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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

My friend kept dds money and used Tesco vouchers

791 replies

jammyjamjam · 03/09/2014 12:24

Hi, ds had inservice yesterday and a friend (a mum from school) offered to take her, her own dd and 2 others to an amusement park, entry fee was 25 pounds. When ds got back in the afternoon, we chatted about the day and it turns out the mum paid for my dd and the 2 other children with Tesco vouchers, ie, she had redeemed her Tesco points to pay for the 4 dcs and then kept 75 pounds form my dd and the 2 other dc. Surely she could have told us that this place took in Tesco vouchers and I could have used my own points and saved the money? I'm grateful that she took dd but surely she should have been upfront about her intention of using vouchers....AIBU?

OP posts:
GhoulWithADragonTattoo · 04/09/2014 13:35

Well everyone keeps saying points are as valuable as cash so it must be OK.

(Clearly it isn't but that proves the point that cash is more valuable than points)

ABlandAndDeadlyCourtesy · 04/09/2014 13:35

Ghoul, if my employer knew that I wanted something that Tesco vouchers could be specifically used for then paying me that sum in Tesco vouchers causes me no inconvenience or loss so why would I care?

It's not like the OP was forced to buy vouchers at face value when she didn't need them, the vouchers were an alternative method of paying for a thing she actually wanted.

whatsthatcomingoverthehill · 04/09/2014 13:40

AB, if you knew you could go on ebay and buy those same vouchers for half their price, would you still let your boss pay you in vouchers?

mamalino · 04/09/2014 13:41

Kneequestion, OP said "....dd told me that she did this, she's used to seeing me use t vouchers but she's never seen anyone else do it, so it registered with her. I then asked another mum who also went on the trip with her dd and she confirmed that my friend used the vouchers to pay for all the kids in her car."

So she's quizzed another friend on it, I wondered what this friend's opinion was. For sure I'm over-invested in this!

GhoulWithADragonTattoo · 04/09/2014 13:41

O/T to Latte - I've just had boiled eggs for lunch and it's definitely the little end Grin

Lweji · 04/09/2014 13:42

Those who think the friend was OK I take it you'd be equally happy for your employer to pay you in Tesco vouchers next month?
I know people who do get partly paid in meal vouchers (that can be used at supermarkets).
Other people get company cars, even though they don't need the car for work, or expenses paid even though they are not really working with customers.
If I was partly paid in supermarket vouchers to the value of the shopping I usually do, it would be fine.
I would not be so happy with amusement park vouchers though. :)

Lweji · 04/09/2014 13:44

AB, if you knew you could go on ebay and buy those same vouchers for half their price, would you still let your boss pay you in vouchers?
What would matter for me would be the cash value of the shopping I would do with those vouchers, regardless of the cost to the employer.

Bouttimeforwine · 04/09/2014 13:44

This thread is making me laugh. I've paid for friends kids loads of times using cash and vouchers. Did so on Monday, as it happens, but I still think the op is BU.

I wouldn't pay for 3 kids at one time though, using £75 of my vouchers that I could use on my family. So the alternative is to pay cash for them, using their cash, or sensibly make my £75 worth of vouchers work more effectively for me by exchanging them for cash at no cost to the other parents . I think it is good money management and getting the best out of the vouchers. It is not defrauding the other parents in any way. Either option would still cost them £25.

DamnBamboo · 04/09/2014 13:45

*Well everyone keeps saying points are as valuable as cash so it must be OK.

(Clearly it isn't but that proves the point that cash is more valuable than points)*

Clearly it will always be context specfic, but in this situation I think the point is that the OP was not disadvantaged by her friend, but is pissed off because she didn't have the impetus to check and see if vouchers could be used and then expected her friend to subsidise her DC with her own vouchers and charge less cash.

whatsthatcomingoverthehill · 04/09/2014 13:47

"What would matter for me would be the cash value of the shopping I would do with those vouchers, regardless of the cost to the employer."

Really? So if you had the option of £100 voucher to spend in Tesco, or £100 cash, you would still take the voucher? Even though if you took the cash, you could buy the voucher for £50? Confused

KneeQuestion · 04/09/2014 13:50

mamalino sorry, I obviously missed that Blush

Bouttimeforwine · 04/09/2014 13:51

But the point is the ops friend didn't buy the voucher as far as we know and neither do most of us, so that argument is irrelevant. The ops friend did not make a profit.

DamnBamboo · 04/09/2014 13:51

Really? So if you had the option of £100 voucher to spend in Tesco, or £100 cash, you would still take the voucher? Even though if you took the cash, you could buy the voucher for £50?

What has this actually got to do with the situation at hand? The OP clearly would have used vouchers had she known, she has made that clear. Why didn't she check to see if she could? If I could use £6.25 of Tesco vouchers instead of £25 cash, I would do the latter. But that doesn't mean the OP was ripped off by paying the entry price of £25 cash. You want to get a bargain (Tesco, Ebay or otherwise) then you need to be proactive in looking for it.

DamnBamboo · 04/09/2014 13:52

would do the former

whatsthatcomingoverthehill · 04/09/2014 13:53

"or sensibly make my £75 worth of vouchers work more effectively for me by exchanging them for cash at no cost to the other parents"

i.e. get more money for my vouchers than they would be worth on 'open market' by ripping off my friends. Nice.

Bouttimeforwine · 04/09/2014 13:55

get more money for my vouchers than they would be worth on 'open market' by ripping off my friends. Nice.

No because again, it is the SAME amount of money. I can just use it in more places.

DamnBamboo · 04/09/2014 13:56

The friend is not ripped off.
She has paid the entrance price for what it is.

How has the OP been ripped off.

Should the OW have used her own vouchers to subsidise the OP?

whatever5 · 04/09/2014 13:58

£6.25 is the face value of the vouchers that would have been exchanged (at 4x) for a £25 entry coupon

Who says that 6.25 is the face value of the coupons that have been exchanged for a 25 pound entry to the theme park the OPs child went to though? The entrance fee for the Theme Park by me is 25 pounds but it takes 10.50 in tokens (this would be 21 pounds off goods in Tesco)

whatsthatcomingoverthehill · 04/09/2014 13:58

DamnBamboo, I was responding to a hypothetical question about being paid in tesco vouchers instead of cash.

whatsthatcomingoverthehill · 04/09/2014 14:03

Oh ffs. A voucher is not money. Its monetary value is what people are prepared to pay for it in cash. Which in this case is a lot less than £25. And if you are routinely doing this to your friends then you are being dishonest with them too.

Infinity8 · 04/09/2014 14:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Bouttimeforwine · 04/09/2014 14:05

I've never done this but would support a friend to do it. Anything else would be subsidising me. It's practical.

DamnBamboo · 04/09/2014 14:05

I agree whats but then the OP should have used her own vouchers to incur the savings. She didn't. Tough titties.

wellthatsdoneit · 04/09/2014 14:12

She hasn't made a profit. The vouchers she used are worth £25 at that particular theme park.

kittykatsforever · 04/09/2014 14:16

It makes me laugh! What kind of a friend are you that says pay with the £25 I've given you god damit let the theme park make a bigger profitConfused admit what you aggrieved at is you didn't have the common sence to check if there was a cheeper way to pay and that you wanted your dd taken out for a great fun day with all her friends £6!
Wouldn't we all love, she was maybe being savvy and thinking oh cash will give me more options but your the ungrateful unreasonable one here is does come down to your greed whether you want to admit it or not you wanted the saving, if you didn't mind her paying £25 cash they why does it effect you at all? Really why?