Where are you buying shoes for the new school year?

Step into shoes for the whole family at JCPenney.  Over 1,400 pairs of shoes are currently priced at the lowest this season. Couple this $10 off $50 coupon with Plastic Jungle discounted gift cards for JCPenney at 14% off and you’re sure to find a deal you can feel good in.

Shop at home with Kohl’s and get free shipping on your purchase of $75 or more (use code: SHOPNSHIP). Buy discounted Kohl’s gift cards from Plastic Jungle to get an additional 15% in savings.  Be sure to visit RetailMeNot for the most current Kohl’s coupon codes.

If you’ve got teens and tweens, Buckle has a broad selection of sole mates which you can get at 11% off when you link up with Plastic Jungle discounted gift cards. For those in middle school and high school who prefer a little more funk in their shoe style, check out the 791 ways Urban Outfitters can decorate feet and bring style with trendy prices by matching a pair with 10% off thanks to discounted Urban Outfitters gift cards found at Plastic Jungle.

And don’t forget that they’ll need sneakers for gym class and rain boots to stomp in the puddles!

Step by step, a Plastic Jungle fan shows you how to save $100s by combining discounted gift cards, coupons, and rebates.

It is fair to say that most households have wish lists. From house to house, these lists can be as diverse as the inhabitants. You could be pining for fresh electronics (new TV or gaming system), or home improvements or furniture, or maybe a special accessory, such as a pricey designer purse or a pair of shoes. Often, wish lists develop when you move into a new space, as our Plastic Jungle fan, Marcy B., relates.

In her letter, Marcy B. outlines how she went about saving big on renovating her window treatments in her new home. She explains that it wasn’t a matter of combing the Internet, or paging through Val-Pak coupons, but a matter of patience and a small amount of planning.

Thanks to marketing and promotions, all shoppers get the idea that we could save big, but jumping the hurdle to map out the steps can be a stumbling block.

Her letter explains her simple process, step-by-step:

You are welcome, Marcy! : )

Marcy's Living Room Before the New Blinds

Marcy's home with her new blinds. Success at a discount!

As it turns out, Marcy is also a guest contributor for a parenting site: MamaModerne.com, and she wrote up her story as an article, “Saving Big on Big Purchases”. Check it out for more details on how to save when it comes time to pull out that wishlist.

What’s on your wishlist?

Consider the following categories. When you’re dealing with a wishlist, it’s OK to be greedy. Writing out what you want might help you prioritize your wants and needs. (Well, that sounds like another blog post!)

Consumer Electronics: get gift cards from Best Buy, Kohl’s, Target, Walmart, Sony Style, Apple Store, Office Depot, Staples, JCPenney

Home Improvement: get gift cards from Home Depot, Lowe’s, Ace Hardware, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Target, Bloomingdale’s

Furniture: get gift cards from Crate & Barrel, Williams-Sonoma Home, JCPenney, Macy’s, Walmart, west elm, CB2

Designer Apparel & Accessories: Zappo’s, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, Bergdorf-Goodman, Tiffany & Co., Burberry, Coach

Pick up any of the above gift cards on Plastic Jungle’s Buy Gift Cards page.

Get thinking, and let us know if you’ve got any strategies for saving with discount gift cards.

Work is dragging. You’ve got an event coming up. The kids are outgrowing everything from toys to socks. NCAA March Madness is your inspiration to get a new TV. All the spring magazines have you itching to update your wardrobe. And please, anything to not see Charlie Sheen on a headline!

Time to find an exciting sale. Cheap shoes, Michigan sweatshirts, HDTVs, and sale clothes are just a click away. And remember, you can add to your savings by purchasing a discounted gift card to pay for your hot sale finds.

Our first stop would be Sale.com, whose home page is a shopping addict’s crack, compiling some of the best apparel discounts on the web. Enter the retailer you’d love to see a sale from, ie Abercrombie, and voila, the site’s sale page pops in, along with a list of promotions and offers. Sign up for Sale.com alerts to get first crack at fresh promotions, coupons, deals, and sale merchandise.

Sales on Now around the Web:

Nordstrom:

Get Women’s Coats on sale for up to 40% off.

Shop Nordstrom’s Shoe Clearance – hurry, this is a hot one and the best brands and styles sell out fast.

Shop Nordstrom’s Designer Collection Sale for quality-made on-trend brands and looks.

Aeropostale:

Save big with Aeropostale’s Spring Break Sale featuring $9 Camis and Graphic T-shirts for girls and guys.

Best Buy:

Act now to save 5%-15% on a wide selection of HDTVs on brands including RCA, Philips, Samsung, LG, and Panasonic.

JCPenney:

Time to freshen up the house with JCP’s Spring Home Sale, where you’ll save 30-60% off housewares, linens, and more.

Shop deep discounts on JCP’s Clearance page, with final markdowns at up to 80% off retail.

Zappos:

This online retailer always has free shipping & returns – but have you found Zappo’s Sale page? Shop shoes from 100’s of brands, as well as accessories and clothes on sale. Even hard-to-find men’s shoes are on sale here. Yippee!

PetSmart:

Get deals on thousands of items, from Kong to Advantix & Advantage flea & tick products online and in stores at PetSmart’s Everything Spring Sale.

Borders:

It’s a shame Borders is closing so many stores, but their loss is your gain. Find clearance merchandise in the stores that are closing; here’s a list of closing Borders stores. As well, get to Borders Hot Deals / Weekly Deals page to score discounts on remainders, music under $10, and even bestsellers and upcoming new releases.

Right now, get up to 15% off a Borders Gift Card on Plastic Jungle >>>

Sports Authority:

The NCAA Final Four is around the corner and it’s time to gear up! Save on NCAA gear for the entire family at the SportsAuthority.com Outlet – Fan Gear page, and most of it will ship for only 99 cents!

If you’ve got a “slow-day shopping distraction” ritual, please share it in the comments of this page. Remember, if you’ve got time on your hands, maybe you could create a little cash flow by trading in your unused gift cards. Thank me later! And be prepared, the weekend is almost here.

It’s Deal Time! As the web’s largest secured gift card exchange, Plastic Jungle gives shoppers choice and flexibility with funds they’ve got trapped on gift cards. If you’d like to sell your gift card, take a look at all the safe and quick options Plastic Jungle offers. See your options when you Sell or Swap gift cards on Plastic Jungle now >>>

Now, let’s take a look at only a few of the key discounted cards for sale on Plastic Jungle (at time of writing — hurry, supplies are limited!):

American Eagle Outfitters – discounts up to 14% off.

FYE — discounts up to 17% off. FYE is a music & movie retailer.

JCPenney – discounts up to 14% off with eCODEs available too – save on purchases today!

Olive Garden – discounts up to 10% off — also good at may also be used at any Red Lobster, LongHorn Steakhouse, Bahama Breeze or any other Darden restaurant.

Starbucks — discounts up to 9% off

AMC Theatres — discounts up to 16% off

Go to a complete listing of discounted gift cards for sale right now on Plastic Jungle >>>

Friday Gift Card Giveaways & Sweepstakes

This week we take you to the savings blogs. Coupon-cutting has entered the modern age and the best way to find elusive deals is to troll the savings blogs. You’ll find one for every segment, from technology geeks to mommies to fashionistas, and I’ll bet every one of us falls into each of those segments at least once a day.

MyBargainBuddy.com – Enter to win a $50 Kohl’s Gift Card. Just submit your info (no Byzantine follows or reports required) and let Karen know whether or not you want her email newsletter on retail bargains up to 90% off. Drawing to take place on 3/1/11; see details on the MyBargainBuddy.com giveaway page.

CouponingFor4.com – Enter to win one of 10 $10 Amazon Gift Certificates. You are eligible to win one of five by leaving a comment on the Giveaway blog post. To be eligible for one of the other five, become a Facebook fan of CouponingFor4.com. See the Giveaway blog post for details; drawing takes place 3/2/11 at about 10 pm CST.

TechBargains.com – Enter to win an iPad. Well, it’s not a gift card or an egift card, but we didn’t think you’d mind winning an iPad with 32GB and WiFi + 3G – a $729 value. To enter, subscribe to the new TechBargains YouTube Channel, or become a fan of TechBargains on Facebook. The last day to enter the contest is 2/28 and the winner will be announced on the site shortly after; for details see TechBargains’ iPad Giveaway contest rules. Be sure to share the giveaway link with your friends because we’re going to ask the winner how they heard about the giveaway and the site. If they name you, then you’ll win a $100 American Express gift card.

PassionforSavings.com – Enter to win a $50 Amazon.com Gift Card. Entering is easy, Just sign up for Free Email Updates or Subscribe to the Passion for Savings RSS Feed. You can also follow on Facebook or Twitter. Each method gets you one entry into the giveaway. The winner will be selected at the end of the month. See giveaway page for details.

WellHeeledBlog.com – Enter to win a $100 Amazon.com Gift Card. This site about personal finance and savvy living is handing out a $100 Amazon.com Gift Card thanks to MrRebates.com. It’s complicated, so visit the Well Heeled Blog giveaway page for details and info on both informative sites. Deadline is Wednesday March 3 at midnight PST.

Won anything yet? Let us know… and let us know: Would you rather enter a big sweepstakes with thousands of entries or little giveaways where your chances are better, but the prizes are smaller?

Have a great weekend — shop away!

Sometimes, entering your contact information can seem risky. Here at Plastic Jungle we steer you to valid and current gift card sweepstakes, weekly on Fridays.

Get the scoop on hot gift card sweepstakes going on around the web right here! We bring you the best of the online sweepstakes and online giveaways – these are first-rate promotions and are your chance to win gift cards. This week brings you opportunities to win at GameStop, Courtyard Hotels and a favorite retailer, JCPenney.

• GameStop is running a $500 Gift Card Giveaway. Just enter your information for a chance to win.
• Courtyard Hotels Gift Card Giveaway on Twitter. Courtyard Hotels is giving away $50 gift cards daily now through December 17, 2010. Just follow @courtyardhotels on Twitter, and reTweet the specified daily Tweet, and you are entered to win.
• JCPenney presents Mix It, Match It, Virtual Closet. Parenting.com and JCPenney are giving away a $50 gift card weekly, with a $1000 grand prize.

16 Days Left in Plastic Jungle’s Holiday Sweepstakes

If you’ve not become a fan of ours on Facebook yet, there’s never been a better time to “Like” Plastic Jungle. Check out our fabulous DAILY $100 gift card giveaway: we’re giving away a $100 gift card EVERY DAY through December 25th when you Like us on Facebook.

You want to know, right?! So far, winners include:

•       T. Wisner won a $100 Kohl’s Gift Card

•       L. Lemons won a $100 Best Buy Gift Card

•       J. Neal won a $100 Target Gift Card

•       Palmer won a $100 Williams Sonoma Gift Card

•       W. Scruggs won a $100 Target Gift Card

•       K. Brand won a $100 Kohl’s Gift Card

•       A. Sakurada won a $100 Shell Gift Card

•       C. Alley won a $100 Walmart Gift Card

•       D. Roucoulet won a $100 Barnes & Noble Gift Card

•       K. Lyneis won a $100 Nordstrom Gift Card

•       L. McInnis won a $100 Macy’s Gift Card

•       R. Stephen won a $100 Walmart Gift Card

•       C. Hicks won a $100 Walmart Gift Card

•       S. Brown Lee won a $100 Target Gift Card

•       J. Cook won a $100 Old Navy Gift Card

•       W. Thompson won a $100 JC Penney Gift Card

•       R. Ceja won a $100 Pottery Barn Gift Card

•       H. Fan won a $100 Best Buy Gift Card

•       S. Jones won a $100 Victoria’s Secret Gift Card

•       A. Lopez Jr won a $100 Apple Store Gift Card

•       R. Lane won a $100 Sears Gift Card

•       I. Flores won a $100 American Eagle Outfitters Gift Card

•       A. Feinstein won a $100 Gap Gift Card

Congratulations to Plastic Jungle’s 40 Days of Holiday Sweepstakes winners!

Search "Plastic Jungle" on Facebook to find our Holiday Sweepstakes!