Allowances well spent

on the rink! g pooped out by this point...i can skate circles around him!

For a preview of our March round up, here's the list of how we spent our wonderful and stupendous March allowance.

• Meg went out for drinks: $6 (see last post)
• Thai take out with friends in their empty apartment as we helped them move out, sorta: $22
• Ice skating at the NGA Sculpture Garden on it's last weekend for the season, see pic: $20.50 (Though, in my opinion, skating while surrounded by awesome art is priceless.  Sadly, neither Greg nor our bank account agree.)
• Greg went out for drinks: $12.50
• Sandwiches from Taylor Gourmet, a six pack of beer and a bag of chips for lunch after moving furniture: $33.10

TOTAL: $94.10 out of our $100!

*as a side note: we also spent $40 to rent a U-Haul van.  The same friends moving out of their apartment were super awesome and passed on a few key pieces of furniture for FREE!  So, while we spent $40, we got a new bed frame, two bedside tables, a coffee table and a super comfy futon chair.  Money well spent? We think so.

**Oh yeah, and I spent $90 on a pair of shoes for a wedding I am in later on this year.  Now, $90 isn't exactly the cheapest I could have found, but when it comes to shoes, I need comfort more than I need an extra $30 in my bank account.  I took the cash out of my savings, so as not to interrupt the flow of my pay-back plans.  Plus, they are adorable and the bride approves of them!!!

$6 for a beer and a good CAUSE

So last night was my first night out on the town with my monthly allowance.  I have been fretting over the allowance since we brought it up last month.  I was scared of a slippery slope, start spending and lose perspective of what the goal really is.  I can go to happy hour and not buy a drink, but, I must admit, I feel a loss of comradery going to a bar and sipping water.  Silly, but that's just how I feel. 

Which brings me to last night. My book club is awesome.  We are a diverse group who meet once a month to chat about a book, eat snacks and exchange snark.  We decided a few months ago that once a month banter specifically geared towards books was just simply not enough.  So we instituted Book Club Happy Hour and last night the group met at CAUSE-The PhilanthroPub.  A funky bar located on 9th St. NW, just south of U St., that offers 100% of it's profits to local and international  charities (after paying their bills, of course).  I loved the idea.  If I'm going to spend money, why not give back while enjoying my beer?  Now, how much of my $6 actually made it to a charity, I don't know, but I do fully endorse the idea and business model. 

And we had a great time.  We discussed the geographic, social and economic changes in Africa thanks to a well decorated bar table with a 1950s map of the continent.  A few even sampled the food-I got one bite of a delish marinated olive, but the smoky lentils smelled out of this world. 

I spent $6 on a beer.  A friend bought me a cocktail and I handed him a fiver (good drink specials during happy hour!).  But when explaining why I was leaving early (no, guys, really, I can't buy dinner, no matter how good it looks!), the friend insisted that I take the $5 back and repay him with dinner or after all the debt has been repaid.  He said it was a worthy cause he could support. 

God love taxes

I don't normally feel such love for taxes.  But this year, wooo-freakin'-hooo! 

With help from some sizeable tax refunds we did this in February:

GO GREG GO!
$1,180 off credit card debt
$100 to parents for personal debt
for a total of $1,280

GO MEG GO!
$1,914 off student loans

TOTAL paid off for Febraury: $3,194!! 

Which brings us to $36,285 remaining in our total debt.   GO US GO!