. You even earn points when there are no qualifying items on your receipt. Simply scan your receipts after grocery shopping and earn points on different grocery items. If you want to maximize your earnings check the app before shopping to see if you can fit some of the items into your meal plan. Enter my referral code, TN8EW, during signup and you’ll get 2,000 Fetch Points ($2.00 in points!) when you complete one receipt.
- Fill out surveys with Swagbucks. This isn’t an option I use because I found it too time-consuming. However, I’ve heard stories of people making a lot of money using it so it’s worth a shot. Some people really love it. Sign up here and get a $5 bonus.
- Use a reward credit card. Many credit cards will give you gift cards as rewards for using the card. You want to be careful with this and always pay off your credit card each month. And don’t spend money you don’t have or wouldn’t spend anyway. If you use the credit cards responsibly they can save you a lot of money. One credit card that works well for us and earns use free gift cards is our Amazon Prime card. We shop on Amazon a lot and it gives us great rewards when we do. It’s also great if you shop at Whole Foods. You earn 5% back at both places.
- Use Rakuten when shopping online. And last but not least is Rakuten. This is one of my favorites because it’s so easy to use. All you have to do is sign up and you will get $10 just for signing up and making a purchase using the service. They have a toolbar you add and it will then automatically tell you when you are shopping on a site that is eligible for cashback. I’ve used it for years and earned quite a bit buying things I was already buying.
Using these tips all year and then saving the points to earn your free gift cards to use at the holidays is a great and easy way to stretch your budget. I know some people that do this and pay for all of Christmas with the gift cards they earn.
More Frugal Christmas Resources
Stephanie
Receipt Hog is another app like Fetch Rewards. The points build up slowly, but hey, every bit counts, right? 🙂 I also use Ibotta and Checkout 51, but I almost never buy name brands, so I don’t have too much in those accounts.
Lisa Sharp
I will look into it! Thanks!
Becky @ Disney in your Day
I use all of these except Fetch, so I need to look into that! It’s nice that you can use it at any grocery store.
Lisa Sharp
You will have to check it out. I love it!
Crystal // Dreams, etc.
I love Ebates! I need to remember to use it more often, but it’s the best.
Lisa Sharp
Be sure to download the toolbar, it helps me remember to use it.