What time of year is it, you might be wondering? Let me paint you a portrait: when you peek out your window in the morning from your warm, cozy nest of pillows and blankets, the landscape is coated in sullen, dark-grey ice and perhaps a bit of snow (though there’s never enough snow to make this vision attractive). Stepping out the front door of your house is also a dangerous proposition – you might get snow, you might get rain, or you might get balmy temperatures completely unsuited to that thick, dark sweater you put on in the wee hours of the morning.

Amidst all of this meteorological craziness, there are also the constant reminders that Christmas is coming. Last night I watched the Futurama episode called “Xmas Story” in which a murderous Santa Claus forces everyone to hide out behind barricaded windows. The reality of pre-Christmas season isn’t far removed from this fictional account, since the roads get more dangerous and everyone’s stress levels seem to rise with the pressure to find gifts, visit relatives, and cook that perfect holiday meal.

But don’t be discouraged! There are many ways to make this season fun again (and without spending a lot of money!). For example, say you end up with a ton of gift cards getting slipped into your pocket from friends and relatives. But these gift cards aren’t exactly what you wanted: you end up with a smattering of random restaurants when you wanted a fund for some new outdoor adventure gear, or you get gift cards for clothing when you wanted to stock up your movie collection.

Rather than let these gift cards molder in your back pocket or your purse, Gift Card Rescue offers you the option to sell gift cards online and buy gift cards for less. Full disclosure, I was asked to write this post and talk about the benefits of Gift Card Rescue by a staff member involved in the business. However, after checking out their site I got really excited about such an innovative and frankly, intelligent, idea – because who hasn’t had an unwanted gift card that they wished they could trade in for another?

Here are a few more specific details from their website (see About Gift Card Rescue, 2013):

“Consumers can get up to 90% cash back for their unwanted gift cards and save from 4% up to 30% on discounted gift cards to over 350 national merchants. GiftCardRescue.com guarantees all transactions and is backed by the best customer support team in the industry.”

Founded in January 2008 by Kwame Kuadey, Gift Card Rescue has developed into the fastest growing gift card exchange site (About Gift Card Rescue, 2013). It comes highly rated from consumers – it received a 9.48/10 from TopTenReviews (see the coverage here), and has glowing reviews on Youtube (see the video here). It also supports bloggers like myself (woot woot!).

So if the weather gets you down and you run short on ideas for gifts to family and friends, maybe it’s worth taking a peek at all the options Gift Card Rescue has to offer!