$13

Two strangers saved me $13 today. HD and I made it to Bed, Bath, and Beyond with little fanfare. And, we had unusual retailic good luck: they had the cupcake mold I wanted to experiment with for his birthday that I had seen on sale in the circular. (Those of you who know me don't need to reread that line - I am, in fact, attempting to bake for HD's birthday, and no, I don't regularly read "circulars" but I'm glad I happened to see this one.) They also had a dustbuster, which BH and I decided we needed the other day, after cleaning up after HD's snack in the living room for not-the-first-and-definitely-not-the-last time. It took me asking an associate and a retrace of my steps to find it, but there it was, and HD and I were both excited to find it - it was the first good box to bang on that he had seen all day. There were all sorts of good things in that aisle, including steamers...but I walked away with only those two items, and grabbed a much needed 3-pack of lint removers at the last minute.

As I approached the cash register, I noticed the very mature woman in front of me had one of those impossible-to-miss Bed, Bath, and Beyond cardboard coupons and I immediately felt frustrated because I not only hadn't brought mine, I recently threw out a ton of them in a hasty moment of organization. Why would I throw them out you ask? Because we NEVER go to Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Not innocently, I pretended to say to HD, but was really speaking to the woman in front of me and the hopefully-sympathetic-cashier, "Darn, I forgot our coupon." It was a lie. I hadn't forgotten the coupon, I had thrown it out. Well, it worked. My fellow customer heard me and turned around and said that she was going to give me one of hers because she didn't need it. I thanked her profusely. Before she could give me hers, another woman, a mother perhaps a few years older than me, got in line behind me with another stack of the coupons. She too offered to give me one or more of her coupons. How nice. Seriously. So, these two women, between them, gave me three coupons for 20% off each of the three items that I had purchased. They may not have needed them for that purchase and they both had plenty (I learned that BBB will take expired coupons, so you can save them when you get them, which is why they had the stacks), but they didn't have to give me anything. They made my day much brighter. They gave me coupons and hope.

After thanking them again and again, HD and I went on our way, and my thoughts drifted to how I could pass it on today...let people out in traffic (check), tell the barista at Starbucks how me and my mommy friends drive from "far away" to come to that particular Starbucks  (check - I wound up starting a conversation with the assistant manager and we may actually hold weekly play groups/story hours at that store now), being as supportive and attentive to HD as I possibly could be (check - which may be why he had a bottle today, his first in a while, and perhaps his last - but that's another post).

None of this is necessarily earth shattering news (aside from the me baking part), but it's pretty fantastic. Maybe this is the kind of change we're in for, but I don't think that's why. Whatever the reason, pass it on. Or better yet, start it.