Spend The Economic Stimulus! Stores Will Even Help You
If the sarcasm in my title escapes anyone, let me assure you, I am being sarcastic. 
A number of stores have decided to encourage you to spend your economic stimulus checks there by giving incentives to cashing your check with them. For most of the stores offering incentives, they will give you an extra 10% for turning your check into a gift card for their store. So, for example, a $600 check turns into a $660 gift card.
If you are interested in which stores are participating and the details of what they are offering, Jonathan at My Money Blog did a great overview post earlier this week. Honestly, the idea of it, from a “bonus” standpoint, isn’t all that bad if one of the participating stores is somewhere you shop regularly. However, even though I am going to be spending our economic stimulus check on a new furnace, instead of paying down debt as I had planned, I hate the blatant consumerism being pushed by these store incentives. For some people, turning a $600 check into a $660 Kroger gift card is an excellent, even frugal idea. But the fact that these incentives are being offered is a temptation to many people who were planning on saving the stimulus check, or using it for other purposes, into spending it. Yes, I shop at Kroger. But coming up with $1800 more to go towards our furnace so I could turn my check into a Kroger gift card just doesn’t make sense for me, even if I’d get $180 for my trouble. And since I generally spend less than $20 a week at Kroger, it’d take me the next 2-3 years to spend that gift card anyhow.
Use the stimulus check for what makes the best sense for you. If a store gift card is the best idea for you, by all means, take advantage of a promotion. But don’t let a store promotion suck you into making a less than desirable decision. Just because it’s a good deal doesn’t mean it is a good deal for you. Especially with the early arrival of many people’s economic stimulus checks, this will only be the beginning of ways that businesses will try to lure you into patronizing them. Be smart – have a plan – and stick to it. You’ll be happy you did.
As will I, with my brand new furnace. Too bad no local furnace installers are offering to turn my check directly into a furnace.
May 1st, 2008 at 9:44 am
Well the Kroger gift cards are in $300 amounts so you could take $300 of your monthly grocery budget and get the gift card to net a $30. They aren’t requiring to see the physical check so you could pull it out of the budget instead.
Of course, this then means that you would need to focus your grocery shopping on Kroger for a while. I don’t know if the extra premium over Aldi would kill the 10% though… Hmm…
May 1st, 2008 at 11:06 am
How does it work for those that don’t get a check but get a direct deposit? Not that I am going to do this – mine is being stashed far far away, but I am curious. Could I use other money to get the same deal?
May 1st, 2008 at 12:12 pm
I think from what I have read that for Kroger at least, you can just go in and buy a $330 gift card for $300. I honestly don’t know about the others but I am sure they could tell you if you asked. A lot of people use direct deposit so they have to have some theory I think.
May 1st, 2008 at 1:38 pm
The other ‘risk’ you take is, if you buy a gift card – thinking you’ll gain 10% on your ‘money’ ($660 versus $600 or $330 versus $300), there’s no guarantee that the retailer won’t raise the prices (or already has) – so much for that ‘idea’…..
I think stimulating your own savings account or adding whatever amount you get, to a CD is something that will give you ‘peace of mind’ – that’s what I like most myself…..
May 1st, 2008 at 6:37 pm
I do 90% of my grocery shopping at a Kroger owned store, so this makes a lot of sense for me since over the course of a few months, I’d spend several hundred dollars there anyway. And usually with gift cards, I try and stretch them more than I would normally, so it could benefit us in more than one way. I don’t know if we will or not, but it is something we’re considering.
May 1st, 2008 at 8:19 pm
We’re stimulating the economy by buying local. In fact, we’ll spend nearly $400 on items designed to keep us busy, happy, and fed throughout the summer months. Think croquet, bocce, horseshoes, darts, kites, family barbecues, and a vegetable garden. The rest of the money will be used to lower our personal debt thanks to a few job relocations and job lay offs (due to downsizing) over the last few years.