Frugal Friday

Well, in the spirit of "no spend" month (which is going... fairly well, for us anyway) I thought I'd share with you one of my favorite ways of going on a date with my husband and then make it even more frugal!

We LOVE going to Borders and sitting at the cafe, sipping coffee drinks (usually cold) and flipping through books (I'm partial to Baby Blues comic books). Thankfully, Seattle's Best has been putting out good BOGO free coupons like the current one over here that's good until 4/28. Usually, my mom will watch our daughter but sometimes we just take her with us (along with plenty of snacks and toys!) Because our family knows we love Borders, we sometimes get giftcards which can make this a free date! If you want to save money and gas, I have found a recipe from Coffee Mate that I just adore and has a real coffee house taste to it.

Vanilla Cafe Mocha

3/4 c hot water

3 tbsp French Vanilla Liquid Coffee Creamer

1 tbsp Instant Coffee granules

1-2 tsp Chocolate flavored syrup

Stir together well until blended and top with whipped cream if desired.

That's it! Coffee-mate is very easy for me to get cheaply at Giant Eagle (and you can too this week!) because the $0.50 coupons will double to $1 and the smaller bottles are often on sale for $1.50 at Giant Eagle. I use whatever flavor I have around and sometimes I throw in some carmel or whatever other fun toppings I want to use up. I'm sure you could blend this with some ice cubes or milk (cut back on the water) for a fun cold drink. The possibilities are endless.

For the flipping through books part: Did you know you can find basically anything you want at the library? This revelation may seem like a "duh" thing to you, but I even went and got Baby Blues comics through their "Search Ohio" program. They seriously have anything you want or could find at a Borders. Hope your date nights are going well and frugally! Feel free to leave some tips of your own, I'm always looking for new date ideas!

You can go here to see more money saving tips!