Date On A Budget

The other day I complained to The Boyfriend that we hadn't been on a date in a long time. So last night he took me out.

Obviously this was a budget date since I have no money. I know you're curious--this is the story of my budget date.

It followed the classic date format: dinner and a movie. But it seemed to take more inspiration from teenagers who's parents fund their dates than a couple of 20-somethings who are gainfully employed.

First we got the tickets- one of them was free because The Boyfriend is the proud owner of one of those Scene cards that gets you free movies. Only he checked the points balance before we left the house and he was 50 points shy of a free ticket. But you get 100 points for buying a movie ticket. So first we bought the ticket and then we went through the process again for the free ticket. Sure it was time consuming, but we also saved $13.

Tickets in hand, it was time to eat. There's a nice restaurant across the street from the movie theatre. There's also a Wendy's. Guess which one we chose? We got in line with 2 teenagers (one of whom was applying for work there but didn't fill out the application form) discussing the merits of tattoos, an older professional couple who ordered salad, and a young family who's son was screaming about which toy he wanted with his meal. Later the little boy was incensed after the Wendy's staff offered him a book to read since he can't even read yet.

I will say this about dinner at Wendy's--there is some goooooood people watching.

We sat by the window (the better to see the people on their way to dinner at a proper restaurant) and from this vantage point I could see everything that was going on. The one teenager was complaining to the other that she had paid for bubble tea and dinner and the least the other one could do was pick up the ketchup and straws. Then she explained the concept of a family tree. The young family's son was still screeching stories about god knows what but his dad had had enough and told him to keep his voice down or he was going to be sitting in the car.

The best? The older salad eating couple. Apparently the salad was too spicy so the woman went back to the counter to the guy making minimum wage to offer him some "feedback" (her words). Lady, he works at Wendy's for $8 an hour, he truly doesn't care what the food tastes like (this was not one of the better Wendy's). Muttering about how you want a straight answer from this guy is a waste of your energy. Feel free to go back to your husband and complain about it together, but the fact of the matter is, you chose to have dinner at Wendy's. Get over it.

Eventually it was movie time. We saw The Other Guys which actually wasn't bad. It was pretty funny.

When we got out of the theatre I saw that my parents had called so I called back. According to my dad, my 10-year-old sister had called for help with her homework. She has to answer all these current events questions of things that had happened over the summer. My parents had managed to help her with most of them but there was this picture of a woman that they couldn't identify. Not having the benefit of actually seeing the picture I could only guess the identity of a woman making headlines this summer. I told my dad to google pictures of the Arizona governor.

We got home by 9.30. Baby Mama had just started. Fantastic.

So that, ladies and gentleman (I'm fairly certain there is just the one, Marshall), is a budget date.