Guest Post: From AL to TX Part I

Remember my frugal friend Emily? You know, the sweet girl in the long distance relationship who gave us that awesome list of things to do "together" while miles apart? Well, she had a chance to visit her sweetheart in Texas and wrote us a lovely guest post about her two $20 Date Challenges and Richey's fun birthday surprise date! Here is a fun account of her first $20 challenge date with her man. Visit tomorrow to read about dates #2 and #3!

The last time I blogged for Piggy Bank Dating, I wrote about date ideas for couples who are not geographically convenient and therefore must take a creative approach to their dating lives.

Last week, however, I ditched the long distance and loaded up my car with gas, threw a suitcase in the trunk, popped an audio book into the CD player, and embarked on a 9-hour trek to TX to see my honey in honor of his 25th birthday.

During our time together, we enjoyed getting to go on “normal” dates. Read on for more details! Maybe you’ll get some ideas.

Date #1 -- $20 Challenge

Our first night together, we did the $20 challenge. First, Richey took me to a fun shish kabob restaurant. The meals were served with grilled meat and veggies, along with a huge piece of pita bread. It was good, but we should have said NO to the “medium spicy” they put on our meals – the only hearts on fire I like are diamonds!

Meal total: $17

After dinner, we headed over to Target in search of a dress I’d seen in my local Target store but which didn’t come in my size. No luck on the dress, but we did find cute finger puppets in the dollar section. Who doesn’t love getting in touch with their inner child every once in a while?

Finger puppet total: $1

Of course, finger puppets aren’t suitable entertainment for an entire evening, so we decided to rent a movie. After looking at the movie selection, though, we decided we didn’t want to pay $5 to rent a movie. Instead, we decided to head home and have a Three’s Company marathon (we both love this 70s sitcom, and Richey owns several seasons on DVD).

TV marathon: free!

Before heading home, we decided we needed some ice cream to soothe our burning mouths after our spicy meal, so we stopped by Dairy Queen and picked up some chocolatey Blizzards…yum. Sadly, we did have a DQ coupon but didn’t print it out before we left Richey’s house, so we paid full price for our Blizzards.

Ice cream total: $6

Grand total: $24

Okay, so we failed the challenge, but it was still fun!

Visit tomorrow for Date #2 and Date #3 (not a $20 Challenge Date)!