Okay, I admit it, I am not the best resource on living the lowest cost lifestyle nor am I the best deal hunter or coupon stickler out there BUT if there’s one thing I am good at, its living the way I want to without breaking my bank. So let me take a step back and define this a little more. In my opinion, it’s really annoying to have to live my life thinking about every dollar right? It’s just not fun, and it’s just not quite LIFE. It’s my philosophy that there is just too much to do in these lives of ours to be living day in and day out concerned about money! This is absolutely not to say that we should just ignore our retirement plans or savings accounts and go vacation and get ourselves eyeballs high in credit card debt. What I mean is that we are all clever enough, and the world is COMPLEX enough for us all to be able to find loopholes in the system (wherever they may be) to live the way we want to while maintaining a healthy balance (pun intended) in our financial lives.
Have fun without being…
Example Scenario #1 – Something all of us guys have to face at some point or another…
You’re planning a date for the girlfriend – which means you have to go through the whole process of identifying a fantastic restaurant with a good feel and good food and located in a good area or whatever. Instead of just calling and making a reservation at a place you heard about, why not go look up that same restaurant on CitySearch and see if they have any special promotions going on? Or check out Entertainment for their whole suite of awesome coupons. These can really help bring the budget of the dinner part of the date from like 30 bucks to 15 giving you a whole extra 15 to go spend on a movie, or watch some play or whatever your bag is!
Do yourself a favor and support those kids that sell those coupon books that are targeted for the area in which you live. This way you can save a ton of money going to great restaurants at half the price! They often have a whole section in there just for non-restaurant stuff too, like winery tours, local attractions, movie tickets, museums and all that good stuff so you only have to use coupons 2-3 times a year to make up for the cost. Keep it handy in your car or something too so that you can always look at it or have your date look at it while driving. Believe me, it’s so endearing when your girlfriend helps look through the coupon book to help save you money, then you know you got yourself a good one but thats off topic 
Example Scenario #2 – After dinner you’ve gotta do something!
So you’ve just had dinner, the night is still young and there’s nothing you’d both like to do more than relax and watch a movie and be entertained for the next 2-3 hours. The problem is movies cost an arm and a leg nowadays and throw in parking and all that and you’ve got yourself another 30 dollar event for the night. Instead of going to the local theatre at the mall, try looking up one of those smaller, older theaters that plays slightly older movies (like from a month ago) for super cheap. Admission might be $3-$5 instead of$9-$11 per person! My girlfriend and I go to this local theater called the Admiral Twin Theater. It’s really old and the chairs aren’t exactly the comfiest, but I swear, every time we go, there’s only a few other people there which means we get the best seats in the house and it feels like its just us two in the theater! That and they’ve got this awesome popcorn with cheese powder that we both love that normal theaters never have!
See both of these methods allow me to live my life much more extravagantly but still at a very reasonable cost! For some reason, this particular post is all about dates but I know that before I started thinking about these kind of things, my weekly date nights could cost me up to like $60! Just knowing that I’m doing the same stuff and sometimes more memorable (having our own private movie theater!) for like 25-30 is super cool. Anyways, hope you find this useful and please leave comments!
