Frugal Friday!

Let me first apologize for being MIA for the past couple of weeks. I apologize. Now, let me get on to my entry for this week!

It's the little things in life, not the big and extravagant ones, that I get most excited about. To give you one example, my dad and I have our father-daughter dates at Sam's Club on Saturdays and I'm giddy all the way to the store! We walk down the aisles and pick up all of the samples. If we are feeling really crazy, we'll get a hot dog and coke on the way out!

To further explain my excitement about the little things in life, I'll tell you about last Friday. Last Friday, "Enrique" and I went on a date. Not that dating him is a little thing in life, but many might not think of our date on Friday as anything exciting. I'm not "many" because it was actually my idea of the perfect date! That day, I wasn't feeling well and he had a long day so he decided to keep it low key. He picked me up and we went to one of my favorite places ever, Central Market. I could spend hours walking around Central Market - tasting samples, looking at the wide selection of fruit, alcohol, cheese, pretty much everything, and filling my cart with something from each aisle - I just love it! I am also a fan of music, especially live music. Lucky for me, Central Market has live music on Friday and Saturday nights. We looked around at our dinner options and each decided to prepare our own salad from the salad bar. We (by we, I mean he) paid for our salads and we (by we, I really do mean we) walked outside to listen to some really fun music. There were family friends talking and laughing as their children were running wild on the playground and all over, there were friends drinking coffee and others eating gelato. It was just a fun, yet relaxing, environment and a great way to wind down from a crazy week. We left Central Market after dinner and drove over to Town Square in Southlake. By this time, the stores had already closed so we just walked around and picked out our favorite things in the store windows. As much as I enjoy the thrill of buying a dress that I have fallen in love with at first sight, window shopping can be just as much fun!

Moral of the story: For me (and hopefully for you, too) dates aren't about how much money you spend, but more about how much fun you have with the person you are with. This is just one idea of a fun date for those of you who are on a budget, or just want to try something else besides dinner at a boring restaurant with mediocre customer service and a movie.

Got any other fun, inexpensive date ideas? Holler!