even when i lose, i win . . .

so today . . . kohl's wins. and so do i. sort of . . .

every few weeks, kohl's sends out a $10 gift card to everyone. this gift card can be spent on anything in the store, and no minimum purchase is necessary. i view my $10 kohl's gift card like found money! and if i don't spend it, i feel like i have thrown $10 away. there are times when the days get away from me and the card will expire before i have spent it, but that counts as a loss for my team.

i know that this is just a marketing ploy. (some of these department stores have evil geniuses for marketing directors--i'll write about new york and company's evil genius marketing department another day. theirs is incredible!) i know that they are just trying to get me into their store. they think that if i come in and start browsing their merchandise, i will walk out with more than $10 worth of stuff.

they don't know me very well.

because for me, this is the challenge: go into kohl's before the expiration date on the card, find something that costs $10, pay the stupid sales tax, and get out. that is my mission.

last weekend, rollie sat at rubios reading his kindle and drinking soda while i went into kohl's to spend my gift card. (kohl's is right by rubios--could it be more convenient?!?) he sat there for about an hour and a half while i shopped. i finally returned to rubios, but i was empty handed. no purchase had been made. i tried on several things, but nothing met my criteria of only costing $10.

now i am not totally unreasonable. i know that sometimes i might have to spend a few more dollars to get something that i will actually use. but my limit is usually $10. i figure that if they are going to give me $10 for free, i can spend $10 if i need to. it isn't as satisfying as just paying the tax, but it is acceptable to me. i just wasn't ready to make a decision last weekend . . .

when i realized that the gift card expired today, i made a mad dash to kohl's. by myself. usually, this is the fastest way to meet my goal. so i shopped for an hour, took an armload of stuff into a dressing room, and found nothing to buy--nothing i liked well enough to bring home, even with $10 off! everything was either too short, or too long, or too big, or too tight, or too embellished or too ruffly. i did find a pair of leggings on sale that fit my criteria, but i wasn't sure they were really workable for me, and diandra wasn't there to give me her opinion. but the gift card expired TODAY! so i tossed the leggings over my arm--just in case--and moved on to fashion jewelry.

i don't buy a lot of fashion jewelry. i feel like my jewelry should have some intrinsic value to it. (i think that is how i rationalize my purchases.) if i think that i could sell it in an emergency and recoup my investment, then i feel good about it. but i am pretty sure no one on ebay is going to pay me $20 for a purple dyed mother of pearl shell necklace. and yet still i look . . . and today i was rewarded. i found a pair of very sparkly, dangly "gold" earrings! the perfect fashion jewelry! because really, am i going to wear that style in ten years? probably not. (although one never knows . . . ) so do i want to spend more than $10 for something like that? definitely not.

they were on sale, and when i scanned them at the conveniently located scanners (which, btw, i think every store should be required by law to have,) i found that they cost $10.32! yessss!!! perfect!! the perfect prize for today's $10 gift card challenge.

i went straight to the cash register. i did not pass go. i did not collect $200 (sadly.) i didn't look at any other merchandise. (of course it was almost 9:00, so they were probably going to kick me out soon anyway.) i figured it would cost me less than $1.50 for the earrings. the cashier rang up the sale, scanned my gift card, i swiped my debit card to pay the extra, and then headed out of the store. with $20 less in my pocket.

yeah, i bought the leggings too . . .

evil genius marketing directors score again.