To think a £10 gift card is pointless

YABVU and ungrateful! Also, in what world is a voucher an ‘eyesore’?!

This is one time I really hopes the sibling reads MN or a time that a journo picks it up.
"COL crisis for many in the UK and a poster on MN complains because she is given a £10 gift card as a birthday gift".

If someone has gone to the trouble of getting anything for you you're lucky. Particularly if that person is struggling financially.

Accept it with good grace and consider yourself lucky that people care enough to choose anything for you. Then stop whinging and get on with it.

If you order from Argos/Habitat/Tu you could do click and collect to a Sainsbury Local, for example.

Agreed!

I mean just where else could OP put it instead, can’t think of anywhere of the top of my head, but I’ll give it some serious thought!

Just reread the OP 'eyesore on the coffee table' now that is a piss take, it's got to be. Noone is going to say that with a straight face without sounding like a .......😄

What an ungrateful cow. "Eyesore", honestly.

Those vouchers are pretty widespread. At some point in your life you will want to buy something that one of those shops can sell you, so just use your voucher towards that.

But how does that help OP, when card is an eyesore sitting on her coffee table, keeping it for a long time may cause more stress!

Some might think OP was being difficult!

I find OP's entitlement hard to believe, be thankful she has thought to give you some of her much needed money.
I wouldn't give someone FA if I knew /found out they were bitching about it behind my back.

You’re being very ungrateful. You said yourself she’s struggling for cash.

Also you might be able to go on the one4all website and exchange it for a gift card for a shop you do use like Amazon.

p.s Theres not many good books on Waterstones you can buy for ten pounds but on Amazon you can still get them for half price so it’s more likely.

Look, do you not understand that it’s an eye sore sat on OPs coffee table? It’s a real life issue, it’s not like she can pick it up and put it in her purse….

I don’t think you understand the trauma this is causing OP!

Waterstones accept them. So I'd get myself a nice book and a new bookmark.

you are not being unreasonable to prefer cash for that amount especially in your circumstances which you’ve explained in your op.
Id be looking to sell on to someone who will be able to use it easily (may be on fb as suggested) but also hopefully it has a long time of validity so it will not expire by the time you do need to go into a city/ town centre near you.

Well, to be honest I can see how somebody who can’t think to move the gift card that “is an eyesore on the coffee table” to another place may struggle with the capacity to think about how to spend it.

The eyesore part made me laugh.

It’s an eye sore sat on my coffee table.

That’s got to be the most ludicrous thing I’ve read on Mumsnet ever!!!

This cannot be real?

£10 isn't pointless but it depends on the voucher. If it were for M&S you could treat yourself to some wine or food. £10 at boots is useful.

Those all4onengift cards are best used when you don't know the person well, or from an employer. And I agree they need to be for more than £10 to make the effort worthwhile.

I’m not a fan of gift cards at all and I agree that if it’s an amount less than most things cost then you end up using your own money to top up what you would spend. Most people are near-ish to a range or Argos or an M&S so I would probably get something like knickers or batteries or something I’d use eventually. I’d rather have a bar of chocolate or a pack of coffee which costs less but it’s right there in your hands. I don’t know why people buy them.

"He sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, 'Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.'

I've just spent a £5 gift voucher and am very happy about it!
We obviously live in different worlds...

This is why I dread gift-giving. YABU and rude, actually. Eyesore!

I just don't understand this type of voucher. Instead of giving a £10 note which can be spent anywhere, they give you a £10 voucher which can be spent at a bunch of random places.

So you either have to top it up, or you're left with a random couple of quid left that goes to waste. They are just madness.

Oh my lord I missed that quote. An eyesore!! Jeez........

I can see the difficulty because you can't spend more than £10 with the card online.

However, you can add to it in shops and it is accepted at M&S so spend it on food or buy a book next time you go out to somewhere with shops. You have 18 months before it starts to reduce in balance so however rurally you live, surely you must go to a town or city every once in a while?

But perhaps you should talk to your sister and agree to stop engaging in the futility that is effectively exchanging £10 notes on birthdays, but making it a lot more difficult due to the vouchers. She may not realise a lot of people hate One for all vouchers.