Each December, we buy gift cards to restaurants we eat at during the year to take advantage of bonus offers that stretch our money even further.
Some recent promotions that caught our eye:
Buy $25 in Little Ceasars gift certificates and you'll get a coupon good for a free $5 cheese or pepperoni pizza. Even better, when we purchased our gift certificates, the box the pizza came in had coupons for free "crazy bread", a $2.50 value. Every few weeks, we pair cheese pizza from Little Ceasars with a salad for a quick and inexpensive meal.
Buy a $25 Rumbi Island Grill gift card and get a coupon for a free half-size chicken rice bowl, a value of about $7. One word of warning: Last year's coupon had no expiration date; this year's coupons expire at the end of February.
Buy a $10 Fazoli's gift card and get a coupon for a free small spaghetti entree.
One thought on buying gift cards this year, though: Use them sooner than later. In this unstable economy, a growing number of consumers may find themselves with worthless gift cards in the new year.