Girls Just Want To Have FUN!!!

Ok. So, we are broke. NO money. So, no fun, right?

WRONG!!!

You will go crazy! You will be mean or sad or horrible and boring and just not good.

You can NOT just go home every day and watch TV. You can't have cold cereal for breakfast, PB&J for lunch and Ramon noodles for dinner for your ENTIRE LIFE! You would simply die of boredom, if the salt from the Ramon noodles didn't get you first!

But, we have to be smart. So, here's a couple of thoughts.

1. I ♥LOVE♥ wine! But wine is EX-PEN-SIVE!!! But "Two Buck Chuck" (Charles Shaw at Trader Joe's) is, as the name implies, $2 a bottle! And it's decent! Some of the varieties have won awards! So, don't buy a $10 bottle of wine, buy a $2 bottle of wine. And that goes for kind of everything. Do you REALLY need that name brand?
2. I like dining out! So, look for Groupons, Living Social Deals, etc for restaurants that you KNOW you like! Those website only run deals that are AT LEAST 50% off. Now, don't take a chance on some random or terribly expensive place, but the pizza/pasta place up the street did an online deal and I got $30 worth of food & drink for $15 (read the fine print before purchasing). And, in the state of California (not true everywhere) the amount you pay (the $15 in this case) NEVER EXPIRES! It's illegal for it to expire! So, you don't lose anything.
3. Gift Card Promotions. More and more restaurants are doing promotional gift cards at the holidays where you buy a $100 gift card and you get a promotional one for $25 or whatever. If you are going to eat there anyway and it's not uber expensive, why not? You CANNOT sit at home every night - you'll go crazy! Now, again, in California, since the early 90's, a gift card cannot expire. **BUT** a "promotional gift card" CAN expire! So, use that promo one first and before the expiration date!
4. Do you have a smart phone? Look for Facebook and Yelp "Check in Deals". Our favorite Sushi place, Poway Sushi Lounge, where we get our annual holiday Promo gift certificates, ALSO has a check-in deal on Facebook for free garlic edamame! YUM!

AND REMEMBER! If you are tipping on a "deal' or coupon, you tip the waitstaff on the FULL VALUE of the meal before the coupon, NOT on what you paid! Be cool about it.

SIDEBAR: I have reminders set in my phone to go off 30 days before one expires so that I get the full value out of it. And space these out so that you don't use them all up at once and then have nothing. Pace yourself!

BIG NOTE: Before buying from an online company that you have never heard of, try looking it up on SiteJabber.com first! We bought a deal from a company and it turned out to be no good and when we looked on SiteJabber there were TONS of reviews about that website and how it screwed it's customers. So, check there before using some new website that you've never heard of before.