By: Revanche

A quest for hoop earrings

March 24, 2008

I’m sure BoyDucky thought I was nuts, but we didn’t have any plans for Saturday evening, so I abruptly decided that I wanted to replace my hoop earrings that were accidentally left behind at the hair school several months ago, and I wanted to go to Macy’s to do it. Given the spending fiascos of the past month, you’d think I’d lost all taste for spending by now.

I dunno. I have a gift card, and an 11% off coupon that expired at the end of the month. Easter weekend sales. Terrific luck with the last holiday weekend sales at Macy’s, and really didn’t want to pay much money, real or gift card, on replacing a frivolous item. Made sense.

It was rather strange because when we got to the mall, I’d forgotten why I was there. BoyDucky had some work to do, so I left him at Starbucks to do it, and wandered through the Banana Republic on my way out to Macy’s. There were sale signs all over the dang place, so I got distracted thinking I could find a suit deal, but no go. The next 30 minutes of wandering through Macy’s junior department was just boring and frustrating.

When I decided that this recreational shopping business was for the birds and decided to leave, I caught sight of some dresses and thought hey! Maybe…….? Nope. Nothing.

After nearly an hour, I remembered that I was there for earrings and moseyed on over to the jewelry counters in search of the sales and clearance racks. Grown-up jewelry is expensive! They wanted anywhere from $10-$30 for a single pair of hoops. Are they crazy? Those hoops had better double as spy cameras or something if they’re charging $30 a pair! Finally found two pairs of silver hoops, small and medium, for $12, and stacked with my coupon, came out to $11 after tax.

I was satisfied with a good deal, until C2 offhandedly remarked today that her new hoop earrings were 3 for $2. !!! My brain ticked all day: That’s WAY better than my deal! I should see if I can do better. But, these required no cash. Her deal required money out of pocket. Hmm…..

Make no mistake: I’m totally obsessive. I went to the mall after work, on a Monday night no less, and quickly got over my guilt about returning jewelry that C2 had picked for me on behalf of the office last September. My logic was that if American Eagle had a good enough sale, and the gifts were still worth anything, I could avoid paying real money for the new earrings. So that I don’t come off a complete ogre: the birthday gifts of necklace and earrings from American Eagle were nothing I would have picked for myself, nor were they something I would want to wear. I’m usually open to trying new things, but an ostentatious silver ribbon & bow necklace just isn’t me. For the longest time, I kept seeing C2’s face, full of surprise and disappointment when I first opened the jewelry box and didn’t manage to hide my “uh ……” face. Of course I lied and said that I liked it, and had kept it ever since out of sheer guilt. Until now.

Not only did AE not have a sale of any kind on their jewelry, the two pieces that I returned netted a gift card for $15.01. No spending and coming home with more money than I left with. I’ll take it!

I realized that I’m not always going to get the best deal ever, but I can get the best deal for me, for now. I don’t own tons of jewelry, and wear pretty basic, classic stuff. And I’m getting too old to be buying the cheapie, shiny plastic, jewelry from Claire’s anymore.

2 Responses to “A quest for hoop earrings”

  1. That always gets me when I hear someone got a better deal on something LOL

    Even if it was “free” for me šŸ˜›

  2. ~FB~ Is that competitiveness? Or just the passion for a great bargain? šŸ™‚

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