Day 235: Dinner & The Theater, etc

Posted on | April 23, 2008 |

Total Spent Today:  $223.60

Costco — $3.87
Lunch for The Son. He dined on a soda and a Chicken Bake thing while I dealt with the cell phone kiosk person and shopped.

Costco — $83.97

• Capri Sun 100% juice boxes — $7.55
• 3 boxes of Kashi organic Cinnamon Harvest cereal — $6.49/ea.
• box of Goldfish crackers — $6.23
• house brand chocolate chip cookies — $6.49
• Taster’s Choice coffee — $10.99
• bonus package of 90 Claritin tablets — $30.86

Theater tickets — $76.00
The Son and I had read about this play in the program for his last orchestra concert and had both thought it looked interesting.  I never wait until the last minute to makes plans for outings like this and I never wait until the last minute to buy tickets but I’ve been so busy lately and in such pain that I just hadn’t gotten around to it.  This morning I knew I couldn’t wait any longer since I’m due to leave town this weekend and will be gone for two weeks.  I don’t get back into town until May 8th and the play’s run ends on May 4th.

So I called finally bit the bullet and called this morning and, although I hate doing it, paid the extra $3.00 per ticket processing fee.

The good news was that since I’d mentioned where we’d heard about the play, the ticket agent gave me a $7.00 per ticket discount.  Rather than take the discount, I was able to upgrade our tickets to the better, more expensive seats for the same price as the “non-premium” seats.

The Son, if I may say so, looked dashing in his new linen trousers and argyle sweater vest. The play was excellent, thought-provoking, and extremely well acted.  Despite the fact that I was in agonizing pain, the experience was worth every single penny.

The very best part of the entire evening?  The fact that I’d added cultural experiences to my monthly budget starting this past January.  My initial reaction to the price of two tickets was the standard one of, “wow” but I thoroughly enjoyed the secondary reaction of seeing that I even after the tickets were purchased, I still had over $100 left in my “cultural experiences” budget.  Woot!

Concessions — $1.00
One large candy bar for The Son during intermission.

Wendy’s — $6.76
You guessed it — a Baconator and a medium root beer (also a container of fries that we hadn’t ordered and therefore received for free).

Recreation Center — $52.00
This payment was actually a reimbursement to The Daughter’s savings account.  When I got home from the Theatre tonight, she provided me with a receipt for her purchase.  She’d paid with her debit card which is attached to her checking account.  As soon as she arrived home, she transferred the funds from her savings into her checking.  As soon as I got home, I transferred the funds from my savings account into her savings account — gotta love that easy-to-use Wamu on-line backing interface.

Anyway, the $52 buys her 15 visits to the rec center.  The next time I go to work out with her I’ll have to buy my own 15-visit pass — that won’t be until the second week of May, though, at the very earliest.  I’ll need to make sure I start budgeting in our Rec Center passes.

Related Posts for Further Reading

• $$: Groceries, an Odwalla, & “Harvey”
• $$: Groceries, Meds, Tests, & Pizza
• Day 205: Clothes, Books, Meds, & Milk
• Day 147: Food, Food, and More Food
• Day 50
• $$: Chocolate Milk, Chocolate Candy & Snow Pants, etc.

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