School started for Real-Sig™ this month, and that means school clothes shopping. And with a boy who couldn’t care less about fashion that means Kohl’s. It seems simple enough: go in, pick things that fit and walk out ready to start school. But if you’ve ever been to Kohl’s, you know it’s never as simple as that. They have this strange menagerie of discounts that all tie together with the main goal of getting you into their store as often as possible. You pick up a pair of pants and they are marked $50 but they aren’t really $50—if you can find the right sign for the pants; you see they are really $25. Once you gather all 300 items under your arm and fight your way to the checkout, then it’s time to figure out rewards points and coupons…and the pants end up being $8. Add that to everything else you bought, and you get Kohl’s cash to spend about a week later.

The problem is that I never remember all that until we are checking out, and I don’t have anything else that needs buying until next season, but how can you pass up $5000 in Kohl’s cash? It is a vicious cycle and yet I get on that ride every year.