A crazy shoe story

Sam has convinced Jeff that she needs more shoes.  Jeff bought Sam's argument hook, line and sinker.  Together, they tried to persuade me Sam needed to go shoe shopping.  Hey, here's an idea...why don't the both of you go shoe shopping together?   You can drive each other crazy.  Let's leave me out of it.

I armed Jeff with my Stride Rite coupon, loyalty rewards and sent them to the mall.  While Jeff and Sam were headed to Stride Rite, Ian and I went to the movies.  I received text messages from Jeff updating me on how it was going.  Stride Rite was a bust and JC Penny's children's shoe department at the mall was a bust.  The shoe shopping duo were stopping for lunch at Chutzpah and then trying DSW and Target.  With all those stores, they couldn't find one pair, let alone the two pairs they were hoping to score.  Jeff and Sam called it a day and came home.

The next day each child had a friend over the house for a playdate.  Sam's friend left first.  I suggested to Jeff he should take Sam and head to Potomac Mills for the Stride Rite Outlet.  Maybe they'd have better luck there.  Potomac Mills is a bit of a distance from our house, but I figured it would be good to try after having zero luck closer proximity to where we live. 

Success!!  Sam did find a pair of black dress shoes she wanted to replace, but still couldn't find a pair of back-up sneakers with laces.  The majority of shoes have velcro.  That is sooo 2013 in Sam's mind. 

Now here is the crazy ending to the story.  The shoes were originally $35.  But because it was outlet pricing, they were marked down to $25.99.   I had a coupon for Stride Rite that gave 20% off.  That brought the price down to $20.79.  Then I had two $10 off loyalty rewards which brought the cost down to $.79 !  With tax, the total cost of the shoes came to $.84  WOWEE!!  So Jeff has no cash on him...not even a dollar.  He whips out his credit card and the woman behind him in line is in shock that Jeff is going to charge .84 cents.  She refuses to let Jeff charge this small amount and insists he take her $1.00 to pay for the shoes.  After Jeff politely refuses and they go back and forth a few times, Jeff finally caves and takes her dollar.  The guy behind the counter asked who he should give the change to.  hehehehee.

At the end of the day, the shoes ended up costing us nothing!  And Jeff and Sam were very excited to finally have found a pair.