For One Moment, I Knew How An Extreme Couponer Felt

And let me tell you, it was freaking awesome!

Way back in December (for some reason it feels like eons ago), I was out Christmas shopping with Mom. Every Christmas we pick a day and it's just the two of us, hanging out, catching up, and shopping. Just a nice "girls day".

It was kind of towards the end of our shopping day and I was looking for a couple more things. One of them being for Boyfriend. So Mom and I popped into Kohl's  to see if they had any t-shirts. I knew it would be impossible to find the shirts I was looking for, it being December and all (and supposedly winter, however Mother Nature has completely screwed us over this year).

Instead of t-shirts, I found a really nice zip-up hoodie with fleece lining. Since his new job at a small town water district is awful cold, I figured it would help keep him warm. I looked at the price tag and gasped. $80!! I looked up and sighed with relief when I saw that it was on sale for 50% off. Niiiiiice.

Mom had a couple Kohl's coupons in her wallet that she'd let me use and said she'd put in on her Kohl's card and I could just pay her back when the bill came in. We were all set.

As the cashier was ringing up the sweater and discussing coupons with my Mom, I suddenly remembered that I had a gift card to Kohl's from the previous Christmas. The cashier looked at me like I was insane. I pulled it out of my wallet and said, "There's probably only $5 left on it or something, but whatever."

The gal scanned it while I wasn't paying attention (because I was putting my wallet back in my purse) and suddenly Mom was elbowing me saying, "They owe you money! Holy shit!"

I looked up all confused and the cashier said, "There's twenty-four and change on here. Did you just want to go ahead and use it all up?"

I stared - dumbfounded - at the register screen. The ($80) sweater (after all the coupons) came to $22 and some change. The gift card still had $24 and change on it. The store only owed me $2, but still.

But STILL. The store owed ME.

That never happens.

So I went across the street to Best Buy and bought Boyfriend "The Hobbit" since I didn't have to spend any of my own money on the really nice sweater from Kohl's.

And for one brief moment in time, I finally knew how one of those extreme couponers felt when the grocery store owed them money at the end of it all.