Frugal February Day 8

I spent another day at work sending letters. But when I finished I caught the train to the city to meet James. I thought of buying a magazine to read on the way, but instead I took an old New Idea from the office. I should have spent $8 and saved my brain cells.

They had some brilliant tips to be more active in your day-to-day life, including joining a yoga class (I never knew scheduling regular exercise could help in this area!) and taking 45 minute walks during your lunch break - either this magazine is written by housewives, for housewives, or the idea is that if you are always 15 minutes late coming back from lunch you'll eventually get fired and have loads more time to work out.

But Nene King's advice column was great! Did you know: no matter what goes wrong in your life, it will never be as bad as the time her husband got eaten by a shark, so seriously, suck it up.

When I met Jimmy we went to Darling Harbour for after work drinks, like Proper Adults. Tokio Hotel had $4 drinks, but this G&T was totally flat. And that's not a lime in there either, just a seriously underripe lemon.

But we had a nice view of this beautiful day.

Bacia (is that the name?) had a two-for-one special. I wouldn't pay $9 for a G&T but I didn't mind paying it for two. These were really lovely, and it was a beautiful restaurant/bar too.

When we were good and sloshed we walked back toward Town Hall for dinner at Menya, our favourite Japanese noodle place. We've only ever been in Winter; it was nice to sit outside while it was still light.

The gyoza were SO GOOD, I can not even tell you. $7.50 for eight.

I had some kind of karaage (fried chicken) ramen - $11.50.

James had a vegetable one, which I think is the one I normally order. I'm pretty sure it costs less than $10.

If that wasn't thrifty enough, I was wearing this $3 work dress while I ate it. Thank you Salvatore!

We did the MX crossword on the train home, then we went to San Churro for a chocolate sundae. We've been getting these since we first started dating. I think the shop might have changed hands, 'cause they aren't as good as they used to be. But for $10 they aren't bad either.

Spending today: $30

(for dinner, drinks, dessert and travel I think that's decent)

Spending this week: $30

Spending this month: $85.50

Frugal February Day 7

Jimmy and I hit up the Sushi Train at Sutherland for lunch today. I recommend the spicy crunchy prawn one. Afterwards we had icecreams at New Zealand Natural at Westfield. I had a BOGOF voucher, thanks junk mail!

Later I went shopping for hair products - not that frugal, but I'd run out and used up all the viable alternatives I had. I didn't buy anything else even though there were bargains everywhere.

I did buy a train ticket, but only to get to tutoring, where I fortunately earned more than $3.60 so I came out on top. I was pretty happy to start again this term, my student is a delight and very hardworking. She's just started high school!


Tonight James and I watched Across The Universe. We saw it at the cinema when we first started dating. And I read Who Moved My Cheese - it was kind of cheesy, pardon the pun, but had some good ideas. It's a very quick read (15 minutes) and you don't need to get management theory to understand it, or be a manager to get value from it, so I recommend it.

It asks the question 'what would you do if you weren't afraid?' - there's something in that for all of us, I think.


Spent today: $23
Spent this week: $55.50 (not bad for a whole week!)
Spent this month: $55.50

Frugal February Day 6

Today I went to work and printed 250 reminder letters for people who haven't started their taxes yet. I wore a polka dot dress and in my lunch break I read Who magazine.

They had a feature on people who are insane, I mean patriotic.

Some guy loves Holdens so much he named all his kids after them. What's worse is that they are all named after the very same car - one kid's middle name is Monaro, one kid's first name is Monaro and the girl is Adele Mona Rose. Their next daughter will be Marilyn, geddit.

After work I went to Westfield and bought some $1 cards from Typo and a couple of other things. The Priceline specials tempted me but I stayed strong.

Spent today: $10

Spent this week: $22.50

Spent this month: $22.50

Frugal February Day 5

Today was Dad's birthday! All the family came round for lunch - quiches, salad and lots of cake.


We gave him a Soda Stream, which he has wanted forever, but when he opened the box the actual machine was missing! I think it must have been the display model.


My Nana (hello if you're reading!*) brought over an album of old photos circa the 60s and 70s for me to look at. Everybody was seriously glamourous.


Later I went for a walk along the beach with Jimmy. Summer is great for doing things for free.


If you wondered what I was wearing while all this was going on, it was a Cooper St dress from Vincenzo's Boutique and my best brown Havaianas. I also had on some earrings from K-mart, cause I'm klassy like that. Total cost: $10 (Mum gave me the thongs one Christmas).

Spent today: $0
Spent this week: $12.50

Spent this month: $12.50

*This time I'm not joking, my Nana is really up on technology, she emails and texts and everything.