I was just cleaning off my desk and found a few gift cards that I think need a new home 🙂
I am in the mood for a giveaway but I want some ideas. Leave a comment letting me know a cool way to give these away and I will choose my favorite and post a giveaway tomorrow!! I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with. I will post the giveaway on Saturday morning (7/31)
63 Comments
Depending on what type they are I say send some in the mail to people you know who need it or someone random from the phonebook.
I think this is an awesome idea. My husband and I have bought and sent much needed gift cards for places like local grocery stores or (gasp) Wal-Mart in the past to people in need. We buy a nice, but simple card, and write something sweet like….Thanks for serving our country…Because you are so great… sometimes it is as simple as…Enjoy! Or because we love you!
I have sent these to people I know who really could use some help. I try to disguise my handwriting because I literally have sent to friends and family in the past and always use their address as not only the send to address but also as the return address. (Just be sure the address is correct!)
Sarah – great idea…the best of them all! You must be a really special person. God Bless.
And to Michelle – thanks for sharing your wealth…not only with freebies and giveaways, but the wealth of knowledge that you possess! God Bless!
Maybe we could post with our greatest savings at the grocery or our weekly grocery savings goal.
I think a great way would be to give away a gift card to the person that saves the most by using your site. you could have people send in their receipts and then choose the one that saved the most money from BOGO’s and your super match ups!
That’s exactly what I was thinking. Best savings week at Publix. 🙂
Nice thought, but I think that one would become unfair really quick. Some people save a ton because they buy 100’s of coupons for items that get overages. Some people only try to spend within their budget and then supplement with fresh fruit and veggies. Savings also depend a lot on each individual family…
Everyone who enters the name of a local charity that accepts food or personal items as donations gets entered. That way we all get to see some great places to donate if we wish.
This is an awesome idea. I have so many shavers and body wash that Idon’t know what to do with. We need an area that we can list local places for non food items PLEASE!!!!
I think this is an amazing idea!
Just wanted to throw in my 2 cents, here. 🙂 I have found that the senior centers really appreciate ANY donations. We even bring them vegetables from our garden. And for those of you who have gardens, next year why not plant a row just for the charity of your choice. Then whatever yield comes from that row gets donated. Happy giving, everyone!!!
Share the love…give it to the person with the best idea on how to bless those cashiers who patiently handle ALL our coupons.
I love this! How about a “buy your favorite cashier lunch” – we all comment about our favorite Publix cashier, and the winner gets a giftcard for themselves and another for their cashier! Maybe the winner could even snap a picture of their cashier with the giftcard! 🙂
I think that is a cute idea!!!
Readers van post cooking or saving tips
I think you should see who can get the most for $7 to donate to charity!
Taking a photo of you donating stuff to a needy family or food bank.
My favorite type of giveaway is ….KEEP IT SIMPLE. I know it is not much fun but we are all busy so anything where you just enter name and email like on Money Saving Mom.
Another idea- Have everyone comment on the best deal of the week.
I agree. These other ideas sound fun and all but I work and go to school full-time and don’t really have extra time to do some of this but don’t like missing out on giveaways.
The best recipes featuring the current sale items for the week at Publix.
I like this idea!
I like the guessing contests (how many IP Qs you print a week,etc.) You could have people guess how many e-mails you get on a certain day, or how many hours you dedicate to iheartpublix per day, or how many other bloggers/webpages you visit looking for deals, etc. You could even give one gift card to the person who submitted the idea you decide to use.
Similar to April’s idea:
How about if you want to enter, you have to say who is your favorite cashier and why. All positive 🙂
How about leaving a WAY TO SAVE tip other then buying food at PUBLIX!!!!
and don’t get me wrong! I “heart” publix!
wheres my facebook like button? cause i like this idea!!!
What about a favorite Publix employee.
Or what reasons do you love to shop at Publix, besides the money saving.
Anything funny happen to you on your shopping trip at Publix.
I like Carrie’s idea. Something different!
I enjoyed it when you did the puzzle solving one…you gave letters over the course of a few days and we had to submit the word. That was fun!
I love Laurie’s idea of a guessing contest (something like you did previously with how many coupons you print daily). Those are a lot of fun…to see what everyone guesses and also what the correct guess is. There are so many ideas you can choose from – how long have you been using coupons? How often do you go to Publix weekly? What’s your favorite time of day, if you can choose, to shop at Publix?
how about a poem about old.iheartpublix.com??? ;0)
Or a Haiku? I always hated those in school! 5, 7, 5… Ugh!
How many times has your child taken his shoe off @ publix and you had to walk the whole store to find it.
This is cute. Like the most embarassing thing to happen while shopping.
This happened to me just today!!! I found it on top of a box of rice, haha.
How about the best comment a cashier has ever made to you?
I’ve been asked twice if I’m married to Clark Howard because I save so much $$!! haha
I also like the idea of posting donation spots in your area. A county over from where I live, there is a lady who gets local grocery stores and bread plants to donate their almost expired bread. She places big bins of bread on her porch for anyone who needs/wants them for free. She also makes up back packs for children who have been placed into the foster system with essentials…so I often donate my sample/trial size stuff there along with any other stuff we won’t use as she has a range of people who come for bread, from young mothers to retirees. 🙂 Awesome!
Love this website!!!! Love Publix!!!!
I think since summer is quickly ending (school starts in only 2 weeks for the kiddos!!), we should share our favorite summer experience with our family this year. Sure would be great to enjoy those memories just a little while longer! 🙂
I think we should share our savings
Someone close to me is having a very difficult time. For the month of August, she has only $100.00 to spend for food and gas. I have been wondering how I could help and I will, but this would be awesome to win for her.
I like this idea alot. I have a friend of mine young unemployed and pregnant. Her husban works but they have all the normal bills to pay. They do luckily have family that help by having them over for dinner regularly. They really only have groceries in the house when someone buys them for them. So I know I’ve taken some of the great deals I’ve gotten off this site and bought them some food for the house. I think this is a really sweet idea. I k ow in this economy everyone could use some help and some more than others of course.
How about promoting your forum for coupon sighting, trading and to express good and bad experience.
(Register at forum and post user name as a comment.)
How about to those who have been out of work the longest?
1. Give away to a teacher, like me, who is going back to school and needs a pick me up!
2. Give to a first timer that has commented on your site, like me.
3. Or forget the other two comments and just give to Me… LOL!
Enjoy your weekend and I do enjoy your site. It’s like my nighttime soap opera. I have to watch it everyday because the events are always so exciting. Thanks for the entertainment and service!
I like all of the ideas posted so far. Gosh, what a nifty group of people we are hangin’ out with!
Here are a few more ideas:
-On craigslist recently a lady was giving away something, and the method she used to pick from was to have us all take an online IQ test and the person with the highest score won
– I really like the Publix cashier idea. It’s an idea that would reap rewards for all of us in the long run – if the couponers like you and reward you, you will surely continue to treat the couponers well. We can give you the name and Publix location to send the card.
– I also like the idea of posting a charitable group, or it could be auctioned off to benefit a charity on eBay, or mailed to a food bank. I also like the idea of someone adding a tab to their blog to search for places to donate with info such as “will they pick up”, “hours of operations”, “who benefits from their monies raised”.
– Who has the best money-saving idea. Keeping in mind that some of us work or don’t, have kids or don’t, etc, etc. Should apply to all.
Thanks for the fun read, everyone! I’ll be checking back to see what else people have commented.
I like the idea for helping with a needy family or the elderly. I like to do elderly baskets. Also I like to assist with my church outreach program. There are a lot of needy families. It fills my heart to know that I have help someone and a family in time of need.
I like the sound of so many of the suggestions. I was just thinking of a fair way for everyone to play so I was thinking that you could give the gift cards to the 10th (30th, 50th, etc or whatever number you pick) person who emails you. OR you could pick a number and whoever gets the closest to your number WINS!!!
I love your website. I am so addicted!! You do an awesome job!!!
To send to a member of a military family
That’s awesome, Cris! I love that idea! 🙂
The person with the best recipe and using a guideline of 5 indgredients (not including spices.) Everyone wants something quick and simple for our busy lives.
Sometimes I think our lives could use a little pick me up. You could have people email Publix corporate a COMPLIMENT about their store or favorite employee and leave a comment saying they did so.
very good idea leandrea! we all should do a better job of appreciating the employees who have to “put up with” us 😉
Here’s a fun idea…let us post about our best/favorite deal ever. Then you can randomly choose a winner. That way, we can learn from others and not be competing on who necessarily got the “best” deal.
How about the best meal plan from this weeks or next weeks Publix ad… and maybe the cheapest. or You could send them to me! 🙂
I was thinking it should be randomly picked, as you usually do, but the catch is that the winner must designate someone else to receive it. The winner must look through all of the responses, and choose the comment that THEY like the most. Then Michelle can mail the prize to the winner’s choice!!!
(It’s a great way to receive & give at the same time!!!)
Would it be possible to offer a prize to the contributor that notes the best deals at Publix? I have found that when I check four different Publix forums every week that I find new deals at one of them and not the same one each week. If we had a contest of the best deal posting person, we might get the trend going here. Then more people might contribute and more people might discover that IHeartPublix is the first place they should go to find out what is going on at Publix.
Sorry if this has been suggested before, I did not read the other suggestions before I posted! I’m heading out the door and just wanted to take a moment to suggest this option.
Thanks,
Nannette
When I suggested a prize to the contributor that notes the best deals at Publix, I did not mean on a given day, but rather, over a short period of time, like a week or a month. Like I said, I read at least four forums searching for deals before I shop. This IHeartPublix forum may have a lot more contributors if there was a contest that rewarded the person that noted the most free and super cheap items available at Publix. Just a thought!
What about a scavenger hunt?? You could post a list of clues and hide the answers all over your site then everyone could email you with the answers they come up with and you can pick from those.
How about the funniest coupon story. I would love to read about others expierences.
Maybe something like Scattegories, where you post a letter and a category? Participants can submit just one e-mail entry with up to 3 answers. But, duplicate answers with other people cancel out, so creativity is key. Then you do a random draw of all the unique answers to find the winner. (If all 3 of my answers are unique, then I get 3 entries in the draw…but if only 1 of my answers is unique, then I only get 1 entry.)
For example, the letter could be P (for Publix, of course!), and potential categories include: food, animal, city, adjective, fictional character, or things in a kitchen.
I have a good friend who is nurse and lives paycheck to paycheck most months. Anything for her would be awesome! Maybe find some nurses to give them to? I would just walk up to random people on the street who look like they are having a bad day and tell them that you wanted to give it to them and to then tell them to cheer up, and that things will get better. I have done that before and have gotten hugs back from people just telling me thank you for thinking of them, and they were complete strangers to me, but it was nice to do a good deed.
I personally would love to have a gift card, no matter from where, since I’ve been laid off my job for a year with no income…. but I think would be cool to give the cards and the person receiving them MUST give to someone they know like someone at their church (no relative) and then take a picture of themselves and the new person w/ the gift card! 🙂
I think we should all have to write a poem about shopping about Publix! 🙂