gift cards

Giveaway: Two $25 gift cards.

by

I’ve been trying to focus on Alaska goods for my giveaways lately, in order to support the local economy. My idea is that some of the folks who don’t win might decide to check out these the Last Frontier economy* on their own. I even had an Alaska item picked out to give away – but then I realized it might not get to its recipient before Christmas. That’s why I’m doing something non-local today: gift cards.

Which gift cards? Whichever the winners want, provided I can obtain them electronically. 

Drugstore? Discount emporium? Office-supply place? Home improvement center? Supermarket? Bookstore? Massive online retailer? It’s your call, if you win. 

Two winners get to use these card to finish up their holiday shopping. They could opt to give the cards themselves as gifts. Or donate them. Or, maybe, use the cards for something they themselves need.

Again: Your call. Provided you win, of course.

Read more

Win a $100 Old Navy gift card.

by

Enter for a chance to win a $100 e-gift card to spend at Old Navy!

Savings.com is at it again. This time, the coupon/deals website is giving away five $100 e-gift cards to Old Navy. 

Although this is being billed as the #OldNavyFallLooks giveaway, I’m thinking “holiday shopping.” You could do quite a bit of damage with $100 at Old Navy, especially if you check the clearance racks and/or wait until Black Friday.

Then again, Old Navy is known for fun clothing and accessories that are affordable even when they aren’t on sale. 

Read more

$1,500 in gift cards up for grabs from Savings.com.

by

Once again Savings.com is putting some gift cards up for grabs, and once again I’m hoping one (or more!) of my readers will win. This is a pair of quick-turnaround giveaways, so please take 60 or so seconds to enter them right now.

Here’s what you have a chance to win:

Four $250 e-gift cards to Home Depot are the prizes in the #WinterPrepWithHomeDepot giveaway. Follow the link and enter before 11:59 p.m. PDT Thursday, Sept. 16.

What would you do with $250 worth of buying power? Home improvement projects, holiday decor, yard care items, e-security stuff like a doorbell camera? Note: Home Depot also sells furniture, linens, cookware, dishes and other home items.

Your second shot at free scrip is with the #SaveAtSamsClub giveaway, which will award $100 gift cards to five lucky winners. Again, enter through that link by 11:59 p.m. PDT Thursday, Sept. 16.

The possibilities at Sam’s Club are pretty wide-open: food, toiletries, pet care, furniture, clothing, towels, sheets, shoes, books, vitamins…If you’ve never been in a warehouse store, you’ll likely wind up a bit dizzy. And if there’s no Sam’s Club near you, just order online.

Read more

Lowe’s, PaperMart gift card giveaways from Savings.com.

by

Savings.com has two quick-turnaround giveaways going on right now. Why not throw your virtual hat into the ring?

The big-ticket drawing is two $250 e-gift cards at Lowe’s. The #GetOutsideWithLowes giveaway could be fun to spend at the end-of-season clearance sales, or as a head start on  outdoor displays for Halloween and/or Christmas. Since Lowe’s sells a lot of furniture and housewares, you could also use the gift card on a housewarming gift, or to feather your own nest.

The second drawing is smaller, but intriguing: Savings.com is giving away 10 $20 e-gift cards to PaperMart, a store that specializes in packaging. Winning the #SaveAtPaperMart giveaway would give you the chance to buy everything from ribbons and bows to shipping boxes. This could be the year when you put some super frou-frou wrappings under the tree.

How to enter these drawings? So glad you asked.

Read more

Enter the Savings.com $8k giveaway.

by

The Savings.com coupon website is giving away $8,000 worth of gift cards over the next four weeks. Nope, that’s not an extra “0” added by mistake. It’s Eight. Thousand. Dollars.

Although this #BTSSAVINGS promotion is technically for back-to-school shopping, there’s no rule against entering even if you don’t have kids at home – or have kids at all. Three of the four e-gift card types are pretty egalitarian in terms of who could use them.

Each week through Aug. 23, Savings.com will give away eight $250 e-gift cards from the following brands:

JC Penney  – where you can get clothing, housewares and more along with school clothes

HP – for school tech, or personal tech

Old Navy – which isn’t necessarily just for the kiddies, by the way; that’s where I found the light cotton, deep-pocketed summer slacks I needed for visiting my daughter in Phoenix

The Children’s Place – okay, this one is definitely just for the kiddies, but even if you don’t have children you could buy stuff to donate to a family shelter

Click on one (or all!) of the above links to enter. (Full disclosure: I receive a teeny-tiny finder’s fee for entries using these links.) If you’re unable to use one or more of the gift card types, just skip that particular merchant’s link. In other words, you won’t receive a card you don’t want. 

Read more

Giveaway: Starbucks gift card and reusable straws.

by

It’s brutally hot in the Lower 48 right now and I so wish that I could send some of the Alaska coolth down to guys. Unfortunately, I can’t do that. But I can offer up a brief respite, courtesy of a Starbucks gift card and some reusable straws.

Whoever wins this can purchase $15 worth of their favorite cold beverages: stuff like Blended Strawberry Lemonade, Pink Drink, Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew, Iced Chocolate Almond Milk Shaken Espresso, Iced Peach Green Tea Lemonade, Iced Guava Passionfruit or even a Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino.

That last one sounds more like a dessert than a drink, which is where those reusable straws come in. They’re not just reusable straws – they’re reusable spoon straws. You can scoop up the thick cold drinks or the bits of fruit/cookie crumbles that might otherwise get stuck in the straw.

My niece recently became a Pampered Chef consultant and I attended a virtual party out of a sense of auntly duty. But I have to say that some of that stuff looks pretty awesome, and I wound up buying one item as a Christmas gift and one item for me* along with the spoon straws. #SupportingTheFamilyEconomy

It’s a set of four (see illustration), so you and up to three family members/friends can all feel eco-friendly together. The little cleaning brush helps you sluice out those cookie bits, and the carrying bag (not pictured) keeps it all together.

The Starbucks gift card is a good match, I think. While I’m not a coffee drinker, I have to say that Starbucks has at times saved me from melting down during summer travels/conferences. Usually I ask the barista, “What cold drink would you recommend to your mom if she were very overheated and not a fan of coffee, or even mocha?” And they always surprise me with something that I might never have chosen on my own. 

Read more

Giveaway: “Homeschool Hacks” and a $25 Amazon gift card.

by

This was the year for homeschooling, all right – whether parents liked it or not. My friend Linsey Knerl had her book, “Homeschool Hacks,” in the works before COVID started, however.

And I’m willing to bet that Zoom classrooms and homework evenings would have been sooooo much easier had parents across the country gotten their hands on “Homeschool Hacks: How to Give Your Kid a Great Education Without Losing Your Job (or Your Mind).” [As an Amazon affiliate, I may receive a small fee for items bought through my link.]

But don’t take my word for it. Listen instead to Lela Davidson, author of “Faking Balance: Adventures in Work and Life,” “Who Peed on My Yoga Mat?” and “Blacklisted From the PTA”:

“For anyone serious or merely curious about homeschooling, this is the perfect first read.”

Who am I to argue with someone who wrote a book called “Who Peed on My Yoga Mat?”

More to the point, I would never second-guess Knerl’s expertise: She has six kids and has homeschooled them all. Knerl learned what she knows by being a successful homeschool parent (along with her husband), which she does in addition to having a career as a freelance writer.

This is a two-part giveaway: I’ll be sending “Homeschool Hacks” to some lucky winner along with a $25 Amazon gift card. The scrip can be used to buy a few things for your own homeschool classroom. (Or for anything you like, really.)

Read more

Two big gift-card giveaways.

by

Savings.com (the parent company of Sivan Social) has two big gift-card giveaways running at the same time. Starting today, you can sign up to win one of five $100 e-gift cards to J. Crew Factory and/or one of five $100 e-gift cards to HSN.

Both would be great for summer fun: bathing suits, barbecue grills, shorts and rompers, garden supplies, pool toys, fire pits and lots more.

But they could also come in handy later on. I’m thinking birthday presents, holiday giving, charitable donations or maybe even filling blank spots in your own wardrobe/kitchen/garden/rec room/whatever. 

You get to decide. If you win, that is. And you can’t win if you don’t enter.

 

Read more

Monday miscellany: Car insurance costs edition.

by

 

Bankrate.com recently took a deep dive into car insurance costs, and found that the average annual U.S. premium is $1,674.

Put another way: That represents 2.44 percent of the average driver’s income.

Bankrate also reinforced that how much you pay depends on where you live. For example, folks in Tampa pay about $450 more each year than drivers in Orlando. Yikes.

“The true cost of auto insurance in 2021” includes an interactive map that shows you average rates in your state and also its major metropolitan areas. It also spells out the ways that common life events – such as a drop in your credit score or being in an accident – can affect your premium.

The one that really got my attention is the “change in credit score” factor. In all but three states (California, Hawaii, Massachusetts) your credit score can help determine your car insurance rate. The difference can be scary-high. 

 

Read more

Giveaway: $25 gift card.

by

I had the second COVID-19 shot on April Fool’s Day, two days after my most recent post. Felt okay for a while, meh by the end of the day, and uncomfortable enough to spend  the next two days mostly lying down, either napping or reading.

Was better on Sunday, took care of business Monday through Wednesday (even started writing a post), and on Thursday felt myself sliding back into mehville: fatigue, slightly sore throat, mild headache. Got one of those nice arm rashes, too. 

Now, one day later, I’m feeling a bit better. Well enough to put up a post, anyway. But when I sat down to finish the post I started writing on Wednesday, the crummy feeling returned. This could be my body telling me to stop staring at the screen for a while. Or it could be just plain old work avoidance.

Thus I decided on a giveaway, even though I’d done one fairly recently. Completely playing the COVID card: I just don’t feel like writing. Besides, most people are pretty cheerful about the chance to win some retail scrip.

What kind? That’s up to the winner. Any retailer that will let me send an e-gift card is fair game.

 

Read more