Tips
The Salvation Army’s red bell ringer buckets can now accept Gene Grawe Fund gift cards
April 30, 2026
Starting with the 2018 Christmas season, Quincy’s Salvation Army bell-ringer buckets have an extra-long slot in the bucket lid that is long enough to accommodate a standard-size gift card. We’ve been told by the Salvation Army that general merchandise, gas, and grocery gift cards, along with any prepaid debit cards, are most useful to them.
GGF office has some FREE adhesive labels with Reloadable printed on them
April 30, 2026
If you stick a Reloadable label on your reloadable gift cards it’s less likely that a cashier will toss the card when it’s empty. Next time you’re in the Gene Grawe Fund office ask the volunteer for a few of them to put on your cards. There’s usually a jar of them on the desk.
Categories: Tips
Use Goo Gone to remove permanent marker ink from gift cards
April 30, 2026
Goo Gone is just about the best cleaner for removing Sharpie and other permanent marker ink from reloadable plastic gift cards. Not only do many thoughtful cashiers write your card’s balance on the gift card, but we all do it to. With more and more merchants going to reloadable gift cards we need a way
Categories: Tips
Destroy Your Own Zero Balance Gift Cards
April 30, 2026
Never let anyone other than you, such as wait staff and cashiers, throw away your supposedly zero-balance gift cards. After only a year in the Gene Grawe Fund program, I have had several supposedly zero-balance gift cards show up later with balances. The largest was $32.16 and the smallest was $3.56. We recommend keeping and
Categories: Five Back VisaTips
Track your GGF & RaiseRight.com Purchases in Quicken
April 30, 2026
We’re not pushing Quicken, but it helps to track your gift card spending in a financial management program like Quicken. Just create a cash account called Gene Grawe Fund and show checking account transfers into it and log your outgoing spending just like any other cash account. If you keep it up, you can run
Categories: RaiseRight.com TipsTips
Never Reload Your Five Back Gift Visa Card on the FiveBackGift.com Website
April 30, 2026
The Gene Grawe Fund receives no rebates for purchases there. We only receive rebates for the Five Back Gift Visa cards we sell from our office in the Church of St. Peter. You may occasionally need to register a Visa gift card on the FiveBackGift.com website to facilitate some online shopping, but don’t reload your
Categories: Five Back VisaTips
Don’t Forget the Gratuity
April 30, 2026
When using gift cards in restaurants it’s easy to forget about allowing for tips for wait staff. All meal and beverage charges, plus tips cannot exceed the maximum amount you allow or the value of the gift card, whichever comes first. If you received good service, make sure to remember those people when tabulating your
Categories: Local MerchantsTips
Protect Your Smartphone During Transactions
April 30, 2026
If you have a smartphone, you can just show the merchant your smartphone and they will scan the eGiftCard barcode or key-in the numbers. Never hand your unlocked smartphone to anyone who will take it out of your sight to scan the barcode. Either walk with them to the register or let them write down
Categories: Online SafetyShoppingTips
Ask merchants to join the GGF
April 30, 2026
Get in the habit of asking non-GGF merchants, where you spend your hard earned money, to consider becoming part of this great charity. We’ve had two merchants join just this summer because some of our members mentioned the GGF to them. It’s hard to ignore the spending power of over a thousand families in the
Categories: Local MerchantsTips
Put A Memory Jogging GGF Note In Your Checkbook
April 30, 2026
Use a bold marker to write GGF? on that plastic check writing surface that duplicate check checkbooks use. Or write it on the outside cover of your checkbook. It will cause you to think, “Could I use a GGF gift card instead of the check I’m about to write?” Works for at least one of
Keep low denomination gift cards on hand for tips and other small gifts.
April 29, 2026
Keep lots of low denomination gift cards on hand to use for tips. Use them to tip for grocery delivery, pizza delivery, lawn mowing payment and tips, snow removal, and so on. As long as the cards are for merchants that are useful to the recipient they’ve always been appreciated. Buy extra of the low
Use Hy-Vee’s mobile app to scan your gift cards
April 29, 2026
If you have a smartphone and you use Hy-Vee gift cards, then make sure you install Hy-Vee’s newest app for both iPhones and Android phones. It can scan the barcode on your gift cards and add them to the app. Then you can use the app to view the remaining balances on all your Hy-Vee
Categories: Local MerchantsShoppingTips
