Friday, March 21, 2014

Spending to Save to Spend?

Spending to Save to Spend?

I'm sure most of you are familiar with the app/social site Groupon.  I uninstalled the app only to install it again.  It was easy at first to ignore it and not think about all the deals to be had but, I made the mistake of browsing the internet and coming across a 20% coupon code for Groupon beauty goods/services.  So what did I do next?  The seemingly reasonable thing-- I scrolled down my groupon deals and saw that I could get $30 worth of goods at The Body Shop for $15 (half price!)!  Immediately, I began thinking all the products I could get at half price and even better-- the coupon code would make it $12.00 for $30.00, now ain't that a GREAT value?  I mean, how could I possible pass this up?  A girl could always use some lotion. 

I added the groupon to my cart and quickly checked out before I realized that I had to enter my new credit card info since the last one was compromised... I learned that Groupon has this new feature where you could just take a picture of your credit card and the information would be automatically entered onto your Groupon account.  You still have to enter your address but it probably saved me 5 whole minutes and time is money right? Right? 

Fast forward a couple of days later, my girlfriend tells me that The Body Shop was running a buy 2 get 2 free promotion.  The next thing I knew, I was at the The Body Shop on 8th and Broadway for about 20 minutes trying to get the most bang for my buck.  After realizing that the last Body shop item I bought was still sitting in my drawer, I had no clue what to get.  I must've walked around that tiny store 2 or 3 times before giving up and just grabbing two night creams and two day lotions.  I have fairly sensitive skin and I'm not sure how it will react to the new products.  Anyway, I go up to the counter and the cashier rings me up (I was able to use the groupon without any problems) and was told that the final balance was $10.04.  I handed over my credit card and the transaction took no more than 5 minutes.  (That was easy.)  But you see, I didn't only spend $10.04, I had bought the groupon for $12.00 so the total spent was $22.04 on fourproducts that I didn't really need.  However, I created that need when I bought that Groupon and wasted of 45 minutes (not including travel time to the store) fulfilling that need.  This is something I do often and I'm not sure if it ever works out in my favor.  Do you guys know what I'm talking about?     

This is what I bought:
Seaweed Mattifying moisture Lotion SPF 15 (I have oily skin and thought the SPF is a plus)
I have acne scars and redness so hopefully this will help!  It has 5 stars with 150+ reviews on the website.