How does he DO that?

Last night, J and I were headed out to Sports Authority to see if we could find him some lightweight workout pants. We are in the process of joining a local gym, but he only has heavy sweat pants, pajama pants, or shorts to wear to the gym. It's too cold for the shorts right now, and the sweats are both too bulky and kinda short (have I mentioned that the boy is freaky tall? And he's ALL leg...). We also planned to maybe stop at Wal-Mart and see if we had any luck there for track pants. I asked him if he had the Wal-Mart gift card in his wallet that my mom and step-dad gave him at Christmas. He said he thought so, but asked me to check and handed me his wallet (he was driving).

I reached in to the area of his wallet where he keeps gift cards, and pulled out an entire stack of them. In addition to the Wal-Mart gift card, he had one from Sonic, one from Starbucks, one from Sports Authority, one from Outback Steakhouse, one from Fred Meyer, two from Hastings, and three from Home Depot.

No lie, people. He was LITERALLY sitting on hundreds of free dollars. Some of it recent, some of it so old he can't recall when he received it. How does he DO that?

I immediately confiscated the Outback gift card because we have dinner plans with friends there in a few weeks. Then, I proceeded to repeat, "Dude!! I can't believe you haven't spent these! Seriously, J, why are these in your wallet still?"

Remember when they passed that law in Washington that said companies have to honor gift cards for their full value and can't charge "maintenance" fees? I remember thinking that would be good if I lost a card and then came across it later, but odds were not good that I would ever hang on to a gift card long enough for that to happen. Most places didn't start charging those fees until 18 months of inactivity. That's a year and a half. Who really keeps a gift card for that long?

Apparently J does. That law was all about people like him. Thank goodness. As it turns out, he would have lost some serious cash otherwise...$375 to be exact.

I decided we were going to change our plans and spend some of his money. I normally HATE to go to Home Depot with him. That store is like his Mecca. We wander up and down the aisles aimlessly. Well, to me it seems aimlessly, but J has a plan. But last night, I asked him to go to Home Depot first. We walked straight to the customer service desk and asked the cashier to check balances on the cards...all three of them. He had $140 between the three cards. One of them was for $80 and we're pretty sure he got it as a wedding shower gift five years ago.

Again, how does he do that? If I hang on to a gift card for more than two months, it's because I've lost the stupid thing.

We both actually had some fun walking up and down the aisles, looking for things he's wanted but never felt justified spending the money on. We did good, too! He got some Dremel accessories to round out his Dremel collection, one of those chalk-line thingys that you snap and it leaves a mark for you to follow, and a Leatherman that he's asked for for about two years and nobody has purchased for him yet.

When the cashier rang us up, the total was $142.61. Woohoo!! We spent the entire amount on the cards, and only owed $2.61 on top of it!

From there we headed to Sports Authority. J got all kinds of workout clothes, and spent his entire gift card plus a little more. But we were planning to spend that money out of pocket, so the fact that a little more than 1/3 was "free" was awesome!

After that we went to the high school basketball game. We decided to spend the Fred Meyer and Hastings cards another day, and go to Wal-Mart after the game.

At Wal-Mart we wandered again for a LONG time. He didn't really have anything in mind that he wanted or needed, so we just kind of looked around for things for the house that needed updating. We found some new glassware to replace the stuff we've had forever. The old stuff is ugly and cheap and a few glasses have broken over the years. We've been looking for awhile now, but never really wanted to spend the money because our stuff is still functional. But isn't that the intent of a gift card?? Buy something you want, but don't necessarily need? We finally agreed on a glass style, and grabbed a box. Then we wandered back towards electronics and the car care aisles. We've been looking for new wiper blades for my car, but the other stores where we've looked haven't had the right combination of sizes for the front and back windows. J's parents gave me an iTouch for Christmas, and I was looking for static cling face protectors for it. They were all out at Target, but since J had money to burn, he suggested we look at Wal-Mart.

I feel badly that he used some of his gift card money on me, but he wanted to do it...He really couldn't think of anything else that he wanted or needed. We found a bunch of thick boot socks for him, but the glassware was only $20ish and he didn't need $50 worth of socks.

We did well at Wal-Mart, too. In addition to the things I listed, J picked up a few other small things he needed (like pen refills), and we only owed $3.44 after the gift card!

Man, I guess I'm going to have to go through his wallet more regularly! He was a good sport about it all, though. He doesn't typically like it when I try to make him do something, and he'll usually put his foot down and refuse to do it. But he was in a good mood yesterday and only too happy to spend his gift cards. We had fun doing it, too.

Oh, and I forgot to mention one last gift card he's had for more than a year. I can't believe I forgot to mention it because it sits here on the computer desk mocking me every time I sit down. Someone gave him an iTunes gift card for $30 forever ago and he STILL hasn't used it...I keep threatening to use it myself, but he knows that's an empty threat...probably.

Now he needs to find some books or video games at Hastings...something else at Fred Meyer...some lunch at Sonic...and drink himself a few peppermint or hazelnut mochas at Starbucks...I've got Outback covered.