A day of savings...with an expensive finale!

Being raised by a Jewish mother and having lived in Africa for 2 1/2 years, my frugality should come as no surprise! I get excited about sales at the grocery store and I have signed up as a member of both Groupon and Living Social (you should look into them, if you're not already signed up!).

When we checked in at the aforementioned helicopter ride, I noticed that my date handed over a folded sheet of paper. I sneakily peeked over his shoulder and realized that it was a groupon coupon. Nice! After the helicopter ride, he wanted to grab lunch--and had coupon for Red Robin. So, we went to the location on the water to grab some burgers. Ching-ching! A little more money saved!

Later that evening, I had agreed to meet up with a guy friend (though he called it a date...). Turns out, he had been given a $100 gift certificate to Boat Street Cafe, a yummy French restaurant! We ordered dinner and drinks--but the drinks never came. When we casually mentioned it, the server was so apologetic! She brought them immediately and assured us that they'd be taken off our bill. To try to spend more money, we ordered a second dessert--but the server took this as a sign that we didn't like the first, and took that off the bill too! No matter how we tried, we could not reach the $100 mark, and ended up leaving with credit for another time. Not so bad!

And then, driving home, all the money I had "saved" throughout the day was reversed. We were going through a funky intersection and another car plowed into my driver's side. And then left the scene. And they had a Prius! Who does that?! Needless to say, it was a pricey and distressing ending to a great day!