Dear LPG,

Even though they are not a gift that I like to give they are becoming a very convenient present these days, so I would just like to remind people about one of those commodities that many of us get for Christmas or a birthday present and then forget. We have had even more time to forget them this year because of lock-down but now that the rules about being allowed to get out and about a bit are beginning to be relaxed, perhaps it is the ideal time to make time for a ‘Voucher-gathering’ project’.

I am talking about all the gift vouchers that people now give and receive instead of real presents at Christmas and for their birthdays.  We get them and often put them in really sensible places where they get forgotten each time we make a trip to the shops, and that is during a normal year when most of us get out at least once a week. 

Perhaps it is time to put the little plastic cards or paper receipts that represent gifted spending power in the back of our wallets or purses so that when we pass the shop where we can spend them we are not without them. 

There are also the vouchers which are designed to be spent online to think about.  I think that the most common of these are the Amazon vouchers these days, but more and more online shops are now making them available. If you received a couple or a collection of gift vouchers during your last present-collecting event, while we are still at home it might be a good idea to spend a little time keeping them by your computer so that you can transfer the codes and have them ready for the next time you want to buy something from the online shop in question.   

Some of them have unlimited expiry,, but others have a limited shelf-life, and I think that there is nothing more upsetting than finding them after that time has run out, or realising that you are standing in a queue at the check-out of a shop knowing that you have a couple of relevant ones at home somewhere.

So, before we are all officially set free and while we all still have a little stuck-at- home time on our hands, this could be something worth making time to do.

MP, New Cross.