Sensible way to spend Love 2 Shop vouchers

[djdannix87]

Hi,
Looking for advice, please.
A bit of background - we're not in the best financial position at the minute (but I appreciate there are thousands is worse situations so I should be grateful). Between me and DH, we have approx £17000 of debt that we are working at paying off. We are making just-over the minimum payments and after a big wake up call, we have cut the credit cards up so they cannot be used so we cant add to the debt.
With strict budgeting and spending cuts, we manage to pay our bills each month and we are left with approx £50 per week for a food shop/household items and 'disposable' income. It isnt easy, but manageable. We have no savings because savings were put towards the debt (which reached 30k at one point). Our families dont know the extent of the debt, they just know we arent very flush.
We are being really strict on what we're buying - no more tat that we dont need etc.

We've been given £300 in Love 2 Shop vouchers for a combined Christmas and Birthday present. We're really grateful but a part of me is really frustrated because this £300 could have gone towards debt or something useful - most places that accept these vouchers seem to be gift shops, or places where I cant buy essentials.

Does anyone have any advice on how I can use the vouchers sensibly?

I dont want to waste them away on "stuff" that we just dont need. The only place that looked useful was Iceland, but we dont have one local to us. The rest of the shops, such as Debenhams, just sell "stuff" that doesnt help us out...

Any ideas?

I'm sure you can use them at Wilkos, you can use them there to get your essentials (toilet roll / soaps / cleaning fluids etc).

Sell them?
Otherwise:
Superdrug for washing, shampoo etc, Wilko for cleaning products and milk Argos for household stuff
WHSmith for wrapping paper, sellotape

Agree Wilko for cleaning stuff and bath / shower gel. Can also get diy bits etc. Then Superdrug for any other personal hygiene stuff.
May also be worth offering them for sale on local selling sites?!

Thanks Caulk. I didn't even know selling vouchers was a thing, I had no idea people did that!

When will you get them?
Could you give them as Christmas gifts?
Not all of them but some?

Agree with PP about using them tab wilkinson
Outs sells food and milk etc

Equally you could use them once a month to treat yourselves to dinner out, saves a little in the shopping bill and you have something to look forward to.

Am sure iceland take them.

I have used some in Iceland! Don't tell the neighbours.

Iceland definitely accept them. Also, Argos and Boots do where you can potentially buy new vouchers with the vouchers. I used some in Argos to buy Marks and Spencer vouchers

You can sell them on zeek, but obviously you won't get the full value back.
When's the expiry date? Is it not worth spending them gradually on the 'extras' that most people need i.e shoes, clothes, birthday presents etc?

Can you use them to buy shoes?

I can't remember which brand they are, but we use DHs Xmas bonus vouchers to buy the kids shoes when they need them.

If you can use them for a good shop, you have 12 weeks of shopping in the vouchers. You could use the £50 a week you would have spent to go towards the debt.

• food not good shop!

Thanks, everyone.
These are really good ideas.
Sometimes I cant see the forest for the trees.
The Wilkos and boots is obvious now, for toiletries etc.

They don't expire till NOV 2019.

I would use Iceland, but we are miles away from them.

Thank you again, this is really helpful.

List on ebay, they go for pretty much face value on there.

Yes, but ebay charge over 13% in seller and paypal fees. The OP would lose about £40 that way.

Argos sell vouchers for other shops, so you might be able to use them to buy vouchers that suit you better - mainstream supermarkets would be the holy grail, as then you can spend them on groceries, but there's also M&S, Amazon etc - see if they have something that suits your shopping habits.

Also keep checking if there's a new Iceland near you - they seem to be expanding at the moment - there's been 2 new ones near me opened this year.