Catching up!

Well, the Fab and Frugal Birthday didn't go exactly as planned, but everything eventually worked itself out.

For the birthday attire, I ended up getting a shirt from the mall for literally $4 off of the clearance rack at JCPenney. I wore that with black pants I already had, so my birthday attire total was $4.

As previously written, the birthday entertainment was FREE tickets to a play at Arena Stage entitled "The Quality of Life". It was EXCELLENT play, and I encourage all of you to go see it if it comes to your city. It brings up almost every emotion humanly possible - happiness, sadness, anger...you name it. Parking was free as well. Entertainment total - $0.

We had originally planned to go to dinner after the play, but it was so late and I was dead tired from all the running I did earlier in the day to change my name (FINALLY!), so we ended up just grabbing a quick bite to eat at IHOP an headed home. Dinner total: $18

My Maggianos birthday dinner (lunch now) was planned for the following weekend, but my husband had a little mishap with his car, and ended up having to go to NC. We rescheduled for the next weekend. And wouldn't you know it, I forgot my Maggianos $10 off coupon. But...when we got there, Maggianos was having a special called 'Today and Tomorrow' - where you get one selection of pasta that day, and another to take home - all for $12.95/pp. So we both ordered the Baked Ziti with Sausage for that day, and I got the Spaghetti w/meat sauce to take home, while Rodney ordered the Butternut Squash Ravioli. We also ordered calamari and a Caesar salad to start with. For dessert we ordered two "mini" desserts as well. All for a total of $70.70

Note: the amount of spaghetti they gave me lasted through 3 more meals and not just one, so great deal. Check it out at a Maggianos near you!

So the grand total for the Fab and Frugal Birthday was....drumroll....around $93. I'd say I made my goal!!!!

Now on to Christmas. My family has decided not to spend more than $50 per person on gifts this year....time to start shopping!