Date Night No. 3: North A-ton

This weekend, we had less of a date night and more of a date weekend, which I will take over the former just about every time. Saturday morning we ran the usual gamut of errands and chores, but by mid-afternoon we’d had enough of that. Drew had yet to see the neighborhood where I work, so we took a rare weekend bus trip up to my M-F neck of the woods – his first trip into the wilds of Northern Arlington.

Showing off while waiting for the bus. ;) I got an iPhone from work, so I've been working on my Instagram skillz. Poor Drew has to put up with being my constant subject.

We didn’t go into my office, but we did walk around the building so I could show him all its vital amenities - Starbucks, CVS, etc. (Have I mentioned I’ve made it my sad, new personal goal to earn a Starbucks Gold Card? Everyone and their mother has them here. I feel so left out.) After that, we took a quick turn through Crate & Barrel. I’ve been window shopping for a reasonably-priced/awesome living room rug for several months and came so close to finding one here. The Barker Rug in Blue matches our living room perfectly AND is on sale. The only problem? It doesn’t come in 5x7. And even if I had $400 to drop on a rug, 6x9 is way too large. (And 4x6 is way too small.) Figures.

So instead we bought three porcelain condiment spoons for $1 a pop, promised ourselves we’d hit up the C&B Outlet in Old Town for more rugs on the cheap, and went on our merry way. J

For dinner, we came ‘this close’ to buying shrimp po’ boys from a purple food truck parked outside of The Container Store (aka OCD“R”Us), but something about buying seafood from a truck gave us the willies and we ended up at Baja Fresh instead. While I’m all about supporting quirky eateries on wheels, I’m not big on Cajun food. Fresh pico and over sized burritos will win me over any day.

War of the iPhone cameras.

We finished off the night with an exciting game of “Can We Make it to the Next Bus Stop Before the Bus Drives By?” (Answer? Yes, until we chickened out and camped out on a bench next to someone’s Astin Martin parked on the street. Egads! Why don’t you just put a sign on it that says “HIT ME!”) and a Redbox-sponsored viewing of Captain American as part of my post-Avengers education. (Better than Thor, but still not as good as Iron Man.) We did stop by the C&B Outlet on the way home from church Sunday, but still no dice. The great living room rug search continues!

Costs

Ceramic Condiment Spoons x3 = $3

Baja Fresh = $17(ish. Drew has the receipt, but I know it was $16-something.)

Total = $20

Budget=$20

Overage=$0!!!

Yay! Not counting $6 in bus fares–we both get commuting stipends from work, so we’ll just roll it into that–we finally stayed on budget.

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?