Situations, like the one previously discussed, are ones that face me on a daily basis. I swear I sometimes feel like life is one, extended sprint as I am forever racing as fast as I can to the next thing. Listen, I'd love to say I stop and smell the roses every day......but in the famous words of this wise and wonderful sage:
Which is why, in my opinion, it's so very important for pepople to take some, occasional opportunities to break away from the rat race of typical life. My husband and I try to find at least one weekend per every two months to enjoy a "special date."
Typically, as you readers know, our little family is pretty thrifty when it comes to date nights out, day adventures, and even travel. However, on our "special dates," we get to let our hair down a bit more and do something a little more expensive. This is due to the fact that we are not cutting into our own, personal accounts. It does take a bit of savvy in budgeting, but it is made quite simple with a few easy tricks.
First, we collect all change in this handy dandy coin counter. When doing laundry, I empty all change accumulated into this guy. I also find plenty of change while cleaning my car or the house. You wouldn't believe how fast the change adds up! Over the course of two months, we accrued almost forty one dollars!!!
Secondly, we bag all extra dollar bills into a ziploc baggie. Often times, I'll use my change from various purchases to sock away. Also, once again, the laundry proves and excellent resource for finding those missing one's and fives. If I get the go-ahead from hubs, the dollars go in the fund. The most important step of all this, if you are as cash-happy as we are, is to store the ziploc container in an inconvenient place. I know this sounds nutty---but keeping the money in a place where you have to hunt it down really cuts down on unnecessarily dipping into the fund.
Lastly, the most important thing we do for our "fun fund" is to continually count our monies accrued. We keep tabs, week to week, on what's in the containers and how much more we need to reach our goal. Once we hit $100-$150 dollars, we splurge!!!! Essentially, the fun fund is the money you don't even miss day-to-day.
This week was a really difficult one for me, and the fun-fund hit the right amount of money in the nick of time!!!
We decided to visit the beautiful New Smyrna Beach which is just a mere thirty minutes from our home. Now, if you are not familiar with the Daytona area, than you are probably unfamiliar with the fact that it is bike-tober fest. That's right....an entire month devoted to biking. Originally, we wanted to stay at a hotel for the night. However, those bikers must be as thrifty as me because they stole all the decently priced hotel rooms. Is it wrong that I keep envisioning a hardcore biker clipping coupons and putting them into a skull and crossbones caddy?
Anywho, in spite of those meticulous motorists, we gave New Smyrna a go. The first stop we made was to an eatery called The Garlic. The atmosphere of this place was so incredible, so beautiful that I honestly felt I was eating inside Eden. When you enter The Garlic, it gives you a hint of what's to come. You are instnatly greeted by this long,beautiful garden trellis with greenery all over. The establishment is literally built around these amazing trees that have huge palms and are strewn with lights. Freshly grown garlic hangs everywhere for consumers to note. It's just really, truly beautiful.
This place has serious hutzpah. The specials were written on lasagna noodles and the menu cosnsited of a dude in a crazy hat funneling pasta. You can just tell it's the type of place someone smart takes a first date---cool and jazzy but not trying too hard.
Perhaps my favorite thing about the place was the food! We are foodies after all. My husband wasted no time in ordering The Garlic's famous 160z meatball on the menu, while I opted for the goat cheese stuffed chicken. As an appetizer, they serve roasted garlic and just smash it with a fork right in front of you.
After such a beautiful meal, we picked up our wheelbarrows and rolled ourselves out of The Garlic. We then headed for New Smyrna Beach to watch the sunset.
Now, if you ever decide to go to New Smyrna, expect muddled parking. The parking...was...no....joke. I mean there were some parts where I felt like we were Austin Powers trying to navigate the mysterious realms of the three-point turns.
However, once we got there, it made everything seem so worth it. We packed a nice, big beach blanket and laid it out right in front of a beach club. This way, we had both the beautiful views of the purple sky over the beach and lightly piped music from the club's live entertainment.
It really felt great to put my toes in the sand and forget all about anything heavy. Jon and I just watched the little kids build their sand castles with friends and run from the waves. Oh yeah, and we loved the moment together too. It was just truly the perfect evening between a very in love and married couple :)
PRICE OF DINNER:$70.00
PRICE OF GAS:$20.00
PRICE OF EXPERIENCE:PRICELESS
CHANGE LEFTOVER:$30.00
No comments:
Post a Comment