Saving Money on Date Night

I really think I am becoming addicted to FREE stuff or getting such a good deal. But I can't help it. I get SOOOOO excited. So usually on date night (when we are so lucky to have such a rare occassion) we almost NEVER spend more than around $25 on our meal. We have the deals down at different restaraunts and what restaraunts we can split a meal. Well a few weeks ago I was able to purchase a $50 gift certificate to a local restaraunt for only $25! So last night we got to use it and if you can't tell by the numbers above what a good deal it already was then I will spell it out for you ;). The restaraunt was Shoguns which is a Japanese restaraunt where they cook in front of you. We've been to a similar restaraunt but we've never been to this one. And if we were to ever go to one of these it would have to be an extremely rare occassion because it's almost $20 a person. Even if you choose not to get a meal they will still charge you a $6.50 sitting fee but this comes with soup, salad and rice. Actually not a bad deal. So my husband ordered sushi which was actually really cheap. It was only $5.50. Then we both ordered meals that were about $18 each and he did order tea but we weren't charged for it. So in the end our ticket price was almost $45. So we could've still ordered another order of sushi if we had wanted. But we were STUFFED. It would've have been greaty if we could have paid the tip with the leftover amount on the certificate but it doesn't work out that way. So in the end we paid $30 out of pocket (with tip) and could have got $50 worth of food. I would say that's a good deal. And now we still have two more gift cards that we paid NOTHING for and I have enough points on two of my online things where I can get a $10 gift card to a restaraunt.
On a completely other note we had horrible service! And this has happened EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. we have went anywhere to eat for months now. I honestly can't remember when we've been out together and had good service. We were so hungry and had been waiting forever and then the chef shows up to start cooking our meal and they had not even brought us our sushi, soup or salad yet! I'm surprised we even had drinks. Just wanted to throw that little rant out there.

Love

I really only named the title love since yesterday was Valentine's Day. Brad and I had been together about 6 months and married for 2 when we had our first Valentine's Day together. We decided from the beginning that it just felt like a waste of money for us to buy cards or flowers or whatever else so we have never once celebrated Valentine's Day. But it was still an interesting day. Well, scratch that, I do the same thing day after day but the evening was interesting. We had planned on going to watch my little brother's ballgame that night. So we decided to eat at this little restaraunt on the way there because we have a card where we can buy one basket get one free. So it makes the two of our meals $4.00. When we got there we were surprised to see a couple that we actually usually go to their house once a week. So we sat at the table next to them. Well, after that the service was awful. This is a tiny place and there was probably 6 or 7 tables filled and they were acting like they had no idea how to handle that much business. We got there about 15 minutes after 6 and the game started at 7. The school was less than five minutes away. We waited over thirty minutes before we got our food. I was getting so angry. It was 7:00 before we got the food and I was just getting ready to go tell them that we couldnt wait any longer and to just cancel our order when they started walking our way with it. I usually don't mind saying stuff when it comes down to something like that but I knew who the waitress was and we were already getting one of our meals for free so I was hesitant. Thankfully, we didn't miss too much of the game. It was at the very end of the first quarter (still completely aggravating) so we got to the see three out of the four quarters. And my brother's team won! It was the area championship game so they won the championship and my brother got an award for the all-tournament team.
So we did end up doing something I love to do on Valentine's Day and we even went out to eat for dinner. Unfortunately, we almost HATE eating out anywhere now because every single time we deal with something like that. Last time it was a waiter who NEVER returned to our table but waited on the table behind us constantly. If it wasn't for wanting date nights out we would seriously consider never eating out again.

Shutterfly

I absolutely love the shutterfly website. I encourage you to go sign up an account if you don't have one. So far I have never ordered anything that wasn't free or a major discount. They are always sending me codes for discounts and then occasionally I get free offers! I just redeemed my FREE 50 prints. All I had to pay was s & h which totaled out to be $3.08. I can't order 50 prints and have it delivered to my mailbox anywhere for that.

Also, since I have joined shutterfly I have been able to order two free photo books. These are hardback books that you create to be any way you want to be. They end up being around $10 after s&h but it is so worth it to me. They would cost around $30 to make and that's before the shipping costs. Since I've started reading these couponing websites and freebies4mom I get so excited when I get free things. I'd probably be excited just to get a free pencil!

New Diet

So two days ago I found out that I may have gestational diabetes. Instead of going through the test again I decided to just go ahead and treat it like I did. There was no way I was drinking that stuff again. I spend most of the day yesterday searching out different recipes. I was at a complete lost on what to eat. I think I've pretty much decided that for breakfast I will mainly continue with the smoothies I have been drinking. I don't think it will be too bad and once I get my meter I will know for sure. I also stocked up on oatmeal and cheerios. For lunch I will mainly be eating chicken wraps. And I'm hoping to try lots of new recipes for dinner!

Tonight, (not a new recipe) we are having hamburgers on whole wheat buns. Everyone else will be eating french fries and I will have a salad with mine. I also bought splenda and just made my first thing of tea with it. I actually used half sugar and half splenda since I had no idea how splenda tastes. It is actually extremely sweet. Almost too sweet of a taste. I don't know if I will cut back next or try making it with just splenda. I am also going to be trying out a dessert recipe tonight. Cheescake brownies. Yum! Well, at least they sound yummy. We will find out.

*Update - Whole wheat buns are just as good as regular buns! I didn't really see a difference in the taste. The only thing that was really different was they aren't as soft as white buns. And of course they are double the price. Next time I'm going to the local discount bread store. I actually didn't even think of that until my husband suggested it last night. I also never got around to making the brownies. My back was already hurting too much.