Coupon Cutter

It's official, I have become a cheap bastard.  I know I have been told not to stress about money, I will be "taken care of".  But I don't take this as an invitation to live the high life without a care, I take this as "I don't have to actually starve myself".  Toward the end of last week I had 28 bucks in my wallet and by darn I was going to make it last until pay day - Tuesday.  I began by spending Friday night with Josephine and Christine. I headed to their place after I had already eaten my lovely dinner of steamed veg, and crackers with cheese and apple slices, yum yum.  We stayed in and watched a movie, actually the most depressing movie ever, House of Sand and Fog.

Saturday, Josephine and I had gotten crazy reduced tickets to the Real Food Festival, about 5 bucks. We figured it would be good for some free samples (like the fair we went to around Christmas time) and boy were we right! As we walked in we got a free canvas shopping bag, good start. Into this bag we placed 2 single servings of cereal that were handed to us - hello school lunch! Next we wandered up and down each and every row sampling cheese, chocolate, brownies, carrot cake, cheese cake, bread, honey, wine, wine, wine! Answer a few questions about organic food and get a free bottle of juice? Count me in. After we had seen all of the stalls I told Jo we should get some more cereal/granola - I was quite excited to have this for my lunch. She says "Won't they recognize us". Well, it's been a couple hours and probably a few hundred people have passed by them, I'm going to take my chances!

Bestest Buds <3 (in Edinburgh)

Sunday, we set out to a coffee and tea festival - you guessed it, free admission! It was actually not quite what we were expecting, but we still got a few free samples of chocolate coffee beans, iced teas and hot teas and some chocolate.  We walked around along Southbank for awhile then relaxed in Jubilee Gardens waiting for a cooking/comedy show that I had gotten us tickets to... for FREE! The cook/comedian was Hardeep Singh Kohli and basically he interviews some local chefs, restauranteurs, musicians, all whilst cooking up a spicy curry. At the end of the show they pass some out in true tv style. And Jo and I didn't get any! Not acceptable, so I take my time getting my sweater on and see a bunch of rowdies run up to the front and start dishing out their own. Again: I'm in!  Up we go as the set director is starting to stress over the people helping themselves so she starts to dish some out and I grab my chance, boy is it delicious! Too spicy for Josephine, but I am not passing up a free meal after a free show!
Next we head to meet up with some friends at a pub since one of our kind is heading back to the homeland. We buy a drink and it costs almost 5 bucks?! Too rich for my blood so I make it last over and hour. I grab my groceries for the week, which come to just under 10 bucks and am still doing good with my self imposed budget.
Payday came, though it was rather small, but it was enough to book my flight for our next term break which is only 2.5 weeks away. I will be heading to Poland for a few days to explore the city of Krakow. Can't wait.