kick the economic crisis in the canoogies by doing at least one NEW AND FULFILLING (and quite possibly thrifty and frugal) thing in April, May, and June!

On my way to buy a new grill (I cannot in good conscience list that as new, thrifty or frugal although it was fulfilling) I was listening to The Pat Whitley Restaurant Show. They were talking about bread and looking for recommendations so I dialed and they put me on.

First the guest host Stu called me Marv. Then he rushed me because they had to go to commercial but I was able to describe the garlic bread they serve with the Go-Go bread at Firefly and started to tell about the bread basket at Blue Sky which included homemade brown bread – a find taste from my childhood reinvented.

My phone was ringing almost before I could hang up because my mom was also listening. The friend I was meeting to help buy the grill missed it because he had just changed the channel!

Tonight was the dress rehearsal before a 3 week run of the play Sweet Charity at the Palace Theatre. There was a special reception with free drinks, cheese and fruit before hand. The show was well done and went off without a hitch.

New – definitely – this was my first time seeing Sweet Charity
Fulfilling – sure – it was fun to be out at the theater instead of working later or watching TV
Thrifty – absolutely – it was totally free. We didn’t even pay for parking!

Hoping to aim a kick at saving some money by using the library (and donating some of my books) and borrowing instead of buying.

The local museum has First Thursday celebrations. I have wanted to check it out for a while but always seem to be out of town or busy. Last month was salsa dancing which sounded really fun and I was 5 hours away – grrr.

Tonight I finally made it to one. The theme was The Roaring 20s. It was in honor of The Big Read which is currently encouraging people to read “The Great Gatsby. People showed up in costume, there was a specialized tour of the items in the museum’s collection from the 1920s, they showed some silent films with live piano accompaniment (we saw Buster Keaton who turns out to be kind of cute in One Week), had a Charleston dance demo and served bathtub gin (ok – it was just plain old gin, but still).

And the price was right – just $10 because I am a member (and a docent).

Something different, fun, thrifty so I think I gave a good attempt at this goal for April!