Total Spent Today:  $220.86 

Audition — $15.00
The Son’s teacher and I convinced him to audition in hopes of being moved to the next level in his community orchestra.  I fear he won’t be advanced but I’m glad he had this experience — the work of preparing a piece and the agony of auditioning.  In other news, I managed to convince him to particpate in the music camp that directly preceeds the beginning of orchestra in the fall.  If, by some miracle, he is advanced to the next level, the camp will give him a chance to meet, play with, and socialize with the other kids in his group.  If he remains in his current orchestra level, the camp will hopefully give him a leg-up and improve his chances of sucess in chair auditions.  Moving up in his chair position is really his main goal.

Musical Tickets — $62.00
I finally found a performance that I think The Daughter will enjoy (let’s face it, she’s simply more pedestrian in her tastes than The Son is).  I’ve been bugging her for two weeks to pick a performance date because a good many of the performance dates are completely sold out.  I pinned her down this morning and made her pick a date because I had to be at the performing arts center today for The Son’s audition — I absolutely hate paying extra fees for buying tickets on-line or over the phone.  Despite waiting until half of all the performances were sold out, I still managed to get two excellent seats.  I hope the show is worth it.

The Container Store — $79.61
Isn’t it depressing how quickly plastic storage containers and the like can add up?  I bought:

• a white oval trash can for our master bathroom — $5.99
• 2 small stacking storage bins — $9.99/ea.
• 2 sets of casters for above bins — $4.99/ea.
• 1 lid for above bin — $4.99 (these bins will be used in The Son’s closet to hold socks and misc stuff that gets dumped on the floor on a regular basis; putting them in bins will allow me to roll the bins out and swiffer the closet floor more easily)
• tie hanger/rack for The Son — $4.99
• lingerie drying rack — $4.99 (we simply have too many wool socks to dry on our lone lingerie rack)
• a small concealed book shelf — $9.99
• a large concealed book shelf — $12.99 (I’ve been curious to try these out — they look fun and practical)

Orchestra Tickets — $50.25
Just last Sunday during The Husband’s birthday party I brought out my CD of Carl Orff’s Carmina burana.  Then last Friday, The Son asked me about that same piece and I mentioned that some day I’d love to go hear it in person.  The very next day I opened the paper to find an ad for our local symphony — performing that very piece.  So this afternoon I bought the tickets and this evening The Son and I got all gussied up in our cultural experience clothes.  It was A-Maze-ing!  My whole body is still vibrating.

In retrospect I think my decision to go with cheaper “nosebleed” seats was a good one.  Although the visual aspect of any live performance shouldn’t be underrated, the auditory experience of a piece like this one is clearly what really counts.  By buying lower-priced seats, I was able to stretch our recreation:entertainment dollars leaving money in the budget for the next experience (or, more accurately, allowing me to see the symphony tonight with The Son and a musical next month with The Daughter without going over budget).

Parking — $8.00
It occured to me on the drive home tonight that maybe parking and concession expenses during our cultural experiences should be put into the recreation:entertainment budget category because they are “necessary” additional expenses.  But for now I’ve decided simply to increase my auto:other budget slightly to allow for parking and make sure to adjust our dining out so that concession expenses fit within our food:dining budget.

Concessions — $6.00
The prices of these things are simply outrageous.  I’m really going to have to get better about packing in our own water and snacks when we attend events.  Anyway, I spent $3.00 on a mega-sized chocolate chip cookie for The Son and $3.00 on a bottled water for the two of us to share.

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