Best way to spend vouchers?

A question about : Best way to spend vouchers?

Hi,

I'm sorry if this isn't in the right forum.

I've been sorting my finances out for the past few years, all debts gone, now own my house, have a bit of savings and have set up standing orders for things like Clothing Christmas etc

Anyway - to the point:

I've been given quite a few vouchers for Christmas, they consist of:

Ј50 Love to Shop
Ј25 Next
Ј80 Sainsburys
Ј10 M&S

My question is, what do I do with them?? And what would be the best thing to do with them?

Now - I have a budget for clothing, and quite frankly, we don't need any.

Sainsburys - well, I find this expensive and usually shop in Tesco so I don't think I will be going grocery shopping here. I also have a shopping budget each month of Ј200 via S.O

One thought I did have was to use them to buy school uniform for DD1 in September - buying the tops / skirts from Sainsburys and the shoes from Next - usually I buy clarks shoes though as these seem to last a year! - DD2 doesn't start school until Set 2016 so it will just be one uniform, I'll then have some vouchers left (Cant see the uniform costing me Ј155!!!!) - Then the money that I have put away stashed under clothing could go into a savings pot.

But is that the best idea?

What would YOU spend the money on?

(Already have started buying gifts for next Christmas etc)

Best answers:

• Hi,
  I think you are tackling this from the wrong end. It is free money, a gift, so ideally treat yourself or at least look at whatever you buy as a saving for the future, groceries from Sainsbury even if more expensive than Tesco or in reality free.Treat yourself to a meal deal as a birthday treat or for family. As a last resort use them in the sales to purchase gifts again freeing up your own money. At times we all get blinkered into saving money at the expense of enjoying ourselves when funds allow.
  Enjoy and don't feel guilty.
• I agree with the idea of treating yourself. You've done a lot of hard work, got yourself and your family into a much improved financial position, so yes, have some treats and enjoy it.
  But if you find you want to employ moneysaving techniques, then there is still some fun to be had with that.
  Eg when you shop at Sainsbury, you could challenge yourself to 'double' the Ј80 by only buying half price or two-for-one or special offer items with it. Or explore their Basics range - the teabags at 20p for 40 are brilliant, for example, and they are Fair Trade. Basics butter is also fine at 94p. You can get well stocked for Ј80 if you are savvy!! Look online for ideas before you go instore.
  M&S will let you use a giftcard against an online spend, so you can browse the sale.
  Avoid Next online shopping as they run credit searches automatically and open an account automatically if you are eligible - there is a thread on here about that. So unless you want that, better to shop instore.
  The LovetoShop I think covers most of the High Street retailers, you'll have to find out which, but again at this time of year I'd be expecting to find good value due to the sales.
  There's no rush to spend either, just enjoy it! I've still got money on a Boots giftcard from last summer.
• Hiya! So sorry I haven't replied sooner - its been a busy week! I took your advice and "treated" us - see below.
  My friend has a next account so I ordered myself a cardigan and the 2 girls some "onesies" for next Christmas (The "elf on a shelf" will bring them along with their advent calendars on the 1st Dec) and a pair of school shorts for DD1 (Which are massive one her but I'm hoping will fit her in summer!) which in the sale came to just under Ј25 so that's the Next card gone
  I went to sainsburys and did a shop - was quite disappointed because they didn't have much of what I wanted but I did get a weeks worth of shopping, plus some new slippers and a night dress for me. What I did was take Ј50 from my usually monthly shopping budget and used it to book a week in Woolacombe, Devon (Sun Ј9.50 holiday - managed to get the April half term too!!)
  And then today I had an email - British gas just sent me Ј50 amazon vouchers :rofl:
  So I now have:
  Ј25 Sainsburys voucher
  Ј50 Love2shop
  Ј10.00 M&S
  Ј50.00 Amazon
  A cardigan / Slippers / Nightie for me
  A "onesie" and some school shorts for DD1
  A "onesie" for DD"
  and a holiday!
  It's been quite fun seeing what I can get for my Vouchers - I'm still having a think now about how to spend the other Ј135.00 on
  It's my birthday in February too so no doubt I'll end up with more vouchers (Apparently I'm quite difficult to buy for!!!)
• Iceland take LovetoShop could do a nice bit of freezer stocking (Yes I know that's the boring route)
• Argos take Love to shop vouchers.
  I save up my vouchers and spend them at sales time, ( they have offers on throughout the year) usually for replacement things for the house or Christmas presents for other people.