Moms, if you’re anything like me, you’ve watched the Extreme Couponing show on TLC once or twice and felt inspired to hack shopping with agility to that extent. I’m not claiming that I have hacked shopping entirely, but I have found a few hacks here and there, so I’m doing a series on them. This is part 1: discount and online gift cards.

First, determine where you plan to shop and about how much you plan to spend. Let’s pretend it’s $100 at T.J. Maxx.

1. Go to Gift Card Granny (website). Search T.J. Maxx. Hit “All” at the bottom to see all of them and scroll through until you get to about the value you want—in this case, $100. 13-25% off is great. Select your card. I’ve found about a 20% off card for $75. DONE AND DONE. Select, add to card, proceed to checkout.
2. BONUS: If you are a first-time gift card buyer, use code RAISE75AF at checkout (only click this code link in this post if you want to see other possible promo codes). It gets you $5 off your first gift card order of $75 or more.
3. Take note that if the gift card option has a mobile phone icon next to it, it’s online only. HOWEVER, this doesn’t matter. If you really want a standard gift card, you can just place an online order for the amount of the card you purchased (which is hopefully also high enough to also warrant free shipping), and then return the items in-store. They will give your refund back on a gift card you can use in-store or online anytime you want. 🙂
4. Also, if you need to purchase another gift card, you can (and I haven’t done this), but you COULD create another account with a different email to keep utilizing the $5 discount.
5. I was previously a T.J. Maxx cardholder, but I’m cancelling it. This is because the reward points “cash” you get for purchases is about 10% of what you’re buying. So you’re basically “saving” 10%. BUT, if you can buy a 20% off gift card on Gift Card Granny instead, you’re coming out way more ahead for any shopping you already do. I would suggest you look into all of your other store/brand-specific credit cards and see if their discount and rewards matches up to or exceeds the discounts you can get on Gift Card Granny. If not, cancel them and go that route. 🙂

Other (of literally hundreds of stores) for which gift cards are available on the site include:

• Target (although, be wary, because their discount is 4.999%…and you get a 5% discount if you just get the RedCard).
• Kate Spade
• Kohl’s
• Bed, Bath & Beyond
• Home Depot
• Grocery stores

Please feel free to comment below with questions and I’ll answer them as best I can. I am in no way affiliated with ANY of the brands or websites mentioned on this post. I wish I was…   lol But until I am, I’m just getting discounted gift cards along with the rest of you shopping-hacking supermoms.

Keep calm and SHOP ON ladies.

*Please shop responsibly. 😉