A Frugal Date Night

Did I ever tell you that I got TWO offers for my trailer this summer? Yes, it's true. After I agreed to sell it to my friends for one price I received a second offer a few days later for $2500 more. I was on the horns of a dilemma. Do I screw over my friends for a bit more cash? I was sorely tempted. The two offers, by the way, were a YEAR after having it on the market and on kijiji. I had a few emails and phone calls but no firm bites. So when Michael told our friends about it and how much I hoped to get I jumped at their offer when they made one- they didn't lowball me or anything, they offered me just what I wanted. How was I to know that shortly thereafter I'd get a better offer.


Or was it.............?


Before you leave this post scratching your head in bewilderment thinking the crazy lady has finally cracked up for good and what the heck does this have to do with a frugal date night let me enlighten you.


Hello...are you still there? Oh, good...ok here goes.....


Our friends who I DID sell the trailer too with still a few regrets own a restaurant called Jambalaya - yummy Cajun & Caribbean food with a bit of Thai thrown in for fun.  Is it starting to make sense yet? Last night when I picked Michael up after work we had less than 1.5 hours before our movie started at the Hyland. Since Jambalaya is two doors down from Fodemisi Shoes where Michael works we decided to eat there. Needless to say, once we'd eaten our way through soup, cornbread, pad thai for me and Black Pepperpot (Guyanese chicken stew) for him, plus drinks (sour green apple spritzer for me, red wine for him), we were pleasantly surprised when head chef and owner Kevin said "folks, it's on me!" 


When I made the deal with the owners to buy my trailer I did jokingly say they could give me "free pad thai" for life but I know when you're in the restaurant business in a city with way more restaurants that it can sustain it's not in your best interests to give away food so I appreciated the gesture very much. (It's not the first time he's done this for us either, though I never expect it.)


The pad thai is such a huge meal that I always bring half home and have it for lunch (I just finished it up and it was so delicious!)   So our only cost for our "date night" evening was the price of two movies each (yes it was a double header we couldn't resist) and 1 bag of popcorn for a total of $30.00! Frugal indeed!


Which was good since I splurged on a new vacuum cleaner yesterday when I was Christmas shopping...oops! I would say that our old vacuum cleaner SUCKS but clearly it doesn't "suck" very well at all. And if there's one thing you want to be able to say about your vacuum cleaner is that it SUCKS!


Today is a relaxing day - I've balanced my books (that's another story in itself!), done all the laundry, read the paper, read all of your posts, went to the farmer's market, filled the car with slightly less expensive gas (as compared to last Saturday) and now I am heading down to the basement to do some more de-cluttering followed by some cycling. Happy days are here again!