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I love me a free gift with purchase. This is when shopping centers offer you a free ticket to an event or show when you spend at their stores. Most people probably don’t give much thought to these offers because sometimes the spending limit is high, like $200 or $300. However, since I buy gift cards frequently, my spending limit is much higher, and I can take advantage of those “free gift with purchase” deals!
Illumination
This year, our local shopping center had a free gift with a $200 purchase. It was a ticket to Illumination, Symphony of Light, a drive through lights display just at the next exit on the freeway from us. My Best Buy is located in this shopping center, as well as a Harkins, so I had plenty of opportunities to get that free gift, but since the pass is good for a carload, I only needed one.
Zero Dollars
We redeemed our pass last night since my mom had my niece and nephew over for the night. I used the code online to reserve a time, paid zero dollars instead of $29, and all six of us loaded into the car together. The kids were over the moon excited to see the dancing displays, and you can listen to the music in your car since they broadcast the music to the radio like at the drive-in theater. The kids were a little disappointed in not stopping at the Holiday Blvd setup, but I figured those were additional cost, pay to play activities, so we skipped them.
Past Free Gifts
In past years, we’ve gotten lots of free tickets to Disney on Ice at another shopping center. It has an Office Max, so it’s very easy to score the minimum purchase there as well. I’ve also gotten free tickets by buying their shopping center branded Visa gift cards which had a $2 fee.
