PajamaGate '08

That’s right I am involved in a pajama scandal that will rock your world. Well, maybe I’m exaggerating just a tad. All right, a really big tad because there’s no scandal except the one I’m making up as I am typing along.

Please note the picture. This photo showcases a gorgeous set of Victoria Secret pajamas, with matching slippers and a scent sampler. To thicken the plot, let me share that I received the slippers and the sampler absolutely FREE! So why is this a problem, you ask? Even if you’re not remotely curious, I’m going to tell you anyway. Okay, the 411 is I love pajamas almost as much as I love a good bargain. The problem is I don’t know when to stop. This fall I discovered money-saving blogs, CVSing, and couponing! I was so happy with all my reduced grocery bills and my free stockpile of toiletries that I just about ‘saved’ my family into the poorhouse this Christmas.

Your Honor, I’d like to submit Photo A into evidence. Let me re-enact this particular crime (and yes, I am a repeat offender). I get an email from a blog alerting me that I can sign into Ebates (get cash back), hop over to Victoria Secret, pick out pajamas (on sale for $29), put in a code and get free matching slippers ($10-15), put in another code and get free scents (also $10).

I immediately, without checking Christmas list, or budget, or brain, jump onto Ebates and follow the prescribed steps. A few minutes later, I’m the proud owner of new PJs w/ matching slippers and bonus scents. Now in my saving-scarred mind I’m thinking, I will give these as gifts. Of course when they arrive I love them (did I mention I was addicted to PJs and perfume is also in my top 10) and decide to keep them for myself. I save them thinking they’ll be great for Christmas Eve. Then a few weeks later I get the CC bill…what??!??! This cannot be possible; I cannot have charged this much stuff!

But I did, and so the guilt-inducing PJs remained in their plastic tomb, and I occasionally would look at them and be reminded of my perfidy. How can I enjoy their soft, luscious, cottony goodness when I know I have to cut my budget even further to pay off ridiculous debt?

But with all fairy tales, this one has a moral and a happy ending (and if you’re thinking, hey, I thought this was a scandal not a fairy tale, yes, I just changed directions on ya...get used to it).

Thankfully my Prince Charming arrived (in the form of a tax return) and paid off my credit card (again - *sigh*). So tonight with a clear conscience, I will don my lovely pink and blue PJs as hubby and I settle in to enjoy another side-splitting episode of The Office. And hopefully I'll still be in them at til noon tomorrow.

Now if I could just find a deal on the matching undershirt…

~Pam –Typing in my pjs at 11:35 a.m. Thursday~