Is this wasteful? Settle a debate!

[Anonymous]

Settle a debate!

I received a $25 gift card to a local, gourmet-type grocery store. They sell specialty items but also many of the usual grocery items you find at big box stores, just at a higher price point. I have no desire to purchase any of the specialty items they sell and look at this $25 as “free” money to stock up on some of my usual grocery items.

So, for example: Let’s say I spend the $25 on the things I’d need to make a pasta dinner. I’ll spend more per item—say $2.95 for pasta noodles as opposed to $1.50 at the big box store—but I’m eating this pasta dinner for free.

Someone is arguing with me that I am just wasting the money by paying extra for things I can get cheaper, and I should save the gift card until I can use it on something “specialty” that I can’t find anywhere else. That it’s stupid to waste $25 on ingredients for a dinner that would have only cost me $15 at the big box store.

[Anonymous]

I think I’d use it for fancy stuff, but that’s me. If none of the specialty stuff appeals (not even cheese? Chocolate?), you’re fine buying staples. Are they the same brands of pasta and sauce?

[Anonymous]

I’d use it to buy other people gourmet gift items. And then I’d spend $25 on something I wanted for myself, since that $25 would otherwise have been spent in the gift for someone else.

[Anonymous]

You're fine. People who argue with you about how to use your money/gift card have too much time on their hands and they probably would drive 30 minutes out of the way to get 10 cents cheaper gas and think they had come out ahead.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like someone like my husband who likes to debate just for the sake of debating. Very irritating. Tell them to get lost. If there's a gift occasion coming up, you might buy something "gourmet" for a relative or friend, but otherwise, just buy whatever you darn well want.

[Anonymous]

Who cares. :shrugs:

[Anonymous]

Sounds wasteful to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds wasteful to me.

To me it sounds wasteful to spend $25 on stuff, just because. Why not save $25 by purchasing things you’d spend your own money on anyway?

[Anonymous]

I think the wasteful part is spending more on the staples she already buys. I understand the whole sunk cost thing, but still. I think I’d use the $25 toward 1-2 bottles of wine to give as host gifts.

[Anonymous]

Yes it’s wasteful.

[Anonymous]

It’s all a matter of perspective. Spending $2.95 for $1.50 worth of food is wasteful. On the other hand, the money has already been spent, so your choice is to not use the gift card and spend an extra $1.50, which would be wasteful, or to use the card and get $1.50 worth of food for free.

Really, the whole cost analysis is irrelevant. The card was a gift and should be used in whatever way will please you, whether that’s buying specialty items, staples, framing it and hanging it on the wall as decor, giving it to a stranger, or setting it on fire to warm your hands with (which I wouldn’t recommend - toxic fumes?). The whole point of a gift card is for the recipient to use as it pleases them. If that means that you want to buy the pasta dinners and trim a little off your regular grocery bill, go for it. You’re making yourself happy, which is what the giver intended in the first place.

[Anonymous]

Yes, wasteful. Why didn't you give the gift card to someone else for ca $16 and then go by your items from a big box store with the $16. Win-win.
I think you two enjoyed the debate.
I'd like to hear more from that 'someone'. I like them.

[Anonymous]

Wasteful? No. Wasteful would be sticking it in a drawer and forgetting to use it. Use it however you’d like.

[Anonymous]

It’s not wasteful to use the card to get stuff you will actually use. Full stop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wasteful? No. Wasteful would be sticking it in a drawer and forgetting to use it. Use it however you’d like.

This. So many gift cards go unused. You're using it for a great reason!