She shops, she scores!

I have something of an unnatural addiction to Banana Republic.

It's bad. Even since I've been unemployed, I can't seem to stop going. Luckily I've managed to talk myself down from most purchases, reasoning that cute little grey suit, while lovely, will be singularly useless to me as an Unemployed Bum.

But, the other day, the Husband and I were in the mall. We had to look at something on the third floor, then on the second, and well, the second floor is only a floor away from the first where BR is. In we wander. The damage was limited: $250. Nothing major.

Now, Banana Republic has this thing. Every third sale (I know cos I asked) they give the customer a survey. You go online, fill out the survey, bring in the code the survey gives you, then on your next purchase within 90 days, you get 10% off.

I had a coupon code in my purse, but it was from April. I handed it to her, hoping she wouldn't notice the date. But she did. Foiled. I knew I had another one at home, and tried batting my eyelashes, but no go. No coupon, no discount. She told us to bring the coupon and the receipt in when I found it, and we'd get the 10% off then.

Slightly grumbling, more at myself for forgetting the coupon on the counter where it had been sitting RIGHT BESIDE MY PURSE when I left, we went home.

Well, it's a good thing I did forget it. And I have a feeling Nice Sales Lady knew this was going to happen too, hence her encouraging us to return.

I found the coupon when we got home and sent the Husband to the mall the next day to get the 10%. He got up to the counter, they scanned in his receipt.. then the cashier called the manager. The manager went, Hmm. He worked on it for a while. Husband was getting annoyed. Then the manager finally goes, OK, there you go.. you're getting $127 back.

As it turns out, almost *everything* we had bought went on sale from one day to the next. A shirt he bought went from $60 to $17. My capri pants went from $49 to $29. Everything except one shirt went on sale, then we got 10% off on top of it. Had we not forgotten the coupon, we would have left almost an additional $100 on the table.

Moral of the story (part 1): Sometimes what looks like an annoyance is really a good thing in disguise.

Moral of the story (part 2): Never throw out a Banana Republic receipt until you've taken it back after 13 days to double check that your items haven't gone on sale. You never know with that place.