If I hadn’t stayed at work late…

Today, as Mom was driving me to work, I mentioned how Friendly’s took forever for the check, but that the food was alright.  She told me that the last time they went to Friendly’s, they waited that long for their food and it wasn’t even that great.  They had a horrible time, I guess.

Oh no!  I’m basically out of Christmas money, and out of time to find something else.  And what am I supposed to do with the gift card?  I would like to return it, but I don’t think you can do that with a gift card.  I could make a big stink about it, but I think I already made a big stink about them yesterday.  That’s kind of like I just flushed $25 bucks down the toilet.

I was working with Ivy tonight, to pick up extra hours.  As I was telling her about my trouble, she went on to tell me about the website Restaurant.com, and how she uses it all the time.  She told me how you can get really good deals on gift certificates at certain restaurants, with a few stipulations here and there.  There is even a special going on right now for 80% off everything. 

I found a couple of places that I thought they could agree on, but they would have to have spent twice as much as the certificate to use it.  In the end, I settled on a local pizza place.  It’s nothing fancy, but it’s always good.  This way, they don’t have to drive far, they can get what they know they like, and they can get out without having to worry about spending too much money.  (And I didn’t spend much money, either.  Everybody wins.)  The only stipulation that they gave was that you had to spend a total of $35, with the $25 gift certificate, so I might even throw a few bucks their way to pay for that and a tip.

So I’m feeling a little cheap, but a little accomplished, too.