How to turn a gift card to cash

My birthday was two days ago and I had a nice lunch with my family. They gave me some gifts cards to Lowe's and Amazon. I just bought a house not too long ago, so the Lowe's gift card is going to be extremely useful. And, well Amazon is Amazon, so I shouldn't have a problem spending that gift card. What happens if you get a gift card to a place you don't like? Or, maybe you could have really used the cash instead? Or, maybe you just want to spend that gift card at a store it's not for? There's a way.

Let's start with an example.
It's your birthday and I give you a $25 Walmart gift card. I bought this gift card for you because I thought, "You love Walmart". You, however, barely shop at Walmart. Of course, you'll probably be able to use that gift card, but you really would have preferred $25 cash. But, it's okay, because you know how to turn that gift card to cash.

You're low on some necessities throughout your home: toothpaste, paper towels, hair product, and tissues. Conveniently, you pay usually pay exactly $25 (I'm trying to keep this example simple). You go online to Walmart.com and order what you need with your gift card for $25. Now, you transfer $25 from your necessities envelope to your spending envelop. Voila, you now have $25 with cash.

Taking it further.
You probably see how this works now. It's essentially just transferring money around where you need it. It sometimes takes creativity to figure out how to turn a gift card from a very specialized store, but in most cases you can figure it out. You're smart. Look at your budget and know your goal is to transfer money from one envelope into your spending envelope, but you want to do it as legitimately as possible.

Doing it legitimately is important to make sure your budget always meets your needs. If you're goal is to spend your Walmart gift card on food this month, so you can free up the cash, then actually buy the food you need for the month. Don't waste the Walmart gift card on food that wouldn't last you the month, because then you'll find yourself going out again and buying more food. Then, you'll find yourself over budget. Not good.

This technique is very useful. It takes a little bit of thinking to figure it out, but it's one of those things that the more you do it, the better it gets.

Bonus!
Did you know, you can actually buy gift cards with gift cards? Places like Walmart, Amazon, and grocery stores sell gift cards to other stores or places (like iTunes). This is another easy way to turn a gift card into cash.

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I hope you enjoyed the post! If you want help with turning a gift card to cash, just message me. I'll be happy to help you out.