I had eight gift cards rattling around in my purse, each with a remaining balance of $4 or less. I couldn’t bring myself to toss them—after all, a dollar is a dollar. The problem was I never seemed to need the exact amounts: $2.38 here, $3.97 there. They just accumulated among the lipstick, Matchbox cars, and a packet of candy. Then an idea came to me that felt unexpectedly clever.
Before I share it, I’ll admit I probably wasn’t the first to think of this. Still, if you haven’t tried it, it’s worth knowing. Here’s the simple, practical trick I use:
Use small gift-card balances to buy Amazon gift cards in the exact remaining amounts.
It’s that straightforward. On Amazon, you can create a gift card for any amount starting at $0.50. You can send the custom gift cards to your own email address, then redeem the codes in your Amazon account. Once you’ve added all the small amounts from your old cards to Amazon, those tiny balances become a single usable balance in your account—ready to apply to your next purchase. If you shop on Amazon occasionally (as many of us do), this turns scattered cents and dollars into real value.
How to get value from empty gift cards and hotel key cards
If you also end up with empty physical cards—like spent gift cards or hotel key cards—there’s a clever way to repurpose them. Enter the Pick Punch. It’s a compact device that punches guitar picks from old plastic cards. I used to buy a big bag of picks every year for my husband, only to find them vanished within weeks. The Pick Punch changed that. From one spent card you can punch out multiple standard-sized medium guitar picks—according to the manufacturer, about five picks per card. That means a stack of used cards becomes a steady supply of picks.
There are many similar tools on the market now, but the original pick punch I purchased years ago still performs well. It’s an easy, eco-friendly way to repurpose plastic and makes a handy gift for any guitarist or bassist—especially during the holiday season when people are looking for useful, inexpensive gift ideas.
So that’s my little lifehack: consolidate tiny balances by buying custom Amazon gift cards and repurpose spent plastic cards into guitar picks. It’s practical, low-effort, and keeps loose change from disappearing into the abyss of your purse. Am I the only one who hadn’t thought of this before?