As I’ve mentioned, one of the biggest obstacles to me actually saving money and paying down my debt and getting ahead in the world is my rather active social life. I’ve got a pretty amazing group of friends who like to go out and have a good time – and who often seem to be willing to do it Thursday, Friday and Saturday every week. For a while, BF and I were just going along with the flow of what others wanted to do, and really not helping our own financial situations in the process. But, we’ve put our (collective) feet down, and decided that we just can’t go out as much as we would like to.
That being said, we do have a farily busy social calendar for the next 2 weeks. We’ve got our usual Thursday night karaoke, which is the one social event that we’ve decided is a must go, for us. We’ve got next Tuesday, which is a celebration of a monumental life decision for a very close friend of BF’s. We have tickets to a Red Sox game next Thursday. A friend of mine is having a toy party that Friday. Then, the next week is BF’s friend’s birthday, and we know in advance that he is looking to make a big night of it – dinner someplace nice, then drinking. It looks like a lot, but I think I’ve figured out how to handle it all, and not spend crazy amounts of money. How, you may ask?
1. We’ve decided to limit our collective budget for Thursday nights to $20 each. This is easily 4 beers for BF and 3 Vanilla and Diets for me. Since I like to send him to get the drinks, I will give him $20 at the beginning of the evening. This has the added bonus of ensuring that we don’t overdo the drinking, which is another something we are both trying to watch.
2. Some of these events are parties at people’s houses. The Tuesday celebration, and the toy party are both drinking/hanging out at home situations. We’ve already contributed a fair amount of alcohol to BF’s friend’s collection, so I think we are probably good on that front. And I can probably spend less than $20 to bring something to the party at my friend’s house. Another thing I think we will try to do is eat at home before we go, saving that cost.
3. BF’s friend’s birthday is going to be expensive. This is kind of a given. But I think if we curb our own going out to eat habits for the next 2 weeks, and just consider that our night out, we will be fine.
There is an additional complication, and that is a friend of mine who I don’t get to see very regularly, and who I’ve been putting off, asked us to go out with him and his girlfriend next weekend. I’ve tentatively said yes, and told BF that I would pay for that, because he isn’t too fond of my friend to begin with. I know they are also trying to save, so I think we can suggest someplace fairly cheap for dinner, and they will be ok with that.
Yes you are right there is way to be social and frugal and it takes creativity! I would be interested to see after you executed this plan how much this new plan reduces your spending.
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