£200 Loyalty Award from work- what to get

[SewingWarriorQueen76]

Posting for traffic. I am due a long service award at work in December. Its £200 of vouchers for a company of your choice. I am really struggling to think of where. I don't need any new shoes / clothes/ make up and I do prefer small business, though I can't see work buying me vouchers for the local sewing shop, if you see what I mean.
A colleague suggested it should be something memorable.
Hoping that you can all help me with some ideas.
Thanks

Jewellery?

Or something nice for your house?

John Lewis, then you can have a massive food shop at Waitrose.

Garden centre? Choice of household goods and plants then?

Not to sound boring but can you ask for vouchers for your usual supermarket?

My thinking being you use the vouchers against your usual shopping and put the money to one side for you and therefore you have £200 cash to spend when you like on what you like (including the local sewing shop)!

Also, asda is not likely to go out of business in the next few months, something you have to seriously consider with vouchers particularly at the minute.

@44PumpLane, I like your thinking.

Someone at my work got houseplants

I got £100 for my 25 year service award and got myself a kindle paperwhite and a new purse (it is a few years ago). I think I had to put a bit towards it.

Ideas include, handbag, purse, fitbit, kindle, watch, picture. Or if you prefer, treat yourself to a spa day, treatment, haircut or weekend break once lockdown is over.

We were given those vouchers that you can used an a number of shops so when it came to, I was able to shop around. It is nice they ask though because if you want hotel/spa/beauty/garden centre, they may not cover it.

I would choose Amazon. That’s months and months of little gifts to myself - books, sweets, nice pens etc.

Enjoy it!

If you like the idea of small businesses, what about somewhere like Etsy where you could buy from smaller sellers?

Or a book token, our local independent bookshop accepts these. £200 worth of books would make me very happy!

Long service (25yrs) £150 a number of years ago.I bought a food processor and pine head board to match other furniture .Processor still going strong. Headboard broken . I think suggestion of supermarket vouchers and putting equal money into a pot to spend on sewing/craft things great idea so you get what you want to spoil yourself.

Yeah, Def book vouchers 🥰

I would say John Lewis as you could put that towards a special purchase - they sell a lot of brands inc tech/electrics and offer an extended warranty.

Otherwise it depends on your hobbies and interests and small businesses can be niche

I was also going to suggest John Lewis as you can extend the expiry date of their vouchers just by doing a balance check (extends by 12 months) and you have the Waitress option. But I can see the appeal of the supermarket suggestion.

Waitrose!

I think it would feel wasted at the supermarket, unless you need to spend it on food obviously.

I need a new phone and tablet so it would go towards one of those. It makes that £500 cost less painful!

Husband has had a couple of these over the years for different things and he’s had currys vouchers both times, first time he bought a new washing machine and second time a smart watch

I would choose garden centre vouchers, as I would buy a new garden Ben h or sun lounger or firepit or a massive pot and a shrub or an established small tree (Amelanchier or purple magnolia) or that kind of thing.

@WellTidy, I might look at this. Am thinking some new garden furniture might make me stop and smell the roses.

John Lewis vouchers are accepted at Waitrose as well so you could use the vouchers for normal shopping and use £200 in cash for any shop you want.

I do this with our annual Christmas voucher from M&S. The idea is to buy something nice towards your own Christmas dinner but I never find anything I like. So I use it for tights or knickers and spend the value in cash where I like it.

If possible I would ask for multi store and definitely a company that is not struggling. I would use for Christmas presents or food shop and be spending the money saved in the New Years sale.

I would choose Amazon which sells anything and everything you need.

I would choose your usual supermarket and then use the cash at the independent stores you prefer to support.

Sewing you could have national garden centre couchers, rather than ones particular to your local garden centre. It is so easy to spend £200 in a garden centre! We spend lots of time in our garden from spring to autumn, it’ll we would really reap the rewards.

Not a great idea right at the moment , but unspent my £200 long service award on vouchers for a travel agency. We went to Venice though admittedly I did have to add a lot more to it!