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I say it every Friday Queens, but I don't think yall are hearing me. It's so important for you to celebrate your wins and congratulate yourself on your come up. I have been working since the age of fourteen. Something I've always done for myself is paid myself first. We work hard every week, the least you can do for yourself, is stop and celebrate all that you've done to reach your goals. You work hard for your money, after you set aside your tithes and savings, take a little bit and treat yourself.
The key words here are "little bit" and "treat". I always took $20 to treat myself to a movie, every paycheck. If there were no good movies out, I'd take myself to Olive Garden with a good book and splurge on an appetizer and dessert.
As I got older, I recognized the smaller things in life. Now a days, I'm sitting pretty if I can just go out and do some grocery shopping. Come home, prepare a bomb as meal, take a relaxing shower, and eat said bomb as meal in bed while watching reruns of Game of Thrones. I love to cook and so I will prepare vegetarian tacos, lasagna from scratch, my famous ragu pasta, or breakfast for dinner.
Queens, I know we're all on a budget trying to make that dollar strecth as much as we can. But even Queens stacking coins need to have a little fun too. Really, you don't need to do much. A little goes a long way. In this "Best You" post, I'm going to show you how I get buy on my tight ass budget with celebrating myself and treating my younger siblings.
Here's my 4-1-3 guide of 4 cheap ways I love to treat myself each week, 1 tutorial for a cheap day of fun with the family and 3 tips for the larger excursions to amusement parks, zoos, and fairs! Oh My!
4 Cheap Ways to Celebrate Your Success Every Week
1. See a movie on discount day!
Who says you have to wait for Friday to celebrate. Most movie theaters have a cheap discount day where tickets are $8-10 bucks. Or, you can book it straight to the theatre after work and catch a matinee movie before 6pm for a deep discount.
This is great because you still get to see the latest movies for a fraction of the price.
*** If you're like me, you're not down to spend $20 on snacks. So, where some baggy clothes and stop at your local Dollar Tree before going to the movies. If you're trying to make the matinee, head to the Dollar Tree on your lunch break or the day before.
Just recently I took Princess Aaliyah to the movie theaters to see Incredibles 2. I walked into the theater with sweet tarts in one pocket, pixie sticks in another, a Fanta underneath one arm, a Gatorade underneath the other and 2 bags of chips in my pants. We had a feast!
2. Drive to a new part of town and try a new restaurant
I always love doing this. Sometimes, I don't know what I want to do and so I find myself just driving. My DNA is made of pasta and there is always a cool new mom and pop pasta joint to find. So, I end up driving until I find something that looks good.
Start out by taking a different route than what you would normally take once you leave work, or home. Turn on some jams and just let the road take you where it takes you.
I've found some of my favorite hidden spots just wandering around Orange County!
3. Get some ice cream and chill in the park people watching
This one is so easy it's ridiculous. How much is ice cream? Like at most $5. Head to your favorite ice cream spot and take it to the nearby park. Or if your city has a town centere or downtown center go there.
Chapman is right in the middle of the city of Orange down the street from the Orange Circle. So, when I wanted a treat, but didn't feel like doing too much, I'd walk to the circle. I'd buy some gelato from one of the Italian restaurants and just sit in the middle of the circle with the fountain and watch the busy intersection like it was TV.
4. Sign up for a membership
This one is a little more pricey as it involves at least a year of commitment. But, the price is the same. I live so close to Disneyland that I hear the fireworks every night from my house. One year I decided to look up annual passes and found that Disneyland actually has a monthly payment plan for passes and they have passes as cheap as $20 a month. My first year having a pass, I got a Deluxe. I paid $40 a month to go to disneyland 300 days out of the year.
Every weekend after a stressful week at work, I'd just head over to Disneyland, ride my favorite rides: pirates, Indiana Jones, Hunted Mansion, and watch the fireworks. I wouldn't even eat dinner at Disney. The key is, there are so many cheap restaurants surrounding Disneyland that I'd just end up eating at Denny's or McDonalds before going to the park.
Not everyone has a Disneyland next to them, but there are lots of theme parks all over the country that have annual passes. If a theme park is not your thing, other places hold memberships. My mentor Lisa has a spa membership that allows her entry to the spa whenever she wants and a discount on treatments. This is great because you prepay $20-40 a month to go as much as you want.
A Cheap Day of Fun for the Whole Family
1. Dollar Store Picnic
After my accidents last year, I didn't have much money to keep up my commitment to taking Aaliyah out at least twice a month. So, I had to get creative. One day, I decided we would be like the mom and daughter from the movie Holdiay Heart and have a junk food fest. That's just what we did. I had Aaliyah's mom meet me at Dollar Tree near the beach. Aaliyah and I ran inside to get all types of junk food. We got Lunchables, fruit snacks, chips, and drinks. I spent like $10. Then we went across the street to the beach.
I brought a blanket and some card games with me. We laid out on the beach eat our junk and playing games. Then we spent a couple of hours in the water, looking for sea shells, and drawing our names in the sand. It was a great day and actually, one of my favorite hang outs of ours.
Try this out with your family!
What you'll need:
A large blanket
Some board games or deck of cards
$10-20 for the feast (depending on how big your family is)
Head to the dollar store and let everybody roam free picking out their junk food. Once everything's paid for and you've got your beach bag packed, head to the beach and have a great day. It's really as easy as that.
If you don't live near the beach head to your favorite park!
3 Tips for Larger Excursions
1. Never Pay Full Price
I take pride in knowing that I got both my Sister Queen Makalah and I in to Knott's Berry Farm for $35 a piece. Whenever I take Aaliyah out we pay half price. I think I've paid full price only once before and that was still a deal,it was buy a day and get the rest of the year free at Universal Studios.
If you haven't heard of funex.com, drop everything you're doing right now and sign up. This is a great website to help you find tickets for all types of fun activities super cheap.
There's also groupon and living social (the LYFT to Groupon's Uber). Both of those websites have great deals on fun activities to do with the kids.
Even if you're planning a last minute trip, review these sites first. You may save money that you can later spend on food or extras.
2. Get Creative with Parking
Never pay for parking. Imma say it again. Never pay for parking. If you do a quick google search around the place you're going, you are bound to find a grocery store or outlet mall. Park at said store and outlet mall, walk into the store, buy a water, and then proceed to either walk or lyft to your intended destination. Even if you LYFT it's cheaper than spending $10-$50 bucks on parking.
For those of you who have a Disneyland pass like me, here's the tea. Park at target, take the #43 bus to the entrance. You're paying $4 all together versus $35.
3. Split your day with one cheap meal and one Expensive meal
After all those savings of getting discounts on tickets and passing on parking, I'm still not about to dish out money for an expensive meal twice. Most of the time, when I pick up my sisters and take them somewhere like Disneyland or Universal Studios, we're looking at an all day trip. I have them eat breakfast at home and then choose whether they want a cheap lunch and expensive dinner or vice versa.
Just like Disneyland, Universal is surrounded by an entire mall. So we usually eat inside the park for lunch and eat in the food court for dinner on the way home.
Bonus: Sign up for emails to your fake email account!
I have a fake email account where I send spam. Whenever I sign up for someone's newsletter to get free stuff, I use that email. Whenever I'm looking for a deal, I login. This is how I get free pizza from my faves Blaze Pizza and Pizza Hut, how I get great deals when shopping at Sephora or Macy's. Some company's be giving out all the tea to their email subscribers. Check if your favorite merchants have a mailing list and sign up. Trust, you'll never pay full price again! Plus, all of these places give you free stuff during the month, week, or day of your birthday. Cha ching!
Did you enjoy these tips? Let me know in the comment section below which one you're excited to try first!
It's a beautiful day to conquer the world, but first treat yo self, then slay!
-Queen Maree
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON AUGUST 27, 2018