Fun Weekend, Only $6.50 Spent!

Happy Monday everyone… or not.  If you’re anything like me, Mondays is by far the worst day of the week because it is when we have to go back to work. Yoohoo! (There should be a sarcastic font).  But I’m not here to tell you how crappy Mondays are – you already know that – I’m here to tell you about what I consider to be a very busy, fun weekend in which I only spent $6.50 total.

Okay I admit that I was probably lucky by knowing the right people and being at the right place at the right time, but that’s not the point.  The point is that the following situations/activities presented themselves and I took full advantage of them.

All work and no play is never a good thing and that’s why we should always try to find fun activities to help us stay sane.  But just because we should have fun, doesn’t mean we need to spend a lot of money to achieve it.

Kate doesn’t want to be inside the house all weekend so we always have to find free or inexpensive activities to do – or risk going broke.  Disclaimer:  I don’t mind staying inside watching TV all day, but I have to put my wants aside if I want to keep this good woman by my side.

Fun Weekend – Friday

Everybody’s weekend starts on Friday after work – at least I hope it does – but I received great news during lunch so I’m going to say my weekend started early on Friday.

I always bring lunch to work, but on Fridays I like to go out and socialize with some of my co-workers.  This Friday wasn’t any different.  One of my great friends asked me to grab lunch together because he had some good news to tell me.

He went on to tell me that he got a new job with a nice pay raise!  But he then told me that this job is in Massachusetts, which means he will have to move.  That is sad news because my friend is moving away, but it is great news because it is what’s best for his family.

His wife has been living in Rhode Island for the last six months because of work and he had to stay in New Jersey with his two year old son until he was able to find a job over there.  As you can understand this has been a hard six months for all of them, but now they’re going to be together again.  So, although I’m sad because my friend is moving away, the sadness doesn’t come close to the happiness I feel for them reuniting once more.

The other great thing that happened during that lunch is that he paid for lunch!!! Hahaha –  hey, he was celebrating, he wanted to pay, I couldn’t say no.

Later that day, Kate and I were supposed to go to a concert in the city – NYC.  I say “were supposed to go” because when I asked Kate what time the concert was, she said 10pm.  10pm?!!  Even though I’m only 33 years old, I sometimes act like an old man.  10pm is way too late to start anything, but I said, “well, we can go if you want to.” In my head I was saying, “please say no, please say no.”

She said, “No, it’s too late.  Let’s just go home and relax like old people.”  That’s why I’m marrying this girl.

Okay, so we didn’t really do anything Friday night.  We stayed home, watched some TV, and spent quality time together.  Not really an activity for most, but to me, it was great.  And I got a free lunch earlier.

Amount spend on Friday = $0.

Fun Weekend – Saturday

Saturday morning, Kate and I went for a nice long walk around town – almost a two hour walk – which was pretty nice.  We came across an open house/moving out sale so we decided to go check it out to see the house and to see if there was something we can grab on the cheap.

They were selling some nice things but nothing we needed so we ended up not buying anything.  We did explore the entire house and pretended how we would set up the bedrooms if we were to live there.  That’s always fun.

At night, we went to a birthday party.  Well, it was the five year anniversary of one of the climbing gyms we go to – Brooklyn Boulders.  It was a nice event with a DJ, a live band, food, and beer… oh yes, and rock climbing!

There was a cover charge for the event, but we were able to score free passes a few weeks before just by being at the right place at the right time.  We were just hanging out at the gym when one of the employees just gave us two free passes. Score!

We went to the party with two of our friends who are the best rock climbers in the world – if you ask me and only me.  Since we were four people in my car, I was able to use my EZ-Pass carpool plan and only pay $5 for the toll into New York – it is $11 otherwise. We also took a longer way home to avoid the Verrazano Bridge toll, which is $15!!!

Amount spend on Saturday = $5 + gas*.

* Gas was $6 round trip, but since we take turns driving, it’s like $6/4 = $1.50 each time I drive.

Fun Weekend – Sunday

Kate’s aunt is the founder/owner of the Do-Re-Mi School of Music, Dance and Arts.  And besides having music and arts lessons, they now have a class on Krav Maga, a self defense system developed for the military in Israel.

Kate’s aunt invited us for a free Krav Maga class they provide so people know what it is all about.  We jumped at the opportunity because you never know when you’ll need to defend yourself.

We went in thinking we were just going to learn a few moves and then come home to relax, but the class was a full blown workout.  The instructors made us do push-ups, sit-ups, squats, we had to punch and kick a pad a bunch of times, and we learned some crucial self defense techniques – you better not try something on me, you’ll regret it.

The class was very tough, but it was a lot of fun.  I highly recommend it.  So if you’re from NJ and want to learn some Krav Maga, please check out the Do-Re-Mi School’s website for more information.

Amount spend on Sunday = $1.50 in tolls + gas.

It might not have been the most exciting weekend for some, but it was a lot of fun for us and we only spend $6.50 + gas and that was for both of us.  Finding fun activities for free or almost free is always exciting to me.

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How was your weekend?  Would you try Krav Maga? Am I the only one who thinks tolls are insane in the Tri-State area?