Date Night No. 2: The Avengers

This week we split Date Night into two separate events. And kind of went over budget again. But like last week, it was totally not our fault. Let me explain.

Friday night, we walked down to Shirlington, sat on a bench, and split a gigantic hazelnut iced latte from Caribou Coffee. Drew refers to this bench as "the bus stop," because it's ridiculously close to the side of the road on a sharp, 90 degree turn. It's not the best spot in Shirlie for people watching, but it's definitely the best spot for car spotting. Strangest/Most Wrong car of the night? The shiny, brand new, $100,000+ Mercedes G Class SUV, aka the Land Cruiser/hearse love child. If you want to spend a small fortune on a car, fine, but at least spend it on a pretty one that doesn't scream "drug dealer/desert explorer wannabe!" (Unless, of course, you are one. Then by all means…)

Saturday morning, we took advantage of 'matinee pricing' and went to see The Avengers before it leaves the big screen. (Drew's choice, but I did want to see it. I even watched Iron Man 2 and Thor in preparation. :) This is where I messed up the monies.

Originally, I was going to buy our tickets on Fandango. They sell matinee tickets for $9.50 each (!!!) which, combined with a $3 coupon I got for following them on Twitter, would bring the price of two tickets down to $16. Now, I was under the impression (supported by a very thorough Google search) that Fandango prices include a surcharge, so I decided to save my coup for a hard-to-buy-tickets situation and buy the (presumably) cheaper tickets at the theater. This gave us a little extra money for our latte on Friday.

Except the Fandango prices didn't include a surcharge. At least not this time. The tickets were $9.50 a pop, plus a $1 donation to charity, for a total of $20 even. (Side Note: Why don't they pass the Jimmy Fund bucket around anymore? It was kind of annoying at the time, but now I kind of miss the ad where the iron workers spray-painted all the kids' names on the steel. So presh.) Begrudgingly paying $9.50 for a 2-D, on-it's-way-to-DVD movie makes me feel old. I think it's time we find a second run theater…

Regardless, The Avengers was great. Tony Stark remains my personal hero. Thor continues to get on my nerves. Drew and I spend a good amount of time this weekend discussing the Norton/Ruffalo controversy. Nerdy fun was had by all.

Cost

Gigantic Hazelnut Iced Latte from the Best Chain Coffee Shop Ever: $5

Movie Tickets x2: $19

Charity Donation: $1
The sense of dogoodery born of writing our name on a paper star: Priceless

Total = $25

Budget: $20

Drew's Pocket Cash: $2.50 :(

Sarah's Pocket Cash: $2.50 :(

After two weeks of 'money trouble,' I am starting to think we need to up our budget to $25. Or does that defeat the purpose of having a budget to begin with? Or are we just having too much fun?