Hellobee Boards

LO has not yet gotten a gift card, but when we were travelling abroad, she got some gift money (in local currency) from my grandparents....so DH and I just used it (to avoid having to change it back when we got back to the US) and deposited the equivalent amount in USD into her account.

I wouldn't feel comfortable using a gift card given to LO for my own spending, in the same way I wouldn't feel comfortable spending cash given to her. It was given to her for gifts, I'm just the "holder" of the card. Plus, I would be miffed if I found out I gave a gift to a LO and the parents just used it on groceries instead.

I would either save it until there's something she does need, or buy items she'll need in the future - books, more art supplies, toys she won't need for a few years, clothing on sale, etc.

I like your dh's idea!

Our policy is that if LO is given money, 1/2 goes into savings and 1/2 gets used then. If we had a gift card, we'd probably set aside 1/2 the value in her savings.

LO did get a BRU gift card for $20 for her birthday, but we included it with her daycare lady's tip since DH was low on cash. She really appreciated it.

Diapers!

I buy her stuff all the time. When she's received gift cards to target, I've had no problem using them for her and for house stuff. When she's older of course not, but now it would be weirder to me to save it and only use it on clothes or toys for LO. I mean, if you went and bought $100 worth of diapers or wipes is that really a gift for LO? Idk. To me for a baby, a gift card is really for the parents. If you can use it all for LO, great but I have no guilt just using it.

I save gift cards gifted to DS and use them on DS. He got $50 to target. I've already spent 50+ at Target since Xmas but I feel the money should be spent on something fun for him. So I'll wait until he needs clothes or maybe get him a water table for the summer.