I had one hundred dollars to spend.

Do you know how much stuff this deal-lovin’ mama can get for one hundred dollars?

After Christmas, I had a one hundred dollar department store gift card burning a hole in my purse.  My mind started to buzz with ideas of what I could do with that money.

In the past, I’ve been known to hit the sales with a gift card in hand, passing up things I’d been wanting forever (but couldn’t afford) in favor of filling up my basket with lots of clearance stuff that I didn’t know I needed.

That was my definition of getting the most for my money.

The way I did things in the past hasn’t really work out very well for me.

This time, I was determined to be purposeful.  Deliberate.  Wise.

As I walked to the microwave to heat up my just-brewed coffee . . . it hit me.  I needed a new coffee maker.

We have coffee-maker issues.  We break carafes.  Glass coffee pots are not safe in our home.  And our most recent carafe-less coffee-maker isn’t working well anymore.  We were in desperate need of a new coffee-maker, but I hadn’t bought one because I wanted one with a stainless steel (unbreakable) pot.

But those are more expensive.

Like . . . almost one hundred dollars.

Hubby was concerned.  He knows how I love to milk any giftcard for as much as I can.  Coffee-pots do exist in the 30-40 dollar range . . .

And then I could hit the clearance racks too!

But coffee-pots in that lower price range are destined to be shattered in our home.  And even if we’re lucky enough to find a replacement carafe that actually fits . . . they’re around 12 dollars apiece!  Those numbers multiplied by the 3-times-a-year that we (on average) break a glass coffee pot . . . mean that the expensive unbreakable one is actually a good deal!

So I bought it.  I used up all but a few dollars of my gift card, and even though my trip back to the front door of the store was filled with longing clearance-rack glances, I’m happy.

I didn’t really need more stuff.

I needed an unbreakable coffee pot.