Cheap Night Out. Ok, Cheapish

I was going to call this blog “Cheap Date” but no. Anyway, so going out. As part of my saving money scheme, I’m looking at how I go out.

Not cutting back on going out. I’m not giving it up entirely as I don’t think that’s a good idea. You end up staying home and that can have a negative effect on you. You can get depressed and I don’t know about you but there’s only so many times I can rearrange the furniture before I start texting/bbming people and going, “I need to get out of my house! Argh!”

So yes, I believe you need to get out and socialize sometimes.

You can have friends over but not all the time. I don’t know about you but sometimes I just don’t want people in my home. That leaves going out. Prior to now I’d go out, spend money then wonder where it all went. Now I’m looking at ways to still go out, still have a good time but not empty my wallet or overheat the debit card.

I started thinking about this earlier this week. I met up with Kate and we ended up having drinks and sharing an appetizer. The bill came up to $31 between the two of us. Cheapish night out but I could have gone without the beer.

A friend of mine, Gail McInnes, owner of Magnet Creative Management, goes out as part of her business so she’s an expert. Sometimes the bar is an open bar, sometimes it’s not. What she likes to do when she doesn’t want to spend a lot of money is get a beer and nurse it for most of the night.

That makes sense. You can do the same with a glass of wine but keep in mind that a glass of wine is often the cost of the entire bottle. Then again, I should just not have a drink when I go out but I don’t think that’s realistic (see above). What I’m going to do is this:

If I’m going to eat, then no alcohol. If it’s drinks, then one. If it’s horrible wine and really expensive (it has happened) then water. That $10 for a glass of blah wine buys a bottle of decent red at the LCBO.