Thrifty Thursday!

You all know how much I love a good deal. Well, I wanted to brag. Last week we went out on a date (dinner AND a movie) for under $20. I know.

THAT’S CRAZY TALK!!!

You are now all asking,
<How did you do it???>

And if you weren’t, you are now. <Hah, I’ve got ya now!>

Well, as much as we all hate SPAM emails and advertisements that come in the mail. I went ahead and signed up for almost every deal site I could find. (Yes, that’s a lot of emails that I just delete every day) These deal sites can either help you have a good time and still make budget, OR they can very easily cause you to bust your budget wide open. I suggest signing up with caution, purchasing after much careful consideration with your spouse, and making sure that you use it before it expires.

So, the story begins:
A couple of weeks ago, livingsocial.com had a deal for 2 fandango tickets for $9 (that’s less than the price of one ticket here in Seattle).
Now. you can see where this is going…

Did I mention that the movie we went to see started AT 7pm…. which is also Bitty Bear’s bedtime goes to sleep? So how did we get dinner out, (for less than $11) without going drive through? Ok, and this is where I become criminal. We snuck food into the theater. A whole pizza. In plastic ware. And napkins. And soda. and we cooked it ourselves (ok, you caught me, it was a frozen pizza, but it doesn’t have to be!). It would have been even better if I’d remembered paper plates.And we were early!! I still can’t believe we made it in time. This is the part that takes planning and makes the date more fun. And if you have older kids, you can make the pizza with them before the babysitter arrives so that you will have spent some quality time with your kids and your spouse before you go stare at a huge screen for 2 hours.

3 key components to this date that may or may not be reproducible: my Bitty Bear skipped her nap that afternoon and was PASSED OUT at 6:15 pm. We have awesome friends who will babysit for free. This is essential for the $20 date. Otherwise, you’ll shell our $20 alone for the babysitter!! And lastly, I have a big purse. Don’t try sneaking food into the theater if you have a small purse. That’s just awkward.

So there you go. A thrifty date that was lots of fun, thrilling (come one, you know that sneaking food into the theater is something that you loved doing in college but can’t bring yourself to do now that you have a full time job), and didn’t break the budget.

What have you done this week to keep it cheap?