My feet hurt!
Just got back from a good night out. I decided to bust out my silver heels (which I wear, oh, about once a year) just for me, just because. Luckily, we didn’t end up going dancing – that would not have worked out well – and I held up pretty well, until we got home and I just collapsed onto the bed and sighed in relief. Don’t get me wrong, I’m much better at walking in heels than I used to be, and the shoes fit me well. They’re just not of especially high quality and the straps start to rub a little after a few hours. I think at some point I need to invest in good, comfortable stilettos (plus, the right shoe started squeaking sometime before dinner).
Before I go any further, I have to admit: this was NOT a fiscally responsible week! I more or less thought, F*** it, I’ll deal with the aftermath later. Could we really afford to have done anything this weekend? Not really, but I threw caution (somewhat) to the wind.
We had Thai at Zap2 in Balmoral, mainly because I knew we’d both enjoy it even though I really wanted to go to a Malaysian restaurant. But BF had food poisoning last night, and I wanted him to be able to eat something he definitely likes, and so I wouldn’t have to deal with him being grumpy if he didn’t like anything at Bunga Raya. That came to $36 – for an entree of spare ribs, my tom yum and his pad thai.
Then I FINALLY finally went to SkyCity for the first time! The legal age is 20, so really I’ve waited almost an entire year. SkyCity is massive. (We also spotted the Syrian basketball team who are in Auckland for a visit and must be staying there. They’re all tall, dark, broody looking and about 7 foot tall. A lovely cross section of Aucklanders crowded around them; the classy, tasteful famewhores teetering in heels and skirts and clamouring for a piece of the guys. How embarrassing….)
I couldn’t believe how many tables and machines there were. Like, I wouldn’t even try to count them. BF showed me how it worked first on the 2 and 5c machines, then after losing about $10 we headed to the bigger machines ($2) where I proceeded to win back our money and come out even :). Then I quit :P. After that, we wandered around gaping at all the high rollers on the gaming tables. Blackjack, poker, roulette….they were full of middle aged to old people, and oddly enough, mostly Asian (tourists?). With the minimum bets being $5 and $10, I really couldn’t justify jumping in. So we just watched. Watched people drop hundreds of dollars at a time, some making a little back, most just seeing the dealers sweep their piles of chips into the black hole in the table. Good fun. Total cost – $8 for parking. Next time I’ll try to make back enough to cover parking too…
Lastly, onto Denny’s for a quick dessert. As tempting as the pies and cheesecakes looked, we couldn’t justify paying $6-7 for a single slice when we could have bought an entire cheesecake for $5 at the supermarket, or gotten 2 pies for $6 (which we did the last two weeks at Pak n Save). A shake and a banana fritter/ice cream later, $9.70 down.
HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY! In the US, you would have fallen over drunk, puking everywhere (it’s our legal drinking age), your plan sounds much better. I’ve never been to the casino at the skytower…probably classier than the ones on K’ road, eh (do those even count as casinos??)? Glad you had a good time!!
“Next time I’ll try to make back enough to cover parking too…”
That’s a really shit goal for someone trying to save money or whatever. Casinos are BAD… and planning to go back and gamble enough to break even and cover parking is one of the stupidest things I have ever read on a PF blog.
@ sense Thanks!! Best birthday ever (post 2 coming up tonight). Haha, i’ve only ever puked once from drinking and vowed never to do it again – remember, I have a fear of vomiting lol. Kinda gone off drinking of late. There are casinos on K’ rd? I can only imagine! It was pretty upscale, not that I have anything to comapare it to.
@ jono – thanks for your insightful response.
If you want to begrudge me taking $20 to the casino (which I got back) on my birthday, instead of sitting home and watching TV, that’s entirely your call. I must say, if that’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever read on a PF blog, you must be pretty new to the blogosphere.
Will I be going back to the casino? I’d like to, yes, although it probably won’t happen for a very long time (it’s been something me and my friends have been trying to organise for ages and never got ourselves together enough). It’s not exactly going to be my new hangout; you need a lot of money for that, I certainly am not going to be making a habit of it. No doubt the next time I’ll come out with less than I took in, and that’ll put me off going back again. Maybe you got the wrong impression – if I go back it will be something I budgeted for that week.
I’m going to be honest on my blog, both the good and bad, because I’m not the holier than thou kind who pretends they never put a foot wrong. It hasn’t been easy being the main earner, on a student income, but I personally am debt free and am not going into debt for daily expenses or for frivolous things. I don’t go out drinking, I don’t buy clothes or shoes, and definitely won’t be going out of town this year. Yes, that money could have gone towards knocking a little off BF’s old car loan/Visa balance, or to savings but I’m happy with having spent less than $55 that day for my 21st.
Going to the casino is something that’s been on my todo list for a while, and I’m really glad I managed to do that this weekend. It ended up costing a grand total of $8 – same as a beer, a pizza, or half a movie ticket. Even if I hadn’t broken even, I see it as no different, really, to people going to a city bar and blowing $20 on two drinks. Maybe you come from a background of a gambling addiction, maybe you don’t celebrate birthdays, or like to enjoy yourself once in a while… PF is about finding that balance between enjoying life and being financially responsible. If our views don’t correlate, sweet as.