A lesson on Honesty

Thank you so much to all those who left comments about my terrible day yesterday. Today I woke up with a little bit of a better attitude about it, and hopefully all will work out. I will keep you posted on it all.

Anyways, I hesitated, as usual to do this post. I wanted to do it after the first incident that I had with this certain topic, but was afraid I would come off as self righteous or appear to have a holier- than- though attitude. After my second incident, I decided I definitely had to include it in my posts. It is a cheerful post, and since yesterday’s was so down, I thought I better do it. So remember, I am not self righteous nor do I have a holier than though attitude.

Ever since I was little, the main thing I think my parents taught me was about being honest in every way. I have tried my darndest to be my best at that. I have had many opportunities to do so, and mostly I have succeeded, but of course I have failed as well. Well, a little situation was given to me to show my honesty a few weeks ago. Then I had another chance yesterday.

We didn’t have too much money for school clothes this year. I was so so sad, because I wanted to buy tons of new cute stuff for my kids to wear for school. Well, me being a budget freak, and looking into the future of expenses we were going to have the next few months, I only came up with $200 to buy clothes for both kids going to school. I didn't want to spend that $200 on gas to get to a mall to buy them, so luckily, Old Navy was having an online sale. A really good one at that. So you will be very impressed with what $200 got me. I got Hallie: 2 pairs of pants, 4 shirts, 1 coat, and 1 dress w/ leggings, underwear and socks. I got Gavin 2 pairs of pants, 3 shirts, underwear and socks. I was so pleased with my bargain shopping.

Well, the day for the package to arrive came, and I excitedly opened the box and loved everything. I looked next to the box I had opened, and realized that they had sent another box-an exact duplicate order… My first thought was oh great; they charged my debit card double. So I hurry and checked my bank statement and they hadn’t. So I called the company to tell them, and the lady I talked to was actually shocked. She said that most people would have returned the whole box and just pretended they were getting a full refund. I guess that thought had entered my mind for a fraction of a second, but I couldn’t have lived with myself if I did that. So she told me to print off a return label, send the duplicate box back, and they would make a note on my account not to credit me for it.

So, days past by and a few days ago I was checking my bank account online. I was shocked when I had a full credit from Old Navy. I was a little bit upset because I thought of all the trouble I had gone through to get that darn box back to them. This next part I am ashamed to admit, but I thought oh well, their problem, I’m not calling. Well, I called G.J. and told him the situation. He said, “Kandice, that is not our money, you call them right now.” So, I did, and guess what the lady said, “You have been honest with us not only once, but twice, so you keep that money and do whatever you want with it.” I was so happy I almost cried…so silly I know, but when money is tight, $200 is a HUGE amount to me.

So this is where my story leads next. I had only got the kid’s clothes, not shoes or anything else. Since I now had another $200 to spend, I got them each a couple pair of shoes on a great steal of a deal here in Vernal. Then I took a look at my running (or in my case walking) shoes and realized I really wanted a new pair. I hardly ever buy things for myself. Besides what I buy from Modbe, I basically don’t buy anything. My good friends Mandy and Holly told me I better buy something for myself or ELSE… So Monday, I went to Basin Sports to look. They had the CUTEST pair of Nike running shoes that were white with pink and green accents. They also had a few more pairs of shoes for my kids that were on a great sale. Even with money in hand, I just could NOT make myself buy them. So I left.

Then after my terrible day yesterday, my good husband let me take a nice bubble bath, get ready, and go back to the store to get me the shoes. Well, the first day I got there, they happened to be on sale. Just my luck, on my already terrible day yesterday I got there and they were no longer on sale. But, the kid’s shoes were now 40 and 50 % off, so I decided to get those. Then I just caved in and said that I would take the running shoes too. I paid the girl and left-experiencing the buyer’s remorse that always seems to come when I spend money on myself.

Well, I got looking at my receipt this morning, and they charged me wrong. Like way wrong, they charged me too little. They were supposed to give me 40% off on a $19 pair of sandals for Gavin. Instead, they gave me 40% off on my $80 running shoes. I was like oh great, here we go again. Of course, the natural man (woman) in me reared its ugly head, and I thought I wouldn’t do anything. After like 10 minutes of a guilty pit in my stomach, I gave Basin Sports a call. The girl had to talk to her manager and then call me back. To my surprise, once again, she said, “thanks for being honest, it was our mistake, don’t worry about making up the difference.”

So, the moral of this post is not to show you that I am some saint or whatever. Just to show you that honestly really does count and matter, and in my case, earned me a lot of money! Have a great day!