Spending Money Like We Got It!

This weekend, my husband and I had a date night. We went to a very nice restaurant in town. We ordered fancy drinks, an appetizer, two delicious dinners, a dessert, and then we shared more drinks after the meal was over. We didn't really glance at the prices and we spent about seventy dollars on dinner.

You must be wondering how someone who preaches frugality to the masses could be dining out like she has money to spend? If I saw people eating the way we did, clutching our bellies because we were so darn full, I would wonder how they could afford all those "extras" during their meal.

Lucky for me, I was able to mystery shop this restaurant and was reimbursed for my dinner out. In return for paying for my meal, I had to complete a short survey on the service that I received there. It took me about a half hour to fill out so for a sixty dollar reimbursement, that was a pretty good time investment.

Mystery shopping is a legitimate work-at-home opportunity. I personally never relied on it for income purposes, but I did rely on it for meals out or small cash rewards for taking the time to fill out surveys. In fact, before the site started to take up a lot of my time, we only went out to eat or had date nights when I had a mystery shopping opportunity.

Don't think this is for you? Well, you can still spend money like you got it by using gift certificates from Restaurant.com. This has been the latest way that we have been able to afford dinner out. Our favorite restaurant recently dropped out of the program, but there are still a few restaurants in our area to chose from.

They are currently running an awesome promotion, that won't last long, where you can get $25 gift certificates for only $3 using the coupon code PRESENT when checking out. This is a 70% savings and you can stock up on these as holiday gifts or for your family. The gift certificates are good for an entire year! The coupon code is good from July 24-31.

If you do decide to get these, I would love if you used this link provided because I do make a small bit of money from the affiliation. I promise I would only promote something that I absolutely loved and these gift certificates have funded many of our fun nights out.

Related Readings:

Taking the Mystery Out of Mystery Shopping
A Real Review of Restaurant.com
Don't Throw Out Those Take-Out Menus
Holiday Bling Without a Bling Budget

Sound Off: How do you save money when dining out?

Free Hanes Underwear

Thanks to Meredith over at Like Merchant Ships for the tip! Wal-Mart is offering a free pair of Hanes underwear on their website. Be sure that your computer does not block pop-ups because the form comes through as a pop-up. Please allow up to four weeks for the delivery of this freebie and limit one pair of undies per household.

Ladies, for your husband's sake, please don't pick the Granny Panties version. Go for something cute! They are free so a walk on the wild side will be appreciated and inexpensive!

I figured this freebie would be gone by next Friday! Enjoy!

Sound Off: What is your idea of a perfect date night with your husband? How do you guys keep things fresh when you have been married for years and years?

Date Night Conversations

Yesterday my husband's parents called and asked if they could watch the kids for us so that we could have a night out. Do they even have to ask? We couldn't take them up on the offer fast enough as there is never a time when we feel like we can't use a little alone time.

We headed over there, with the kids in tow, and they gave us a bag of Valentine's Day goodies. There were a pair of pajamas for my daughter, a really nice shirt for our son, and then an envelope for us. In it was tucked some money for our night out. That means we got a dinner out and babysitting services for free! What an amazing gift!

Somehow when we get a night out to ourselves though, we end up spending the entire evening talking about the kids. What can I say? They are the light of our lives and we love them to pieces. Unfortunately, someday we are going to be older and our children will have their own lives and we will have to find some new dinner conversations.

I decided to try something new last night so that we wouldn't be sucked in by the talk of diapers, time outs, and who got up at what time. Instead I leaned over across the table and said...

"Greatest movie ever?"

"What?"

"I said, greatest movie ever?"

He answered the question and then leaned in...

"Best childhood memory?"

The evening just went from there. I have been with this man since we were teenagers. I thought I knew everything that I could ever know about him. Imagine my surprise when I discovered even more things about my husband. We sat there for a long time and just asked each other questions.

Need a dinner conversation that doesn't involve the discussion about poop consistencies? I highly recommend giving this a try. It was one of the best date nights ever!

Thanks, mom & dad!