A Night Out Without Breaking the Bank

With a new budget in place, there's not a lot of room left for the "extras".  This means I have to get more creative than I was before.  We decided that this month's indulgence would be dinner and a movie.  There was a new film out that we all wanted to see and we felt it was worthy our May choice.
Weekends are prime movie nights which means prime movie costs.  We decided to go on Monday night and watch an earlier show time to make sure we weren't home too late for work and school in the morning.  By choosing a weekday and an earlier show time, we saved and average of $3 per ticket.
Before we left to head up to Whistler for our dinner and movie, I stopped in at one of the local Dollar Stores and bought some boxed candy to take along with us. For $3.36 total I picked up treats for all of us.  I checked out the prices at the movie theatre to compare prices and candy was $3.95 each plus tax.  I know that many people are against bringing food into a movie theatre, but we paid admission and bought some popcorn to share so I felt we still supported them.
Dinner.  My daughter had eaten at the Mongolie Grill before and asked if we could go there.  It was very convenient in that it is located right next to the theatre.  This is a very entertaining stir fry restaurant where you select the ingredients and sauces and then watch the chefs cook your dinner in front of you with finesse and flair.  How they don't drop their flippers, I will never know!  Waiting for you when you return to your table is your choice of white or brown rice.  We were thrilled when our waiter told us that they were celebrating locals this week and that all meals were half price with the purchase of a drink.  For our dinner of three with one "adult" drink and two specialty drinks was approximately $40 and we were stuffed beyond belief.

I know that there are ways to save even more money on dinner and a movie (which I have done before), but I wanted to show you that even with a little effort, you can save money.  Here is a breakdown of our approximate savings last night:

Dinner:  $40  (Regular cost $80, locals special half price)
Movie:  $11.25 (Regular price $12.75 per person, weekday matinee $9 each)
Snacks:  $9.90 (Dollar Store Candy $3.36, Theatre Candy $13.26)
Total Savings:  $61.15

We had a fantastic evening filled with laughter and quality time.  We each crawled under our covers with a smile on our faces. We are all looking forward to where our next adventure takes us.