Wendy Wagoner's New Year's resolution for 2008? Spend the stack of gift cards she's stockpiled over the past couple of years.

When Wendy, 36, a Chicago real estate agent, was totaling Christmas receipts, and realizing her somewhat grave financial situation, she remembered her hodgepodge of gift cards.

"I had that one catch-all drawer, and they were just piling up in there," she says.

Wendy took them out, sorted them, and started a list of the retailers and values. The total: over $800 at Macy's, Starbuck's, iTunes and a handful of boutiques and restaurants.

"I realized at that time, [that] this is all liquid cash and I just had to move it," she explains.

She began to formulate a plan.

Wendy had long savored a daily "short coffee in a tall cup with too much cream" from Starbucks.

Yet she'd been paying with a credit or debit card, at $1.65 a swipe, even though she had $75 worth of Starbuck's gifts cards in that drawer at home.

From now on Starbuck's will only be a treat, not a daily habit, and every cup will be purchased with gift cards.

"When they're gone, Starbuck's is gone," she says.

For the remainder of the gift cards, Wendy has taken a three-tiered approach. First, she keeps the list of cards and values with her at all times so she has a running total.

"As I spend down on them, I mark it off and I update the list," she explains.

Second, she carries all of the gift cards with her at all times. Stacked side-by-side in an envelope, they fit neatly in the zippered section of her wallet.

When she's out and about, Wendy checks her gift cards before making a purchase. Luckily, most of the gift cards are for stores she has been known to shop in, although not always on a regular basis.

Third, Wendy tries to keep her goal of spending the gift cards in sight by deliberately using them. For instance, she's planning to spend down gift cards to Lettuce Entertain You restaurants during an upcoming visit from her parents.

The overarching goal will be to redeem her gift cards productively, not by spending superfluously.

Wendy only foresees one gift card giving her problems: Benihana. The restaurant chain no longer has a location in the city of Chicago and it's too small to try and sell over the Internet. So using it will require a deliberate effort as well as some travel.

Even with her current gift card surplus, Wendy enjoys receiving gift cards -- especially ones that stretch her imagination and provide a little adventure.

"It's nice when they take you to new place you wouldn't have thought you would go," she says.

She notes that she received a spa gift card, which allowed her to experience her first facial. "It hurt like hell, but I'm glad I tried it," Wendy adds. "It's definitely something I wouldn't have treated myself to at that time."

In just a couple of weeks of careful spending, Wendy has used $200 worth of gift cards. She offers the following tips to others with an abundance of gift cards:

• Keep a list of your gift cards. "Every time you go out to buy something, you can reference the list," she says.
• Keep gift cards with you. If they're at home in a drawer, "they're not working for you," Wendy says.
• Be deliberate about spending down gift cards. "It's just as easy to pull out a debit card if you don't think about it," she says.
• Learn from your gift card dilemma when giving gift cards. "Assess your audience," she says. "Is this kind of person you should give something practical to or encourage to try something new?"

For more ideas, check out our 6 smart moves to get the most out of gift cards.

By Darci Smith

Interest.com Contributing Editor

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