BOGO

It seems like the most popular advertising ploy lately is "Buy One Get One Half Off". I am so sick of it. I feel like I am quite possibly the only person in the world who sees that "second one half off" still translates to "more than we need to spend" if we came for one thing.

Thak, who grew up with money (therefore takes it for granted), and is a sucker for any sale even if it's not a particularly good deal, is particularly susceptible to this BOGO thing. Last night, when we went to the Sketchers store to get him some new work shoes, my heart sank as I saw the BOGO Sale sign in the window. Thak, right on time, goes "Ooooooh BOGO...." I said, "Remember, we came here for one thing. Getting the second one for 50% off still means we are spending more than we set out to spend, and right now, that is NOT something we need to do." He actually did really well. Not only did he resist the BOGO urge, but he found the same shoes he wanted, but in a very slightly different color scheme (which I personally think matches his BMW uniform better) ON SALE and an additional 30% off. Wonderful! We ended up spending $30 on what we had anticipated to be a $100 trip. That's good because Erin decided to outgrow not only her school uniforms, but her dance clothes and shoes, so we needed the extra money we saved to get Erin the stuff she needs.

This morning, after Thak went to work, I took the kids to Payless and Target. Payless sells ballet shoes, and we needed to get Orren some new undies at Target. We hit Payless first, and of course, they have that permanent BOGO sale going on. I found Erin's size in ballet shoes (this is interesting considering she has one foot half a size bigger than the other), and we took them to the counter. While waiting for someone to come and ring us up, Erin kept asking for everything that was there. I must have said no 100 times. She was all, "But it's BOGO!" and I told her, "It still costs money. We came here for ballet shoes, and that's what we're getting. Nothing more, nothing less." She was kind of pissed, but knew she wasn't getting anywhere, so she dropped it. Then the lady came to the counter, and starts asking me if I want something else for half off, asking about all the same stuff that I JUST had to tell Erin no to, and is practically trying to sell to Erin. If she'd gone on for half a second longer, I would have said, "Look, I'm here to buy my kid some new ballet shoes. That's it. Please just let me pay for these and go." A totally easy shopping trip where Erin gets new ballet shoes turns into a drama-fest where Erin thinks she's just been screwed out of 10 other things she should have had, in five minutes flat. Thanks, BOGO.

Seriously, when this BOGO craze is over, it will make life in this family a lot easier. That, or when everyone in this family comes to understand, as I do, that just because something is half off does not mean you have to buy it. We're making great progress with Thak. Erin will take a bit longer. There's still hope for Orren.