Cheapskate Weekend

This past weekend we were really good about not spending money with no abandon.

Saturday we hung around the house, then went for lunch at Steak n' Shake. Penny and I both had coupons for free meals for our Birthdays and Jon had a coupon for a meal for $4.49. We all drank water and bought 1 cookie to share at the end for 59 cents. Our bill was $5.74 + tip. So we 3 had a good time and some yummy (and fattening) food for $8.74. Not bad I say! Then we hung out at a friend's house, which is always free.

Sunday we went to a free string concert put on by the Linton Music Peanut Butter and Jam Sessions. These are concerts put on to introduce kids to instrumental music and such. We had a blast. There was also an elementary kid art show "opening" and a demonstration of different classes held at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center. Penny's favorite was the Circus Mojo classes. I would love to be able to put her in some of those one day. Penny also got to do a little art project with one of the art teachers. And there was free hot chocolate and cookies. We had to drag Penny out of the place b/c she was having so much fun.

I found out about the Linton Music thing in Cincinnati Family Magazine which I picked up at my OB's office. They always have a monthly calendar of family-friendly activities around the area, and they list which ones are free.

To top off our cheap weekend, we even got $10 of free gas by using a gift card that we ordered with our PNC points!

In addition, even though Monday is obvs not part of the weekend, I would like to add to this post that today Penny and I treated ourselves to a trip to Half Price Books (after Penny's dentist appt I thought she might like to do something fun). We had a 15% off coupon (and I think we got a few extra bucks off b/c I used to work with the guy who rang us out), so we spent $13 and got 2 hard back children's books, 2 paperback children's books, a Skippyjonjones book that has jigsaw puzzles in it, and a set of Thomas the Tank Engine cards that you can write on with a dry erase marker to help learn ABCs. Not too shabby!
Plus I went grocery shopping tonight and saved 51% (this does not count closeout savings though, so actually I saved more than that).