It’s the holiday season, which means most people are probably out there spending money to buy gifts for their friends and loved ones, and maybe the not-so-loved-ones-but-it-might-be-awkward-if-you-didn’t-get-them-anything people in your life. (C’mon, admit it, you have one or two people like that on your gift list… it’s your boss, isn’t it?). 
Most of the time, gift giving means spending money, and if you aren’t careful, you can quickly go overboard. That’s where the American Express holiday giveaway promotion comes into play. American Express wants to let people know about the American Express Charge Card, which comes with the Membership Rewards program.
If you aren’t familiar with charge cards, they are similar to credit cards and feature all the same benefits, but they must be paid in full each month, whereas you can carry a balance with a credit card. Charge cards offer more flexibility than debit cards and don’t take money directly from your account, so you don’t have to worry about an overdraft penalty if payday is just a couple days away. Since you pay your bill in full each month, you don’t have to worry about interest eating you alive.
The Membership Rewards program features a points rewards system which you can use to turn around and buy gifts, including some of this season’s hottest items, such as an HP mini, cool video games or a Flip video camera.
Win one of 10 Flip video cameras
American Express was kind enough to offer 10 Flip Mino Video Cameras to lucky readers to promote their new charge card. How do you win one of these cameras? It’s easy – simply answer the following question:
“What is the savviest way you have made your money work harder for you this holiday season?”
I will select the 10 savviest money tips. To enter, leave a comment, or write an article on your blog if you have one, then drop a link to your article in the comments section so others can read about it. The goal is to share ideas to help others become more money savvy – and the best 10 tips will win a Flip video camera!
Entry rules:
- No purchase necessary; void where prohibited
- One entry per person; US residents only
- All prizes are provided by American Express, and shipped directly to winners.
- Contest ends Saturday, December 19, 2009.
My tip to make my money work harder this holiday season:
My wife and I had our first child this summer and we opened a CollegeAdvantage 529 Plan for our daughter so we could start saving for her college. The best part was that we got almost $200 in Bonuses for opening Ohio 529 Accounts. Anyone can take advantage of this offer, but it expires on December 18th, so you’d better hurry!
What is your savvy money tip?
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We booked plane tickets for longer duration so they were much cheaper (still not cheap though), and are working remotely for a few days!
My tip: Instead of Christmas gifts to teachers, coaches, etc. our family gives Thanksgiving gifts. It takes a bit of preplanning, but it’s a great was to save money, reduce stress at Christmas and stand out from the crowd. While Christmas shopping, there’s usually Thanksgiving-themed merchandise (kitchen towels, hand towels, throw blankets, tablecloths and runners, picture frames, other Thanksgiving decorations) at substantial discounts – sometimes 90%. I will tuck these away to use next year. My son, husband and I sign a Thanksgiving card, being sure to include a reason why we are thankful for this person. The Thanksgiving gift stands out because no one else does this, and the gift is actually used, since not many people buy specific Thanksgiving decorations. The comments we have received over the years have been overwhelmingly positive. Thanks for asking for ideas!
For thankgiving, my wife and i flew into a smaller regional airport. Saving us 50%, $250 off per ticket.
And for my mom to visit, shes flying into one airport, and out of another. Not only was it cheaper but more convenient. Also i had enough rewards on a CC to pay for the ticket.
I was able to save quite a lot this Christmas by planning ahead and using the internet. I made my shopping list and then watched for and searched for sales, free offers, discounts, and coupons. I was able to get great deals on all the gifts I wanted and free shipping on most it! There have been lots of printable coupons, too, that I was able to use at local stores for things like toys, clothing, and toiletries. I subscribe to many blogs that post these deals and also to newsletters of the shopping sites. It really takes only a few minutes a day to skim through what’s available and it’s been well worth the time! An added bonus…I did a lot of my Christmas shopping in my pajamas with a cup of hot cocoa at hand!
I found an out-of-print album available as a legal, DRM-free, digital download from Lala.com for the wife. Getting the physical album would have cost me more than $35 on Ebay. The download was under $8. My wife would just put the music on her MP3 player, so it’s one fewer step for her too…
I started shopping in August. Made a list & several gift ‘ideas’ & then started shopping a rummage & bazaar sales.
When I shop online I’m shopping thru shopathome & ebates to at least get some money back & I try to always get free shipping
FIRST I RE-USE STUFF FROM PREVIOUS HOLIDAYS. LIKE BOWS, RIBBON, CARDS, & ECT. THIS COMES IN HANDY FOR CRAFTING GIFTS. I ALSO SAVE MASON JARS, CANDLE JARS, COFFEE TINS, ECT. THESE WORK WELL IN CRAFTING SOME GREAT GIFTS, EXSPECIALLY WITH CHILDREN. I ALSO SHOP AFTER CHRISTMAS AND SAVE 50% TO 75% OFF TO PUT UP FOR NEXT YEAR. I ALSO SHOP ONLINE USING COUPON CODES, OR BUYING AN ITEM THAT OFFERS A FREE GIFT. FREE SHIPPING IS ALWAYS GREAT TO ONLINE. I ALSO GET AMAZON.COM DEALS. I USE MY ONLINE SURVEY PROGRAMS TO MAKE MONEY & GET GIFT CARDS. I ALSO SHOP AT MY LOCAL DOLLAR STORE FOR THEIR WONDERFUL X-MAS SELECTION, AND MOST TIMES THEY HAVE NAME BRAND STUFF. LIKE CANDLES, MAKEUP, DISNEY STUFF. POSSILBILITEIS ARE ENDLESS. MAKES FOR GREAT GIFT BASKETS OR STOCKING STUFFERS. TAKING ADVANTAGE OF CVS ECB PROGRAM ALSO. USING COUPONS EVERYWHERE I SHOP HELPS SAVE TONS. AND OF COURSE FOLLOWING THESE WONDERFUL BLOGS!
By being kind of a scrooge & not spending any money & saving it. lol
By investing my money in college so i can get a great degree & make lots more money!!!
I’ve stopped counting how many times I’ve needed to go out and buy a new string of Christmas lights to replace the ones that no longer work because they have a mystery bulb (that I can’t ever seem to find) burned-out. So, this year I’m making a savvy investment in L.E.D (light-emitting diode) Christmas lights!
My research told me that they:
Use 90% less energy. They have a 50,000 hour bulb life. And, if you shop around you can get them with a guarantee.
So far, they work great. They use less energy, so I’ll be saving on my electric bill. They’re Energy Star approved, so they’re better for the environment. But, the savings that I’m most excited about are the savings in my time spent not trying to find and replace those burnt-out little bulbs that keep breaking the circuit, and consequently breaking my wallet.
When buying gift cards for family, by buying through swap sites like plastic jungle, you can get up to 10% off gift cards to major stores. Since people can buy what they want and they think you actually paid 10% more, it’s a great combo!
I think my best financial decision is participating whole life insurance.
My best economic decision this holiday season is arguably my boycott of gift cards. I’ll explain this on my Monday blog post.
I took advantage of Bing CashBack to save 15% off purchases from eBay.
One purchase was a $500 Target gift card for a total price of $412.25 – over 17% off! Not only that, eBay has their own reward program called eBay Bucks which gives another 2% back.
I shop Target anyway so spending a few minutes online buying gift cards makes my money go further.
My Xmas strategy goes as follows:
1) Make a list in Excel of what I want to get everyone and list the MSRP price next to it. (A month or so ahead of time)
2) Set up price alerts with Price Grabber to alert me when anything drops below 50% off. You’d be amazed how often this happens.
3) Frequent Slickdeals.net to see if anything I want to get has a crazy sale going on. The forums are full of deals where people will stack coupons and special promotions to get the product very cheap and even free sometimes!
4) Sign up for an Amazon Prime trial. This entitles me to FREE 2 day shipping on all Amazon purchases. A lot of deals I find are through Amazon, so no shipping is a great deal.
5) If I have family / friends I won’t be seeing until after Xmas anyways, I don’t stress. Hopefully some after holiday sales will pop up
Last year I beat my Xmas budget by about 70% (I budget @ MSRP of all the gifts I want). I’ll usually donate half my savings, still falling well within my budget.
The savviest way I made my money work harder for me this holiday season was to have the kids give homemade and personalized gifts for friends and family and to have everyone spend more time doing volunteer work and helping elderly neighbors. I want the kids to understand Christmas is way too commercialized and isn’t supposed to be all about expensive gifts, and homemade baked goods and arts and crafts type presents make great gifts too.
“What is the savviest way you have made your money work harder for you this holiday season?”
For me it was Saving all our visa point rewards and using them for gift cards, I also did lots of surveys n saved up. Then I bargin hunted online. Save money on gas n got free shippin n some great deals. Then I also made baked goods n handmade stuff for bosses n peeps that I know who liked hand made stuff!
I use reward sites like Swagbucks to earn Amazon gift cards to purchase holiday presents. I’m able to purchase to gifts at little or no cost out of pocket to me!
My wife and I made it a point to plan ahead this year, and by doing most of our shopping in advance, prior to Thanksgiving even, it allowed us to avoid getting caught up in the mad rush of holiday spending and stick to our planned budget. It has also made the week before Christmas a lot more relaxed!
Thanks for the comments, everyone! The winners have been selected and notified via e-mail.
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