As most of you know, I am always in search of a great bargain. I am happy to say that this past Friday hubby and I had an awesome date night for less than 50 bucks! I’m sure you are wandering just how I pulled this one off and I can’t wait to tell you.Our date started at a local theatre, where we went to see the play Christmas Gift. Several weeks ago I entered to win free tickets for two on my local Macaroni Kid website. This is a site that most major cities have set up for parents to get info about things going on in their communities. You receive a weekly email that contains great parenting information, weekly giveaways and all the local kid-related events happening around town. The link to my local site is www.collegepark.macaronikid.com.
After enjoying the play we went to dinner, compliments of a Restaurant.com certificate. Well, at least that was the plan. I always pride myself with planning everything down to the smallest detail, but that didn’t work this time around. We arrived at the restaurant an hour and a half before closing only to find that they were closing early due to the fact that it was a “slow night” for them. Normally something like this would have totally vexed me, but since I am such a great planner I had a secondary location in line. In the current economic climate that we live in, it actually isn’t uncommon for non-chain restaurants to close early, so be sure to call ahead before going if you’ll be arriving within 2 hours of closing time.
I knew before going out that we didn’t want to spend more that $35 on dinner, but we didn’t want to compromise quality either. I have purchased several certificates at www.restaurant.com, which is the perfect way to dine well on a dime. Although, I didn’t have a certificate for the secondary location, I knew that with a few strategic moves in mind we could still come in on or under budget. Most restaurants offer some type of light fare to get you started for free, if you simply ask. For most restaurants it’s complimentary bread/rolls with butter. However, we were dining at an Asian restaurant so we were able to get complimentary fried noodles with dipping sauce. Another strategy that I have used for quite sometime is ordering two glasses of water (free) and one refillable drink (such as tea or lemonade) that we can share. Next we ordered our main entrée’s and forewent the desert, coming in at $32 including tax and tip (plus we both had left-over’s for the next day)!
We left the restaurant to head home where my sister had agreed to watch the kids for free. To our surprise we found ourselves stuck in roadwork traffic for about 30 minutes, which actually turned out to be a great extension to our date night. It gave us an opportunity to have a nice talk without the distraction of noisy children in the background.
Sure there were a few unexpected “bumps” in the road during our night out, but it actually made for a longer, kid-free evening with the man I love. Can’t get much better than that. I know that it’s not always easy to plan a date night after having children and living on a tight budget, but it is possible. If you seek God first and purpose a great date night in your heart, then add a bit of creativity plus $50, you will be surprised at what can happen.
Until our next appointed meeting time. Stay tuned for more words of encouragement and inspiration for M.O.M.’s near and far! Please share this blog with as many people as you know (www.savedmom.com), we have so many lives to touch. Feel free to post a comment and/or subscribe (if you are reading this from your inbox visit the site address referenced above to post a comment). If you would like to submit prayer requests send them to contactsavedmom@gmail.com. Thanks for your continued support!
Mommie Blessings,
Saved M.O.M
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