Ballin’ on a Budget

Lately, Chris and I have been pouring all of our funds into PhillyIn, and well let’s say, have been quite “financially irresponsible” on our adventures out around Philadelphia. In college, you could take $20 out and live like a king; give a girl a 40 and call her pretty and she’s yours for the evening. Now that we have moved on and our tastes have matured, it is not hard to find yourself spending between $150-200 for a night in Philadelphia, so Chris and I put our heads together to come up with a game plan to invest more money into the business and not into our livers.  The outcome is our new “Ballin’ on a Budget” financial investing plan.

To test out our new financial en devour, we planned a night out with a few beautiful young ladies (to really put our willpower to the test).  The night would begin with dinner, a sporting event, and finally, a night downtown.  The challenge was only spending $80 for the entire evening, and if you ran out of cash, you had to basically survive by any means necessary.  The wallet was to be left at home, credit cards and all; only our ID’s and $80 cash in hand.

We put our heads together, I made a few phone calls to pull some strings, and this is how it all went down…

The evening was to start with dinner followed by a sporting event of some kind. So what did we do? We combined dinner and the game.  I called my friend Brett who plays for the Philadelphia Wings, scored some sweet box seats in the player’s section, all comped.  Objective one was complete.

The evening was starting off great until road-block number one arose, parking; one of the many unforeseen expenses of a night out.  But luckily, being the budget ballers that we are, we had an “in” with a Wachovia Center parking pass and we proceeded with 15 extra dollars in our pockets.  Heading into the game, the girls picked up food, however Chris and I planned ahead and ate and drank BEFORE the night began to keep down the food and beverage expenditures down. After asking the bartender what the cheapest beer they served was (which apparently they do not find too amusing), we grabbed our Yuengling Lagers and proceeded to our seats. The night was going great, already two hours in and only $10 spent each.  Sidenote: This was my first lacrosse game, and let me just say, if you’ve never been to one, you must go.  It is like a UFC fight with goals.  #Awesome.

After the game was over, we headed over to Club Duber for some great hospitality and comped drinks before continuing on.  As always Club Duber was poppin’, crazy packed, and the DJ was spinning the best mash-up I’ve heard in a while.  Around 11, we left and made our way to Public House.  Earlier in the week I talked to a friend who works at Public, and she so graciously comped our first 2 bottles for myself, the girls and the Wings players we were with.  Things started getting crazy at this point, so we ordered another bottle.  Public House was absolutely ridiculous. It is by far my favorite bar in the city; always has the best crowd, great music and you never know what local celebrities are swinging through (On this particular night I met Jeff Carter).  The serving staff and managers are some of the friendliest and most hospitable in the city.

Around 1:30 we paid our tab, which was about $55 each and headed home.  The plan was to head over to Recess, but only having $10 left each, and Katy B (and her previously injured ankle) heading home, we would not have had enough money to cover the cab fare.  So what did we do with our leftover money? Headed straight back to our second favorite late night spot, Club Duber, drank a couple more mixed drinks on the house, finally ending up at our third favorite after hours spot, McDonald’s for some dollar menu action. Boom! Dinner! So now a show, a night on the town, and finally dinner were accomplished.

In conclusion, $76 each were spent for the entire evening, which consisted of dinner, a game, AND bottle service at one of the best bars in the city, all while still saving enough cash to hit two after hours spots.  True ballin’ on a budget.

As Chris and I explore our new financial en devour, we will learn as we go, and bring you little tips and tricks you can use to save money on your nights out.

Rules of the “Balling on a Budget” financial plan we learned on this night are the following:

Rule #1 – The most important rule of the “Balling on a Budget” financial plan, NEVER tell anyone, especially a beautiful lady you are trying to impress, that you are on the financial plan! You will not impress her.

Rule #2 – Never leave another Budget Baller behind.

Rule #3 – Never ask a bartender what the cheapest drink they serve is.

Rule #4A – Get to know some professional athletes.

Rule #4B – Get to know club and bar owners, and make friends with bartenders.  A way to a bar tenders heart is tipping. In future articles, I will explain the concept of pre-tipping, you will love this one.

Rule #5 – Learn to love the bottom shelf at the liquor store.  You can buy a handle of Vladimir Vodka for your pre-game for around $11.

Sidenote: This may be a rumor but I heard if you run bottom shelf liquor through a Brita filter two or three times, you can make homemade Grey Goose.  Just sayin’…

More rules to come…