Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Giftcard Overload

Right now my family is stacked with giftcards. These all accumulated over the Christmas break, teacher appreciation week, Valentines, and my birthday. Right now these are the following cards we have plus the totals on them:

Goodhues Steaks: $50
Texas Roadhouse: $25
Texas Roadhouse: Dinner for 2
Chilis-On the Border: $25
Macaroni Grill: $20(my wife used it today)
McDonalds: $10(I spent 1/2 today)
Mama Emelias: $20
2 free kids meals at Chilis: $8
Barnes and Noble: 2 at $10 each
Lowes Home Improvement: $20
Target: $40
Heard Animal Museum: $16
Panera Bread Company: $10
CASH: $70

I have been conditioned over the past 2 years to NOT SPEND MONEY and to do without. Now that I have money to spend on myself I don't know where to start. Do I actually buy something that I want or do I buy something that I actually need?

Part of the difficulty in using dinner gift cards is the fact that we have 2 kids. To use a $20 giftcard we would need to spend $20 on a sitter and up until about 2 weeks ago we could afford to do that. We also don't want to take the kids to some of the places because we are less likely to actually enjoy the special treat. And, I'm trying to get back on track on my calorie diet and who wants to "be good" when going to a nice dinner spot?

I guess this is a good situation to actually be in!

No comments: