Gift Cards and budgeting wtf?!

[trailrated]

Before I rant, this is an extremely awesome "problem" to have and I could not be more thankful for the love and support in my life.

That being said, I think the majority of mustachians are quite good at budgeting so I need your input. My son just had his baptism and as far as gifts go, there were books and toys and cash (which went straight to the 529) and a gift card to target. I used said gift card to pick up some baby supplies at target this afternoon and when I got home I didn't know how to input the info into quicken.

How do you account for gift cards in budgeting software????

Would I add the gift card amount to my cash account and then say I spent x amount of dollars? What if I would not have spent that but the only reason I did was because I had a gift card. Do I want it reflected in my budget that I use to plan around in the future?

Once again this seems trivial and stupid as I type it but I am intrigued with how you handle this.

[dragoncar]

Up to you.  I think you're on the right track -- if you would have spent it, it's both spending and income.  Otherwise, it's neither.  Shouldn't make too big of a difference either way to your savings rate calculation.

[EK]

I leave gift cards and the things that are purchased with them out of the budget altogether.  Don't count them as income, and I don't count the things that I buy with them as expenses, unless I go over the gift card.  For example if I got a $20 target gift card, but spent $22.56, I would only record $2.56 in my expenses.

[Ottawa]

I leave gift cards and the things that are purchased with them out of the budget altogether.  Don't count them as income, and I don't count the things that I buy with them as expenses, unless I go over the gift card.  For example if I got a $20 target gift card, but spent $22.56, I would only record $2.56 in my expenses.

This exactly!

[horsepoor]

Wouldn't worry about it unless you've got hundreds of dollars worth that you'll be using to purchase stuff you'd be buying anyway.  Otherwise, a gift is a gift.

[trailrated]

Thanks for the responses!

[Davids]

Depending on some stores and this is YMMV you can buy something with the gift card and then return it and you will get cash.

[dragoncar]

Alternative accounting is to consider the cash value if you were to sell the card at www.plasticjungle.com or the like.  That's the income/expenditure.  If you truly would not have bought the stuff, then selling the card is probably best.

[jexy103]

I used to not log it in at all, or only log in the amount I spent beyond the value of the gift card. Lately, I've started entering a transaction with the date, payee, category, and an expense of $0.00. Then in the memo blank, I say that I used $x value of a gift card (I used YNAB). This way it doesn't come out of an account because I didn't spend any money, but the transaction is recorded so that at the end of the year, I can look back and say, "My annual expenses were $x, but if I include the value of gift cards spent, it is $y more." My thought is this will give me a more accurate idea of my annual expenses, though admittedly, I don't receive all that much in gift cards each year.