Toward the end of last winter, I purchased a pack of replacement furnace filters at a home improvement store. When I got them home and set to the task of removing the old ones, I realized that I\u2019d purchased the wrong size replacements. Fortunately, I hadn\u2019t yet opened the package, so, planning to return them for a refund – or to replace them with the correct size – I put them in the car so I wouldn\u2019t forget next time I was at that particular store. Well, up until a month ago, those furnace filters sat in the back seat. Not once in all those months did I go back to that store.<\/p>\n
In the interim, I purchased the correct size at another store. But last month, I did finally bring the filters back to the store where they were purchased. The very nice associate asked if I had the receipt so she could refund the amount I\u2019d paid. I didn\u2019t. She offered to look it up by my debit card (and my husband\u2019s) in case I\u2019d paid that way. She could find no record of the transaction. She told me the best she could do is to look up the item\u2019s value on the computer and give me store credit. Under the circumstances, I told her that would be fine. She came back to me with a refund amount of – get this – $.01 – yes, a whopping one cent. Why so little? Because in the year that they\u2019d been sitting in my back seat, the store had discontinued the item. Needless to say, I am now the proud owner of a 3-pack of furnace filters for which I have absolutely no use.<\/p>\n
This situation made me feel financially irresponsible. I wasted $14 by not returning them sooner and I still had to incur the expense of buying the correct filters. As an avid penny-pincher, I hate that! We\u2019ve all been there, though – being \u201cstuck\u201d with merchandise that we don\u2019t need or want but are unable to return for a number of reasons, such as:<\/p>\n
What can we do to lessen the blow of these losses? It\u2019s all in the way you look at the situation.
\nThe key is to redefine this oversight into an opportunity rather than an irresponsible mistake. I\u2019d dealt with this type of situation before with these items:<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t return any of them so I decided to make the best of them. It was time to kick my creativity into high gear so I consulted the Internet for ideas on repurposing these purchases into something worth the money I\u2019d paid for them. Here are some of the most useful and interesting ideas I\u2019ve discovered:<\/p>\n
Covering\/camouflaging stains<\/strong><\/p>\n Embellishing to cover stains–tutorial!<\/a> Man\u2019s shirt too small<\/strong>Make dress from mens shirt<\/a><\/p>\n Camouflage\/repair scratched wood furniture<\/strong> Wrong size bed sheets<\/strong>
\nHide Stains on Clothing\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\nDecor<\/h3>\n
\nHow to Repair Scratches, Dings, and Dents<\/a>
\nPaint Makeovers: An Expert Tells Al<\/a>l
\nDecorative Painted Furniture<\/a><\/p>\nHousehold<\/h3>\n
\nCreative and cool ways to reuse old bed sheets<\/a><\/p>\n