BI-LO: 20.00 off next order wyb 100.00 in gift cards

[secretsaver]

Do you know how often Bi lo runs this promotion?

I honestly don't know when they will run it again, I wish they would as I profited over $5000 from this promo this time around :)

[mysticme]

I honestly don't know when they will run it again, I wish they would as I profited over $5000 from this promo this time around :)

$5000 ?!?!? Did you leave out some decimal points? How did you manage to make 5k? I thought I did good getting $60 in giftcards.

[abacus2]

$5000 ?!?!? Did you leave out some decimal points? How did you manage to make 5k? I thought I did good getting $60 in giftcards.

I was wondering the same thing. You would have to have bought $25,000 in gift cards $100 at a time (250 transactions) to pull this off.

[uummm]

Now do you see why they might have limits on the cards per day? If this is true, it raises a red flag at that store. And although you may not want to beleive me, they do see how many catalinas are printed from a particular store, and then they go back and check the records. I am not saying this person did anything shady to get these, however when people do things like this it will make them start imposing limits so it won't happen again.

[HintofBlue]

This was my favorite "sale" of any store. I also hope that they run it again, but not TOO soon. I need some time to recuperate from the one that just ended, and need some time to rebuild my cash reserves.

The Back To School timing of this one was perfect for me. Both because we put some cards to immediate use, and because I have been able to send each of the college commuting kiddos out with a gas card and an all purpose card in hand. I feel more secure when they are on the road, and expect fewer surprise requests for gas money and unexpected minor expenses.

The one thing that surprised me was that hordes of people didn't swoop in and clear the kiosk. My local store had sufficient stock throughout the promo.

[uummm]

I think in general "most" people don't think like that. I know that I personally don't know anyone that did this deal. When I went to the store to get my gc (I was only able to do it once because we are on a new strict cash only diet) I did notice there was a lot of GC, however the deal they did before this one with the $50 GC promo with only 5 cards I noticed ALL of those cards were gone when I went.

My neighbors think I am nuts doing what I do as hard core as I do it (stockpile, my coupon box...). Most would never think to do it, they would just say "What do I need gift cards for?" Where we here think "How can I make this work for me?" That is why I don't bother talking to anyone about my deals and pretty much keep it to HCW and my family in my house-others just don't get it and think I have problems. I just keep doing my thing (and we are about to do something very radical!) and let them think what they want and in no time at all we will be the ones with ZERO debt, a 6 month emergency fund and hopefully a paid off mortage and I am pretty sure none of my neighbors can say that.

[HintofBlue]

Uummm, that will be quite the celebration moment when you reach that goal!

I think you're probably right about most people not thinking that way. My own dh did all he could to talk me out of it. His reason - GC's get forgotten and become wasted money. (I think he'd also be embarrassed to do several transactions in a row.)

It was funny, though, because once I purposely accumulated enough cards and used them to pay a major expense, we had a $100 small appliance break down. He went out, priced the replacement, and then went to Bi-Lo to purchase a card to pay for it.

Even though he would never tell me that I did well, his action showed that he "got it".

I've always lived on a cash only basis, except for the mortgage. Purchasing the cards was like taking it a step farther and saving money by, in a way, pre-paying for anticipated routine expenses.

The way I've treated mine is by thinking of them EXACTLY the way I think of cash. It's been working well.

[trishgil]

I was really wanting to do this deal, but we are on that same cash only budget and I just couldn't squeeze it in.. or just felt guilty I am not sure. Maybe if this comes back around I'll join in. Would love to use the $20 to fill the freezer w/ meat! Umm.. Your awesome, who cares what anyone else thinks.. lol.

[secretsaver]

The old saying it takes money to make money :)

[HintofBlue]

Aw, Trishgil, there really wasn't anything to feel guilty about as long as a person followed the rules as they were written.

The cards are basically the same as any other product sold in a store. The company that owns the card kiosk business does not pay face value for them, and the store does not sell them at the cost to the store. It was simply a sale on a product, with the product being gc's.

Also, it was explained to me at more than one store that one should never feel guilty about using store q's. The stores are reimbursed for them, and redemption of figured into the individual store budget. When there is a promotion, it's not just a random choice. It is a planned event where the provider of the product has offered incentives to the store in order to move those products.

I will say that because these are a type of financial instrument, I had some trepidation about purchasing these, since there is always the possibility of being stuck w/a gc for a company that goes bankrupt. So, we only purchased what we will use within a reasonable period of time, and not so much of any that we would be in financial hardship if that were to happen.

I certainly didn't *make* a huge amount from this sale, but did feel good about being able to save some money on a few things where I didn't think we could cut expenses any more than we already had.

I hope you are able to take guilt free advantage if they run a similar promo in the future.