Brewster's Hundred

So we finally broke down and cashed in some rewards points from American Express that had been sitting around for years with an eye towards getting something for our daughter, or at least her room. Call it an off budget bonus, but it was not factored in, and we got to spend it on purely unnecessary stuff. This turned out to be harder than it would seem.

Despite telling ourselves it’s free money (not that much, but still, free is free) it was hard to find anything that we still need. We cashed in these points for a Pottery Barn Gift certificate, assuming there has to be stuff we’d want here. Two constraints were quickly revealed however. Both of us have problems with getting something TOTALLY useless. Likewise the point would be lost to simply reduce the price of something offensively expensive to merely uncomfortably expensive (I’m thinking of those leather armchairs that we’d never feel comfortable having anyway).

So there we were in Pottery Barn Kids trying to find something to buy. Toys? She won’t need them for a while, and we have too many already. Clothes? All I can say is “22 onesies washed and folded”. Lamps? Too frilly. Picture frames? Too huge.

In the end we broke down and got a few baskets to organize her diaper and various potions. At least we left with something, but had spent less than half of what we had to work with. I’m realizing this parenting thing might prove to be hard work after all.

(Would that all our dilemmas were like this)