Ideal Bite

This weekend, I overheard a lady talking about how she'd gone makeup shopping and as she was checking out, the salesperson convinced her to spend an extra $50 on products she hadn't already selected. In exchange, she reportedly got a pink plastic compact with a glittery kitty-cat on it (aww)…and a whole lot of extra makeup.

Now, I'm no stranger to the enchantments of gift-with-purchase - once I ended up spending $100 on stuff I never even used because it got me a travel size of my perfume (which I couldn't just buy). However, I just uncovered a lifetime supply of PVC cosmetic bags (classic bag-full-of-bags scenario), mini purple and orange lipsticks, and bottles of eye-makeup remover (one of which I used once to get off some fake eyelashes) - all of it free…not counting the $25+ it took to buy whatever thing that made it free…which is probably sitting in a different bag…full of bags.

A few thoughts for us all to take along next time:

Skip the chintzy gift, and invest that $50 you'd spend on products you don't want in a CD (or your favorite consumable, say, local wine).

If you can't live without the cat compact, see if a friend (who doesn't like cat compacts) needs stuff from the same place and go in on the limit together.

Even if you score the free gift without buying more than you need, consider taking only the parts of it that you'll actually use.

If despite all, you end up with a thing or two bound to end up in a bag of bags at the back of your closet, set it aside unused to donate to an org such as Working Wardrobes.

-Jenifer…off to give my niece the pick of the cast-off makeup litter…