Jamba Juice is doing it right this holiday season. At participating locations, you can buy a $25 gift card and get a free smoothie. If you’re a Jamba Juice regular, buy the gift card for yourself and start slurping! If you’re going to give a Jamba Juice gift card, then this next offer is even better.

Gift with Purchase

As Kevin B at the San Ramon Jamba Juice explains, for $15, you get a 22 oz. Tumbler and a $5 Jamba Juice gift card. I love ths promotion because it follows my 5 Steps to Better Gift Card Giving. The gift card can be used at a variety of locations, is in a usable amount ($5 is plenty for Jamba Juice), and the recipient gets to “open something.” This would make a great gift for teachers, office staff, and others you want to give a small token to this holiday season.

Add a Personal Scoop

Make it even more personal by putting a list of your favorite smoothies or the “secret Jamba Juice menu” inside the tumbler. Have fun with it.

This is What Summer is All About

Summer vacation is winding down and I can honestly say that we’ve lived it to the fullest. Rarely more than an hour away from home, we stay-cationed all over the Bay Area. We went to the beach, played summer league baseball, watched professional baseball, swam every water park in the area, ate ice cream, made ice cream, rode our bikes, connected with old friends, and made several new friends. It’s been a good summer.

I’ve Let Myself Go

But in the 10 weeks we’ve enjoyed as a family, I have completely let myself go. I haven’t done my hair in weeks. Ran out of a few essentials in the make-up bag and didn’t bother to replace them. My toenails are bare and my eyebrows a bit bushy. My lack of self care comes down to two things: time and money. (Doesn’t it always?)

Time and Money

I spent the early part of the summer training my boys to quietly go downstairs in the morning, bypassing the usual tap on my forehead to see if I’m awake. Their quiet departure allowed me an extra half hour or so of sleep. The indulgence, however, meant the kids were either starving or clawing at each other by the time I got up. So I had to shave time off the beauty routine to make up for it. I also let them stay up later which meant less time to myself at night. Heck, what am I saying? Less time to myself all DAY too. Love those kids, but forget about scheduling hair, salon, doctor, or dentist appointments while they’re home. And besides, money I might have spent on myself is going to admissions for various activities anyway.

Back to School

But it’s back to school time and that means every mom I know with school age kids is about to get a makeover. And I will be setting the pace. I need a new do, a splash of color on the toes, gonna look into that Yoga class I’ve talked about for months, and probably need to get my teeth cleaned as well.

So while I see retailers advertising “back to school” specials that revolve around kids, I think they’d do well to remember us moms are in need of a little pampering ourselves. And we could use some gift cards to offset the expense because we just spent all our money on summer activities and school registration. I suggest the following:

• Hair salon gift card for a cut and color
• Nail salon gift card for a manicure and pedicure
• Massage or Spa gift card to work out the summer kinks
• Gym or Yoga gift card to find her center again
• Organization store gift card to help her figure out the new fall schedule
• Lunch gift card to reconnect with girlfriends

It doesn’t have to be her birthday. If you know a mom with school age kids who is about to send the kiddies back to the teachers, get her a “Summer Survival” gift card to celebrate her return to freedom!

Companies are increasingly using gift cards as employee and customer incentives…and I like it! At a recent training seminar my husband attended, instructors handed out $10 P.F. Chang’s gift cards to participants who answered questions correctly. With three little kids, Paul and I typically only go to restaurants with booth seating (for containment) and ketchup on the table (as an indicator of menu selection). But we broke the rules when Dad came home from his trip with enough gift cards to take us all out for dinner. We had a great time and Ally declared P.F. Chang’s her new favorite restaurant. My kids are growing up.

The gift cards are obviously gone, but the positive memory is lasting. Conversely, my girlfriend just received a pair of high-end sunglasses for a job well done at the office (i.e. “the future is so bright, you have to wear shades”). The sunglasses are nice, but they’re not her style. And she doesn’t want to wear the exact same sunglasses everyone else on the sales team is now wearing anyway.

Her company should have taken a note from Stoner Bunting who did a similar promotion but used Sunglass Hut gift cards instead.

Though both companies had good intent, Renee’s (name changed) company spent a great deal of money on sunglasses that not everyone appreciated. Had they given out gift cards instead, recipients could have personalized their reward. And I imagine they could have had quite a fashion show as staff members revealed their choices. That seems like a double loss to me–wasted sunglasses and a missed morale booster.

I’ve added a new page to the Gift Card Girlfriend site to talk more about gift cards in the office. I appreciate Stoner Bunting for bringing this issue to my attention and would love to hear more about your experiences with gift cards from work.

Put yourself on the Nice list.

Still trying to figure out what to get your boyfriend, girlfriend, or spouse for Christmas this year? Maybe you’re over thinking it. We only launched this web site a couple of weeks ago and already readers are telling us we’ve changed the course of their holiday shopping. Instead of stressing at the mall, they’re multi-tasking at the grocery store. Instead of fretting over sizes, likes, and dislikes, they’re gift carding with confidence—anxious for the recipient to open their gift. (When was the last time you gave someone a gift card and couldn’t wait for them to open it?)

Get inspired from suggestions sent in by some of our readers:

• Nice List.  With a note pad and a pen, attach a gift card to the department store. That’s what Carole did and then she wrote, “Make your OWN list.  Check it Twice.  Then with this gift card.  Get YOURSELF something nice.”

Restaurant gift card and Beano for the old farts!

• Seasons Greetings.  Attach a gift card to the cooking store, BBQ store, grocery store, or any old store to a bottle of seasoning or marinade. Write “Seasons Greetings” on the tag. Go one level deeper and select a seasoning appropriate for the gift card.  Chipotle seasoning with a Chipotle restaurant gift card, for example.
• Yule log.   Attach a family entertainment gift card (movies, video, bowling, etc.) to a Duraflame log.  Write, “Hoping YULE have a Merry Christmas” or “Warmest Wishes this Holiday Season.”
• Warm Wishes.  Warm greetings are also appropriate with a pair of gloves, a scarf, or some hand warmers.  Attach those to a gift card to a café or any place you can get a delicious mug of hot chocolate and be sure to add “Warmest Wishes” to the card.
• Old Fart.  Brooke took gift carding to a new (lower) level with this restaurant gift card attached to a bottle of Beano.  She wrote, “Happy date night you old farts!”
• Dreaming of.  Get a gift card to Dream Dinners or any place designed to help busy women (make and take dinners, spa, salon).  Tell her you’re “Dreaming of a White Christmas” and a day she doesn’t have to work so hard.
• Rock my world.  Get a gift card for downloadable music and write a note that says, “You Rock my World.” Add it to something romantic like a box of chocolates, a candle, or a fun pair of pj’s.

Check out the For Her and For Him sections for more gift carding ideas you can pull together in time for Christmas.

Extreme Birthday Basket

My girlfriends are the best.  They recently showered me with all sorts of treats for my birthday.  I threw everything in this basket so you could see how wonderful these gals are and how well they know me. The assortment might look random, but this basket tells a story. 

Of course, you know those gift cards poking out of the back are a particular favorite.  Movie tickets are always a treat and the Extreme Pizza certificates didn’t last 24-hours in my house.  As I trudged through stacks of work today, I kept thinking, ”Thank goodness I don’t have to cook dinner tonight!”  As a bonus, I found an Extreme Pizza coupon in the mail, allowing us to stretch the value even further.

Birthday gifts appreciated. Girlfriends adored. Dinner I didn’t have to make or buy…EXTREMELY great.

Extremely good deal: Gift card, coupon, and handsome delivery boy.

Extreme is a great name for clever gift carding. Purchase an Extreme Pizza gift card, tie it to a pack of Extreme Sour candy and add an “Extreme” comment:

• “Hope you have an EXTREMELY good birthday”
• “You’re an EXTREMELY awesome teacher.” 
• Thanks for going to the EXTREME to help us this year.

I love these ideas.  I’m going to use it to kick off the Teacher Appreciation section I’ve been thinking about.

(P.S. That was my first Extreme Pizza.  It won’t be my last. Yum!)