The Great GAP Card Debate

STACEY: here's another kicker - spent a $50 gift card at Gap today that has been in my wallet then larry's wallet then mine again for the last 5 years - it was originally "purchased" with airmiles. didn't quite spend the fifty and refused to spend more than $50 so i received $1.70 in real change back...can i add it to our fund?

KIMMY: I say yes!! it's clearly passed the statute of limitations on no-$$ stuff and it is, for all intents and purposes, free. I'd say no if the card was less than a year old but the combination of its age and the inventive rationale you dreamed up makes me say yes! vehemently!

STACEY: YIPPEE!

KIMMY: unless there are any stern objections but everyone should know that it puts us so near $50 I can smell it.

LARRY: Alright, two things.

First, I love my wife and her inventive, irrational thought process.

Second, I do not believe that the funds should be allowed. My reason is as follows:
the gift card, even being five years old, was still ours to begin with. The fact it was acquired through air miles still makes it a bought item. Therefore, it was purchased with our money, regardless of age. If you find money in a couch that hasn't been checked in five years it still makes it money found in our house.

My vote is no. Before the rule book gets too lengthy I think we should leave well enough alone with found money, not forgotten money.

So says I

Going to hell.

KIMMY: I open it to the floor. one could argue that all cart money is also inadmissable as it requires gas money to get to the Dangerousway parking lot or that bottles can't be redeemed as they require gas money as well. I submit to the judges that airmiles are not money in the same way as carts rounded up are not necessarily a direct result of having driven somewhere on purchased gas. you might have needed milk anyway. I'm stumped personally and don't know how to rule on this. mom? as co- founder of this brain-child, why don't you be the mediator and we will abide by your wise judgement.

SANDY: TAKE THE DAMN MONEY AND RUN!!!
Be resonable Larry Johnson.. Whatever you bought to receive airmiles in the first place, would have cost you exactly the same if you did NOT have an airmile card.. hence... the airmiles are NOT money, but are a come-on to buy certain things..

Come- ons are not legal tender..

therefore, never at any time did you or your wife over the past 5 years own any of the $1.70 that she received today. You could NOT have taken the airmiles card to the bank and exchanged it for $50. and statutes of limitations are valid points in this endeavor,, hence, even for no money gifts,, if you have bought material or wool 5 years ago for god's sake!! you can now sew something out of it for a gift..

As the oldest member of this cohort of fools, I declare the money in..
so say me

LARRY: If that is ruling, I will abide by it.
But if that's the case, everything that we have bought with air miles in the past, ie: our 2 DVD players, blender, toaster, PS2, and others can be sold and the proceeds go to the fund? just seems to take away from the whole "Found Money" thing if it is pre meditated. (Obviously if you looking at the ground for forgotten monies it is premeditated).

If your heading to Safeway only, with the sole purpose of finding quarters in carts, hey, that's your gas baby. If your there buying something, or driving by and stop in, whoopee. if it cost some people $95 a week in gas to try and find $0.79, who are wee to stop them.

I just think that we should stop drifting from the original plan of looking at the ground.

I will go with what ever you guys want.

Going to hell

PS. if the gas money thingy was not admissible, you would only be able to find monies as far as you could walk. you couldn't drive, cab, or bus, or catch a lift with anyone to find said funds.

KAREN: I totally agree with mom. The airmiles are free. So the 1 70 is free. Today I picked a penny off the floor of a Christian thrift store. It was in the toy section. Under the knee of a boy about 7 years old. No lie. Who is going to hell now?

LARRY: you win......or loose I guess

KIMMY: that's easy. YOU are going to hell! I'll add it to the total in good conscience. is there anyone else who would possibly have a similar dilemma to this? I wonder if we should let this stand as a contribution to the fund this time only given its similarity to "dish out gas for cart quarters" and allow it to stand? I'm cool with that. perhaps we're all going to hell. but we'll have a good Xmas meal before we do!!

i see Larry's point about drifting away from "looking on the ground", but the very act of picking up a bottle drifts from that, as does the act of putting a cart away. since Larry and Stacey spent no money in the first place, i see this case as the equivalent of finding $1.70 lying on the floor of the GAP store.