Anonymous wrote:Yes.

Door stop.

Yes.
Fullll Stahhp.

Using it for food you'll eat is not wasteful. Bon appétit

Yes.

Door stop.

I would likely hold on to the gift card, then when I need to purchase a housewarming, dinner party, etc. gift for a host I would use it to buy something nice.

It's a cheap thing to argue about. You said you don't want specialty items so why would you save it?

I had $200 to spend at Columbia recently. I bought stupidly expensive underwear for my kids as they had nothing else they wanted. It broke my heart to overspend on that- but we are talking $200 not $25.

The $25 is a sunk cost so just use the GC for anything you want.

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

Can we stop with the "Full stop" nonsense? That wasn't even a major point that needed a "full stop" added to the end of it.

just buy fancy olive oil and be done with this. So much angst over stupid chit.

I love stocking up on specialty items, and my DH got an xmas gc for a similar store. It was super fun to browse and grab some random things, but we also bought things like fancy pasta and cheap measuring spoons.

I don't think wasteful is the right word. You could recreate the meal for cheaper, but out of pocket. But you don't want to. And it's your gc. So enjoy your pasta!

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1 get whatever the heck you want

Anonymous wrote:Of course it’s wasteful to spend more money on something than you need to.

Even more wasteful to buy something you neither want nor need to “avoid waste.” OP’s use is saving HER money and she has things she wants, which was the purpose of the gift.

No it is not wasteful. First of all, it's not even your money. Second, you don't even know how the person who gave it to you came by it -- it might have been gifted to them, in which case it's no ones money, it's the store giving some things away for free. Third, the "specialty" items at the store also have some ridiculous mark up, so you are not getting better value by buying them instead of the everyday items, especially if you will definitely use the everyday items.

That person is dumb, but I think you knew that. I hate arguing with people like that who just dig in and dig in on a position that has no grounding in logic, because it's what they would do or because it "sounds right" to them.

Your friend is making a silly argument. According to her, one must use a gift card for unique things only the store sells, even if it’s something you don’t want?

The upcharge money was "wasted" (really, donated to the store business) when the card was bought.
Better to get food you like than food you don't. Getting something "fancy" is even more wasteful, since the cost is even higher.
Far more wasteful is the time spent on this thread.

Of course it’s wasteful to spend more money on something than you need to.