The gift card dilemma

The kitchen remodel is finished.

We FINALLY put the last drawer in this weekend — Hallelujah!

Small re-design: We didn’t end up using 3 of the drawer pulls we had planned to.

So...

There I was on Sunday with 3 unused CB2 5-inch round handle pulls, color: bronze — purchased back on September 2nd.

• I couldn’t throw them out, ’cause landfill.

• I couldn’t keep them, ’cause clutter.

• I couldn’t find a friend doing a remodel of only 3 drawers, ’cause very unlikely scenario.

I went to the store to return them.

CB2 is awesome and took them back after nearly 5 months, but…

If a return is made after 30 days, they have to issue a gift card (rather than a straight-up refund).

Ugh.

OK.

So, I find myself with a $42.43 CB2 gift card.

Then this morning, I’m on the CB2 website looking for “something” to buy.

Arg, no!

I don’t need anything right now!

It’s like…

I don’t want to lose the money by not using the gift card, but I also don’t want to buy something I don’t need just because I have a gift card.

Ooo, another idea...!

• No, I couldn’t re-gift it, ’cause weird amount—

• “Hey, Happy Birthday! I got you a CB2 gift card for $42.43! Yeah, I wasn’t sure if you were turning 42 or 43 this year so I went with both…. What’s that, you’re only 39?”

Dilemma.

I shouldn’t be buying anything “JUST BECAUSE” I happen to have a gift card.

How ‘bout I wait until I actually need something?

How ‘bout I NOT waste time online searching for something I don’t actually need?

That’s so backwards.

Here’s my plan:

I will put a recurring monthly event in my online calendar, something like, “Need anything at CB2? If so, use $42.43 gift card.”

How about you...?

When was the last time you bought something JUST BECAUSE you had a gift card, but you really didn’t need it?

And, is that something still cluttering up your home, even though you don’t love it and just bought because you didn’t want to lose the value of the gift card?

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And if you were hoping this was an article on finding “the perfect app” for storing your gift cards — here’s one I’ve heard of, but haven’t tried yet: the Gyft app.

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