The art of re-buying

The Good Doctor married me because I hate shopping.  Well, either that or because he knew I'd allow him to bring some big ole black cauldron into the marriage with him, carefully storing it in every garage in every home we've ever lived, but never letting it see the light of day.  But that's a story for another day and besides, I'm pretty sure it's the first reason.

So, it was quite a shock that yesterday I decided to brave the mall.  Maybe it can't really be called "going to the mall" since I knew I was only going to one store, and one store only, but the location was most definitely the mall.  I received a gift card for Christmas and then a one-day coupon came through for $50 off a purchase of $100.  With a $50 gift card in hand, even I could do the math and figure out that I'd be getting much more bang for my buck.  And yes, even I can figure out that the store is still laughing all the way to the bank at their profit, but I don't think there's much that I can do about that.

I stopped at Panera to get to my pick-me-up cup of Chai, a self-medicating way to get the courage to walk inside the mall and tackle the task of shopping.  Then there I was.  The trying on process was not that difficult and I had my items, equally as close to $100 as possible but definitely NOT going under.  All was well and within no time I had exited the store, the mall, and was on my way home.

Halfway home I realized the awful truth that I had forgotten to use my gift card, the sole purpose for making this trip!  What was I to do?  I could use it as an excuse to have to return to the store to purchase $50 more in the future.  Or, I could return to the store immediately.

I did what any sane American would do.  I exited at the first exit, turned myself around, speed walked back to that store, returned my clothing, and then re-bought everything, being certain to use my gift card this time.  Okay, maybe any sane American wouldn't have done that.  But every cheapskate like me knows exactly why I did what I did.  I feel so much better.

And think of all that extra exercise!