Our Personal Finances

We are busy people. I MEAN BUSY. Half the time (I'm lying – more than half the time) we fall asleep on the couch after we're finally alone and the kids are in bed.

But we made a commitment to have regular date nights. Before we had five kids (yes, five) we had a date once a week. We're doing well now if we have a date each month, which is exactly what we try to do.

But now, we're really in dire straits. Guess what? After 13 years at the same firm, vilkri-he lost his job last week – so we're really feeling the economic crunch that many of you all are feeling. But do we get rid of date night? Are you kidding me? Did you not read the part about the five kids? We've got to get out of the house sometime!

Okay. So when we were single and the bucks were flowing, we'd go to dinner or to a show or some other thing that was perhaps pricey but what we considered fun. (Since I'm telling the truth here, let me say that only he thinks a show is fun.) But now, we can't do that. First of all, we now have babysitting costs on top of the costs of what we consume on the night out. It just adds so much more to the cost! So, we try to come up with things now that we enjoy (yes, sometimes one of us more than the other) but that won't break the bank.

From the beginning we had only one date night rule – no watching regular TV shows. We have had many Netflix dates in our transition from weekly to monthly date nights, though. Watching a movie doesn't count as TV for us, in case you were wondering. But we had to limit that – it's the falling asleep on the couch thing. It doesn't feel much like a date when your date partner is snoring next to you. This week's date, though is for me: I get to watch Daniel Craig as James Bond. He's won the vilkri-she academy award just for his hot as lava walk! We've also done comedy clubs (where we are on the "list" so we get discount tix), and indie movie receptions, and so on. We're lucky to live close to what we think is the greatest city in the world, so it's probably easy for us to find great things to do on the cheap.

(This is probably a good time to mention www.GoCityKids.com where you can get on a list to be notified about exceptionally special events for kids in a big city near you! I've done a few fabulous things with my kids from knowing about that list.)

Anyway, I just want to say thanks, Daniel Craig, for making it okay for me to go to the movies, pay $22 for two tickets, and for once, not really care that vilkri-he may fall asleep right after the opening credits roll.