Wait! Before you run off to the beach for Memorial Day 2011, remember that Memorial Day is a remembrance day for US soldiers who have served in combat. We honor those who have fought for us.

Now, try your luck at a giveaway or a sweepstakes to help your wallet bounce back from vacation leakage. We here at PJ want you to get the most from your time on the Internet, so most of these are very easy to enter, and pay off with something great.

Do you need funds right now? If you have an unused gift card floating around your house, you can Sell or Swap your gift card at Plastic Jungle to get cash, an Amazon.com Gift Card, or even fund a PayPal account. Some payout options are instantaneous. Check out our Gift Card Seller Learning Center for details and ideas.

*Almost* Free!

Trying to feed a large group? Dying to get a night out even just on your own? Restaurant.com has a new 80% off code: just enter the promo code FLAG at checkout on the site when you buy your Restaurant.com gift card on their site. You can get a $25 gift card, normally for $10 or $15 (depending on restaurant) on the site, but when you use the promo code, you’ll pay only $2 or $3 each. What a deal!

Giveaways & Sweepstakes Open Now

TripAdvisor & Couples Resorts Romantic Escapes Sweepstakes – You’re limited to entering this one only five times (per person or email address), but get your S/O to enter too, because the prize is a trip for two to the winner’s choice of Couples Tower Isle, Couples Sans Souci, Couples Negril or Couples Swept Away resort. The prize package consists of roundtrip airfare for two, six nights’ stay including unlimited meals and beverages, resort gratuities and taxes, and unlimited use of resort sporting equipment. See the Couples Resorts Sweepstakes official rules for details; sweepstakes ends June 1, 2011.

Win 1 of 10 Spa Vacations from Self magazine – See the slideshow of your Free Spa Vacation options on the Self.com website, which include the Seagate Hotel & Spa in Delray Beach, Florida, a Total-Body Makeover at The Biggest Loser Resort at Fitness Ridge in Malibu, California, a scenic stay at the Springs Eternal Spa at the historic Omni Bedford Springs Resort, in Bedford, Pennsylvania, and much more. See Self’s Official Sweepstakes Rules for details; spa giveaway ends June 15, 2011.

What Cost What School’s Out $150 Amazon.com Gift Card Giveaway – Just share your summer plans with What Cost What on Facebook, and you could win a $150 Amazon.com Gift Card. Gift Card giveaway ends June 1, 2011; see What Cost What giveaway official rules for details.

Scotts Let’s Go Outside Sweepstakes – For every “Like” on Facebook, Scotts Lawn Care Products will donate $1 to a local pet charity. Once you’ve liked Scott’s, sign in and you’ll be entered to win a $500 Gift Card. For details, see Scotts Let’s Go Outside Sweepstakes Official Rules. There are two entry periods: the first ends on May 31, 2011, the next entry period begins on June 1, 2011 and runs through August 3, 2011.

Are you using Gift Cards for your Memorial Day plans? Let us know how they come in handy for you, and we’ll highlight you on the blog! Just leave us a comment with how Gift Cards played a part in your Memorial Day weekend 2011.

That’s all for this week. Enjoy the long weekend!

No refund this year? Looking for extra savings for the foreseeable future? May I share the top deals on Plastic Jungle at the moment? The following discounted gift cards should offer some relief for your tax-hit wallet.

Get a Kohl’s Gift Card at up to 14% off >>>

Get an Olive Garden Gift Card at up to 10 % off >>>

Get a Bath & Body Works Gift Card at up to 13% off >>>

Get a Bass Pro Shops Gift Card or Bass Pro Shops eGift Card at up to 15% off >>>

Even better, have you thought of making some income to refill your wallet by selling a gift card carrying an unused balance? That’s right, the gift cards in your wallet that carry a balance (on average) of $25 or more are exchangeable on Plastic Jungle for cash, an Amazon.com Gift Card, credit toward a PayPal account, or even as a donation to a selected nonprofit or charity. Now’s the time to gather up those gift cards to see what they’re worth if you trade them on Plastic Jungle.

Check Out Our Selection of Gift Card Giveaways to Enter to Win (As Soon As Today!)

$250 Target Gift Card Giveaway – Join Coupons and Freebies mom and MyCoupons.com and you can win a $250 Target Gift Card. Sign up for Coupons & Freebies Mom free email updates or updates via RSS feed & then fill out the entry form on the link above! You must check your email account for a verification email & click the link in it. Giveaway takes place on April 27, 2011 at 11:59 pm Pacific Time, with the winner chosen at random.

LAST DAY TO ENTER!

$100 Visa Gift Card Giveaway from Cheep! – Normally I wouldn’t post a giveaway expiring the date of the blog publication, but Cheep is an Internet shopping tool you just might be interested in regardless of the gift card giveaway. It works in your browser to locate the best price for products you search for. Go to the SimplifiedSaving.com link above to enter the giveaway, which ends April 27, 2011 at 9 pm Eastern, and get details on the Cheep! shopping tool.

iNetVideo Gift Card Giveaway – Win a $75, $50, or a $25 iNetVideo.com Gift Card good for a purchase of computer or console games on iNetVideo. That’s right, you’d be able to satisfy your Wii, PS2, PS3, Nintendo DS, Xbox, PC CD-Rom or handheld games jones on the iNetVideo site. Contest ends April 30, 2011; see details at the link for entry.

Fathead’s Bounty of Baseball Sweepstakes – You could win one of six drawings for a cool Fathead wall image, valued at $99.99, and it doesn’t have to be a baseball image. Fathead has tons of licensed sports images for the walls on your man cave (or maybe breakfast nook?). Sweepstakes holds drawings weekly and ends on May 20, 2011. See contest rules by clicking the link on the entry page.

$100 Dick’s Sporting Goods Gift Card Giveaway – BlogHer and Gatorade are sponsoring this giveaway tribute to Soccer Moms and Sporting Moms on SundayBakerReviews.com. If you’ve ever geared a kid up for a season of soccer, baseball, softball, skating, water polo… well, you know that a $100 Dick’s Gift Card is a HUGE win. And Sunday Baker reports via a new site, Gatorade Moms: 70% of moms are raising teens or tweens who participate in a sport (13 million sports moms!). Sweepstakes ends 5:00 p.m. (PST) April 30, 2011.. Check out the official rules for details.

American Dad! DVD giveaway – Moviescribes.com posts an American Dad! Volume 6 DVD set giveaway. THREE random winners will be drawn on April 23rd, at or around 6PM ET/5PM CST. Please include your email address with your entry registration in order to be contacted if you win. Learn more about the Movie Scribes complete giveaway rules. American Dad! Volume 6 is an April 19th DVD release from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Hopefully we’ve given you hope for useful post-tax day savings. What are you doing with your refund? OR What are you doing after making out your tax check? Well, at least it’s Friday! Happy Weekend.

An incredibly handy and practical gift, Shell gift cards can cover not only the cost of your gasoline with pay-at-the-pump convenience, but Shell Gift Cards can also cover authorized convenience items and automotive products and services. You can find Shell service stations at over 14,000 locations nationwide – over 80% of Americans live within five miles of a Shell Station. Find a Shell Gas Station location near you.

Should you be Garmin or otherwise GPS-challenged, check out the Shell Route Planner. Here is quite a useful tool for mapping your way to a destination, and locating and marking the Shell stations along the way.

Tricks to Saving at Shell Gas Stations

Need to find the lowest gas prices? Check out GasBuddy.com — just click through your state and city and local prices pop up so you can locate the best deal. GasBuddy also does a weekly Gas Gift Card Giveaway — you could win a $250 gas card. The Gas Card Giveaway is drawn weekly and open to site visitors who sign up. What’s better than winning free gas?! Prize winners can chose a Shell Gift Card, among others. Check the giveaway’s terms and conditions for details.

Shell also has a card program called My Shell Bucks, which works as a debit card and should not be confused with Shell Gift Cards. There are also rewards programs, which change frequently so check Shell.com for details. Or you can purchase a discounted Shell Gift Card right here on Plastic Jungle. When you buy a discounted Shell Gift Card on Plastic Jungle, you’ll never pay handling or shipping fees, and your purchase is guaranteed. If no cards are available right now, you can set an email alert to be notified when the discounted cards come into stock on Plastic Jungle.

Check the Balance on Your Shell Gift Card

Not sure how much your Shell Gift Card is worth? Check your balance the following ways:

Phone: Call Shell toll-free at 1-888-743-5504

Online: Shell Gift Cards Balance Check Tool

At the Station: Go to any check out at a Shell station and ask the attendant to swipe the card

When you call, be sure to have your Shell Gift Card number and PIN in front of you. Once you know your balance, you can sell, swap, or trade your Shell Gift Card securely on Plastic Jungle. If you have questions about Shell Gift Cards, check out the Shell Gift Card FAQ page for terms and conditions.

Plastic Jungle is all about saving you money at your favorite stores on your favorite products, every day: no gimmicks, safe, secure transactions, and on Fridays, we even give you a lively set of money-saving tips and gift card giveaways.

Based on this week’s collection of Internet sweepstakes and giveaways, retail is gearing up for romance and Valentine’s Day already. Already?! Just in case, it might make sense (while you’re thinking about it) to take a look at Plastic Jungle’s stock of discounted 1-800-FLOWERS Gift Cards and buy yourself a secret Valentine’s Day bargain in advance.

NFL Weekend Giveaway

But wait! What about football? This weekend’s NFL matchups, featuring the fearsome, ages-old rivalry between the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers, and the haughty New York Jets vs. the hearty Pittsburgh Steelers, are a reason for a party on Sunday. For broadcast times and channels in your area, go to nfl.com/schedules, where you’ll also have the option of watching or listening to the games online. It all leads up to Super Bowl XLV, which takes place

on the Fox network, on Sunday, February 6.

Mission Foods has an Ultimate Win Football Sweepstakes that ends Saturday, 1/22/11, so hurry to enter! Grand Prize is a trip to football’s “Big Game” in Texas in Feb, three First Prizes are Sony HD LCD TVs, 10 Second Prizes are $100 ESPNShop.com Gift Cards (each). Check the rules and find the entry form on the link above. (So far, Super Bowl sweepstakes seem hard to come by, but I hope to have more for you next week. Meantime, stock up on Super Bowl party supplies with discounted gift cards from Costco, Target, Walmart, or your local grocery store that you can buy here on Plastic Jungle.)

iTunes Giveaways & Savings

How about a BIG win? Apple’s iTunes Apps Store is looking forward to their 10 billionth (10B!!) download soon. To celebrate, they are giving away a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card to whoever downloads the 10 billionth App, or to the person who submits the non-purchase entry after the download of the 9,999,999,999th App, whichever comes first. That’s right, you don’t have to buy an App to enter. Check the iTunes App Store’s Countdown to 10 billion Apps giveaway rules for more details.

If you’re looking for a little freebie to load up your digital media, with the Power Your Playlist Giveaway, get a free $10 iTunes Gift Card when you redeem three codes from the packs of specially marked Energizer batteries (here’s a list and rules). The Power Your Playlist Giveaway codes are only found on the promotional Energizer packs available now. Just register on the Energizer site by 1/31/11 and enter your codes to get your free $10 iTunes Gift Card.

The fastest way to get a discount on iTunes is to purchase a discounted iTunes Gift Card at Plastic Jungle. If none are in stock, set an alert to be the first to be notified when the come up for grabs.

Prom Dress Giveaway

Valentine’s Day is for exchanging class rings or pins, and its follow-up parties, including Spring Semi-Formal or Prom, can be torturous for girls who want to go, but perhaps can’t afford a dress. The Windsor Store is sponsoring the Cinderella Project: Prom Dress Gift Card Giveaway, a gift card giveaway for teens (anyone under 18 must have their parent or guardian’s permission to enter). The Cinderella Project: Prom Dress Gift Card Giveaway hands a $100 Windsor Store Gift Card to 10 winners (each) so they can buy a prom dress on the site. Details are described by Windsor’s party-dress guru, Missglamorazzi on YouTube’s Windsor channel. To enter, you choose you subscribe to their YouTube channel, and go to the Windsor Store site to pick out your fave prom dress and leave a comment about it. Fun, right? Frugal junior fashionistas should also know that Windsor is a hot destination for affordable dresses under $100, sale dresses, as well as dresses at all price points for all occasions. The contest is open to residents of the US and Canada, and the contest ends on 1/31/2011; winners are announced on Valentine’s Day via text video.

Barbie’s Sweet Talkin’ Ken Giveaway

Barbie’s best date Ken is now kissing and telling. Well… he’s wearing a T-shirt that says “the perfect boyfriend” in 10 different languages, and he is able to record up to five seconds of sound so that he can play back a personal message just for you. Leave it to ElleGirl magazine to give away five of the mini-guys to lucky winners. Just enter ElleGirl’s Sweet Talkin’ Ken Giveaway by 2/11/11; use the same link to enter and read giveaway rules. For more on the Sweet Talkin’ Ken doll and to vote on whether or not Barbie should take Ken back (it’s all in good fun) go to BarbieandKen.com. Be the first to share that site amongst your friends for a good laugh.

Just FYI, uber-date Sweet Talkin’ Ken doll gets a 5-star review on Amazon.com, where he is currently in stock and ships for free. You can get Ken by exchanging an unused gift card for an Amazon.com Gift Card here on Plastic Jungle. Just go to “Sell Gift Cards” on our main page, and follow the instructions.

Enjoy the weekend!

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!