Wednesday, February 27, 2008

TANSTAAFB: There ain't no such thing as a free breakfast

Tomorrow and the next day, at McDonalds, there is a free McSkillet if you buy a medium drink. You can read about it here.

My husband and I will probably do that. He just can't seem to get past that we're not allowed to go out to lunch for a while. The "free" breakfast will probably cost us about three bucks. That doesn't sound so bad. We missed the earlier "free" pancakes at IHOP.

Sunday, he just had to go to lunch. Okay. Well, we haven't even seen each other for almost a week, much less spent any time together. One lunch isn't going to kill us. He wanted to go to Chaps or IHOP. We had a coupon for IHOP, so we went there. And then he bought a bacon cheeseburger. He really wanted to go to Chaps, but he thought IHOP would be less, because of the coupon. Chaps without a coupon is usually about fourteen dollars. On Sunday, IHOP was twelve something with the coupon, plus tip, so it was almost sixteen dollars. So we paid two dollars more to get something that was almost what he wanted, and now we've wasted a coupon too.

Spring break is a bit over two weeks away. Usually we are talking about where we might go if he asked for a few days off, or if I might go with him if he gets an out of town assignment. This year I'm thinking of how much money we might spend if we had a free trip to Hot Springs or Kansas City. Just sitting in the motel room watching cable sometimes costs an extra five or ten dollars a day to take me along. Then we would probably eat out lunch or dinner or maybe both, so if I go too that expense doubles. And that's just if we don't really go anywhere or do anything. If we're ever near something interesting, we end up spending money doing tourist stuff. We go to a museums and state parks and such. It all adds up.

I'm used to the seasonal layoff and having to do without extra money for a bit. But this is the end of February. I don't remember it lasting this long before. This sucks, and I'm tired of it, but I haven't thought of anything brilliant to do about it.

4 comments:

The Absurdist said...

I gotta start using coupons. I am going to be in my car in about two weeks.

Diva's Thoughts said...

Budgeting is always tough.

dmarks said...

Let us know how those McSkillets taste...

laughing said...

The McSkillets are okay. We bought two medium sodas and got two free McSkillets. And then there were free samples on the counter, so my husband ate another fourth of one while we were waiting to be served. There didn't seem to be many other people there who had heard about the offer.

We may go again tomorrow if my husband gets up in time for us to have breakfast together before I go to school.