Have the urge to spend money? Well if I can’t convince you to think otherwise, at least shop responsibly by decreasing your spending expenses. One way to get a really good deal is using gift card arbitrage strategies:

  1. Buy/Sell/Trade Gift Cards: Sites like Card Avenue, Plastic Jungle, and eBay all offer discounted gift cards. Need to buy a new DVD at Best Buy? Consider going to one of these sites and finding a $20 gift card for $16.
  2. Buy Discounted Gift Cards at the Retailer: This one is the best! Restaurants have these promotions all of the time. They usually offer a free $5 bonus with all $20 gift card purchases. Before you sit down for dinner, buy one of these gift cards for $20 and enjoy that $25 meal.
  3. Credit Card Arbitrage: This idea was originally posted at Five Cent Nickel. Grocery stores and gas stations often sell gift cards for other firms. Many rewards/cash-back credit cards give you more points/cash-back when making purchases at grocery and gas stores. By buying gift cards to the stores you wish to spend money, at the grocery store, you are essentially earning excess points/cash back. Let’s say you need a $50 drill at Home Depot. Buy that Home Depot gift card at Kroger where you get 3% cash back, and use that gift card at Home Depot (where you normally get 1% cash back). Your additional savings in this example is 2%!

Good luck shopping!

This post has been featured in the Carnival of Personal Finance.