You might remember that I used my Best Buy rewards to buy a case for my iPod touch (nope, not the newer one) but the case was too small. Well, one of my goals for September was to finally return it but I wasn’t sure how that would work because I used mainly rewards to pay for it. Then I got a fabulous idea (sorta) that I would:

1) return iPod case
2) trade-in my iPod touch (16gb 2nd generation) for a Best Buy gift card
3) bring in all my Best Buy rewards
4) combine the gift card with my rewards and a small amount of money for a tiny iPod nano (16gb 6th generation, pink)

It seemed like the best plan ever! Here’s what really went down:

♦ I brought the iPod case (with the receipt), my iPod touch (with cord) and all my rewards to Best Buy
♦ Got in the super-long line at Customer Services (waited about 5 minutes)
♦ Saw that nobody was in line at Geek Squad (where you do trade-ins) so went over there instead
♦ Gave them my iPod and received a $50.00 gift card (not as much as I’d like, but not too bad)
♦ Moved back into line at Customer Service to do the return/exchange (waited another 10 minutes)
♦ They told me I could either exchange it toward something in the store now or return it and wait for the rewards to be credited back to my account and reissued.
♦ I didn’t want to wait since I no longer had an iPod, so I told them I’d go check out their selection of iPods and come back to do the exchange after I picked one.
♦ Spent about 15 minutes next to the iPods waiting for somebody to offer to help me. Just like all the other times I’ve actually wanted to buy something (instead of just browse) nobody came. If you just want to browse, tons of people will come up and bug you. Finally I was able to snag somebody to help me.
♦ Apparently, the only iPod nanos they had in store were (1) silver 16gb that was returned (1) blue 8 gb. I couldn’t believe that was it, not much selection. So she was nice enough to check online at other stores for me…none of the Best Buy stores anywhere near me (I was willing to drive) carried the pink one. Aaaaah!

I ended up walking around the store trying to come up with some kind of solution; I was really deep in thought and must have looked nuts. My honey had been begging hinting (he actually cut out an ad from the paper and put it on my whiteboard above my desk) that he wants to get Star Wars on blu-ray as soon as possible. Since we’d have to buy it anyway, I figured I’d get the pre-order with my return/exchange and use some rewards. Then I could find my iPod online (in pink d@mmit!) and get it soon. Here’s what the transaction looked like (if you’re interested):

Star Wars: The Complete Saga on Blu-ray $89.99

Sales tax $1.40
Subtotal: $91.39

Minus return $27.99
Rewards used $45.00
Amount we ended up paying: $18.40

I still have the $50.00 gift card to use toward my iPod, not sure when I’m getting it. It’s been almost a week now and I haven’t died without an iPod; surely something strange is going on here. hehe. I would just get it now, but an expense came up and ate all our money.

SO…in honor of Star Wars coming to Blu-ray, the entire set—we never thought that would happen, I am naming my budgets (which will be posted over the next couple of weeks) after Jedi ranks. I’M SUCH A DORK! I know, but I can’t help lovin’ me some Star Wars. If anything, you could blame my husband; I had never seen Star Wars until I met him. 😉

Ranks of Jedi (from lowest to highest):

Jedi Younglings (or inititates)
Jedi Padawan (or Padawan learners)
Jedi Knight (or you can just call ’em a Jedi)
Jedi Master
Jedi Grand Master (like Yoda)

*If I totally screwed up, feel free to correct me on those. If you want to know more, you can visit Wookieepedia.

The three budgets types I’m going to be posting are the Padawan Budget (low level, quick and easy budgeting), the Jedi Budget (a more standard budget, more advanced than the Padawan) and the Grand Master Budget (highest level budget). My husband suggested I do this post first and explain things so that people who don’t know much or haven’t seen Star Wars won’t think I’m a complete weirdo. A girl has to have some fun.