newjersey

Analysts are predicting that over 40% of the holiday budget will go to purchasing gift cards.  

Analysts are predicting that over 40% of the holiday budget will go to purchasing gift cards. Consumer Reporter Janice Lieberman has The Real Deal on how that can mean free money for you.  

GIFT CARDS

Long Island

LI | Weather

LIFORECAST

Forecast. We're in storm watch. Not for today, not for tomorrow, but Alex says for Sunday. Absolutely. I mean, look at this, this morning, we've had some pretty good sunrises this week. I know Ben, you know what? We've been enjoying them inside where we're not freezing cold. That's the problem on the beach. I know, you know, Mother Nature just has his way of giving us some beautiful sunrises when it's really uncomfortable outside. But let's talk about the jump into the forties that we're expecting by mid morning. It is warmer at 9 a.m. today at 40 than it was at point yesterday. Yesterday, we only hit 39 for a high today. We're expecting 47 Glen Cove Hempstead, Huntington, Smithtown all the way to Riverhead. We are all in the mid forties across the island today. Tonight, we drop into the mid thirties, but we're actually back in the forties by Saturday morning, we're looking really warm on Saturday, but clouds will build very quickly. So expect Saturday to be generally cloudy with just peaks of sun temperatures in the mid f by 10 o'clock in the morning. And we're expecting in those mid fifties all day Saturday. Ok, let's talk Sunday because that is definitely what's on everybody's mind right now. And we have got some showers passing through around noon time on Sunday. You see, winds aren't really too bad at this point, but the rain will be heavy at times. Sunday afternoon, the morning should be mainly dry with just sprinkles. But the middle part of the day, we're already seeing showers and we're expecting another round of rain to come as you had to sleep on Sunday. So you see dinner time, maybe break in the rain. But then 12 o'clock in the morning, now we've got rain and on top of that, some pretty gusty winds. I do think some of the mole guidance is overdo it with some gusts up to 50 MPH. But it is possible. I'm thinking closer to 30 to 40 MPH. That's more than enough to get the Christmas decorations blown across the street. And we also have to worry about how much rain we're going to see. So, through five o'clock on Sunday, it's pretty manageable, about half of an inch at the most toward Nassau County. But look at this plume of heavy rain right now, the GFS Mogg sets it up just to the west of the city, but that red is over three inches of rain. So where the heaviest rain sets up, we're just gonna have to kind of fine tune it as we get a little closer. The European Mole has 1 to 2 across the island. It looks like the farther west you go, the better that heavy rain risk is going to be. But the wind is for everybody. By Monday morning, things are starting to calm down and we're looking cool and dry for next work week. All right. Thank you. All.

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Weather

New Jersey

NJ Weather Stories

Weather stories

NJ | Weather

MTNJWx10p1207_2023-12-07-22-29-24

Back in my day. All right, let's see where the forecast is headed. As we go into the weekend, we've got rain. We have wind and a lot of it. Now, the timing of it is going to be critical. Most of the storminess that we're anticipating for Sunday is going to happen very late Sunday night into early Monday morning, the weekend is salvageable. Saturday is great and warm. We just see a little bit more cloud coverage. The first part of Sunday, up until about maybe three, four o'clock in the afternoon should be dry. Then the showers start and become steadier and heavier when all is said and done. We're likely going to pick up between 1 to 2 inches of rain in our rain gauges and a lot of that is going to happen very quickly and then the winds are picking up also. So it's a wind driven rain and if we do approach wind gusts of 4045 maybe even 50 miles an hour and it lasts for a couple of hours occasionally hitting those gusts, not, it's not gonna be a 34 hour sustained 40 or 50 mile an hour. Wind gust, it's periodically happening, but that's the type of wind that could get the power to flicker from time to time. We're at 39 dropping down to about 32. The opportunity for rain is going to be Sunday night into Monday morning, Saturday is looking great. Sunday afternoon is ok. It's cloudy but you'll be able to feel it in the air that the rain is certainly going to be building. So for tonight, temperatures, twenties and thirties with just a few clouds around Friday is gorgeous with sunshine. Temperatures are back up into the upper forties. We look at the extended forecast and as I mentioned, Saturday is warm but clouds are building Sunday morning, early Sunday afternoon, cloudy dry that changes going into Sunday night into early Monday morning. Give yourself a lot of extra time in that Monday morning routine to potentially deal with some travel headaches, getting wherever you go, the rain and the wind are gone for next week, the sunshine is back out but the cold that returns with morning lows in the twenties and thirties, daytime highs in the lower forties.

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Brooklyn

BK | Weather

BXFORECAST

On Sunday night, we're checking in with Alan because we are on storm watch. So, what's this 5050 weekend we got going on because Saturday is all right. Yeah, Saturday is going to be actually picture perfect. You want to enjoy Saturday? That's the outdoor day because it's going to be absolutely beautiful. It's also going to be milder. We're going to see middle fifties. Lots of sunshine go out and enjoy it because we don't get these kinds of days in December, albeit an entire winter pretty often then heading into Sunday. That's when things change big time, the temperatures. I mean, that's the only good part about this is that we will be in the middle sixties actually, but it's going to be quite the stormy finish and we're looking out for the potential of a few even squall lines. Yes, some thunderstorms are looking likely. So let's take a look at when to expect the rain. It's going to be moving in Sunday, especially late morning and early afternoon. Look at how Saturday is pretty much dry day and night may be an isolated shower. But aside from that, it's really going to be into the daytime on Sunday. Right. Lunchtime, we're going to see that rain into Sunday night. That rain will be heavy at times. It will be a windswept rain, continuing into the Monday morning commute and wrapping up around lunchtime. So that by the time we get to Monday evening, things are fine. Let's take a look at the future cast, which is going to pretty much everything is nice and clear all the way through Saturday. Just a few passing clouds here and there. Heading into Sunday though, it'll start off cloudy. This is at 7 a.m. No, no matter where you are across the, you're fine early on into the afternoon, we're going to see all the rain showers moving in. This is at 1230. That's pretty much, yeah, that's it for outdoor activities, those sports games, if you can fit them in earlier or better yet on Saturday, that would be the best time because you could see already some steadier rain moving into Riverdale and then heading into the three o'clock hour across Park Chester City Island and sound view. Some moderate rain is expected. We'll see it on and off. It's not expected to be heavy until we get to about midnight when that squall could potentially move on through. And on top of that wind gust could be approaching 50 MPH, especially for our coastal community. So looking at that 10 day forecast again, it's for that second half of Sunday, first half of Monday that I'm really worried about some potential wind damage, those holiday decorations, either secure them or bring them all in. I mean, at least like half the weekend salvaged you could do a little, even a little bit more than half. Yeah, about two thirds. All right, Alan, thank you. Well, community health workers want to teach you how.

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Westchester

WC | Weather

HVFORECAST

Lisa looks like a lot of fun. They're all bundled up this morning, Matt, it's a little chilly, but we're also keeping an eye on what's coming for the weekend. Yeah, we have to really focus in on Sunday night and into early on Monday. Still with the heavy rain, strong gusty winds and those holiday decorations down the block. In a lot of cases, I think by the time you wake up on Monday morning, so outside right now it's still dark and early into the later six o'clock hour, the sky will start to brighten up. There will be a mix of sun and clouds today tomorrow, not an issue, but storm watch featurecast does start to show some rain showers moving in Sunday afternoon as we do have some moderate, uh downpours even by around the evening hours. The worst of this is still slated for after around eight or nine o'clock Sunday night where we can get some of these downpours mixing in temperatures, still surging into the upper fifties at that point. A lot of times the computer models can't handle the timing of this perfectly and also the duration of the entire event. So I'm not too concerned about the winter weather that shows up here. Uh, as we get into early on Monday morning, this will be long gone by then. However, that it just shows you that it will start to feel colder into the day on Monday and it will kind of be a nuisance commute on Monday morning as conditions are drying out, there's wet leaves around. It could be some slippery spots and some scattered branches around. Look at these wind gusts. I mean 30 to 40 mile per hour wind gusts on average as we go into later in the day on Sunday, especially Sunday evening and Sunday night, rainfall totals by Monday morning in that 1 to 2 inch range. So there could be some localized ponding of water with this as well. Temperatures this morning, mostly in the thirties. 41 in Yonkers, the mildest spot right now. Futurecast today, a nice mix of sun and clouds and we finally get back to those more seasonable temperatures in the middle 40. So it will feel much better than the past two days have the heavier jacket, especially for this morning. I mean 46 is still chilly, but that's decent for this time of the year. Take the sunglasses with you to enough breaks of sunshine to need that today overnight tonight, partly cloudy chilly lows back down into the lower and middle thirties ahead of a Saturday tomorrow. That is still the pick of the week, a lot of cloud and breaks of sun temperatures though in the middle fifties for tomorrow, Sunday starts off dry, but we'll have that rain developing into the afternoon and evening. Worse still Sunday night to very early Monday morning, the rest of next week looking nice and dry with highs, seasonably in the forties.

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Hudson Valley

HV | Weather

Bronx

BX | Weather

Connecticut

CT | Weather

CTFORECAST

Yeah, Nick again, some heavy rain is on tap for your Sunday. You'll get to enjoy a lot of your Saturday. Uh, but again, as we push forward into your Sunday afternoon, we're watching for heavy rain, we could see upwards to two, maybe three inches of rain for some spots. And we're watching for some strong gusty winds upwards to 50 MPH. We're gonna time things out. Futurecast takes us through what's gonna be again, a chilly morning for today. Heading into this afternoon, we're still gonna work with some sunshine. That's the plus side to today. I know yesterday was mainly gray and a lot of cloud cover. We're gonna see some more sun heading into the afternoon with those numbers into the forties, 45 for West, 44 for Norwalk heading into tonight. You will still need that heavy coat with numbers dropping off down into the thirties. Then we see those temperatures on the up as we're pushing forward into your Saturday again, a lot more cloud cover for you tomorrow to start off the weekend. But look at some of these numbers 52 for Newtown. It'll feel good out here in Norwalk at 50 as well. 53 for those out toward orange. Certainly coming after a stretch of some cold days. Now, to be honest with you, we're kind of dealing with the same setup that we did last week. We had Wednesday, Thursday with some chilly weather. Friday. Numbers started to bounce back. It was a pretty decent Saturday last week. And if you remember and then what happened Sunday, we brought in some rain. We're seeing another storm this Sunday, early parts of your Sunday look to be ok for right now again, the timing could shift. So you gotta stay locked in with us. Still work with 50 degree weather for the early parts of your Sunday. We're actually gonna get into the sixties, but it's gonna be tough to enjoy because there lies again, some heavy rain, you could see some clusters, some thunderstorms potentially heading into the afternoon. We're gonna get a little bit of a break by your six o'clock hour. But then look what happens heading into your Sunday night overnight. Parts of your Monday, we'll work with another swath of some heavy rain and thunderstorm activity. So for that first round, you're looking at about a half of an inch and then once we push through your Monday morning after that commute to back to work or school, you're looking at an additional two inches. So that's where we can see some spots, 2 to 3 inches of some rain, strong gusty winds upwards to 40 maybe 50 MPH for the overnight. So you maybe want to tie down those Halloween, um, those Christmas decorations and stuff around the house. And then as we fast forward into the second half of your Monday, we start.

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LIReaLdeal11115_2023-11-15-07-53-34

The Real Deal: How to get money back from purchasing gift cards this holiday  

It can be frustrating. Finding a great gift for those on your holiday list. That's why analysts are predicting that over 40% of our holiday budget will go to purchasing gift cards. Our consumer reporter Janice Lieberman has the real deal and how that can mean free money for you don't know what to buy your loved ones this holiday season. How about a gift card? They can get whatever they want but hang on, wait until Black Friday. When many retailers will offer discounts on those cars, inflation is driving prices up on all goods and services. But a gift card that costs $50 will always be worth 50 will not be affected by rising costs on your gift card and pay less than the face value. Costco is selling restaurant cards for less. You can grab 4 $25 cards worth 100 bucks Ihop two and just pay 80. That's $20 in your pocket. That offer extends to Red Lobster and Domino's grab an Alaska Airline card for 500 pay only 450. Maybe save it for yourself. Paypal makes it easy to pay you. They're offering H and M gift cards worth $60 for just 50 need shoes, DS W card for 50 will cost you 40. That's 10 bucks for you. You can also try sites like rays dot com and you can try to sell your unused ones there as well. Card bear dot com offers thousands of retail cards for up to 33% off. There will be lots more from Bloomingdale's to Best Buy. So hunt for those deals before you buy a new gift card. How about rummaging through your drawers to see which gift cards you haven't even used? You can always re gift. I'm Janice Lieberman and that's the real deal.

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