One hundred and twenty – three dollars, can you believe that?!

And the sad part is, we could have EASILY avoided it altogether! arghh….just thinking of it gives me the heebie jeebies.

Oh well, as soon as I get it out of my system here I’ll lock it up in the old “stop thinking about me” department ;)

The whole thing started when we were invited to a combined bachelor/bachelorette party up in Philly at a Dave and Busters bowling alley. It seemed pretty fun all in all, but it also came with a hefty $50/person price tag. While we could have easily, and politely, declined, we were the ONLY friends from the DC area that were left on the list who hadn’t bailed. So we RSVP’d w/ a yes, and we started working our frugal magic!

We convinced a friend who lived in the city to let us crash there, even though he would be out of town that night. So that saved us a good $100-$150 from the start! We then decided to just drive the 3 hours up there that night, crash, and then scurry outta there the next morning before any temptation to stay and play came about. Not bad, right?

Had all gone as planned, the whole night woulda cost us $172. That consisted of the two $50 tickets, $40 for gas, $22 for parking, $10 for some pre-party beverages, and zero for the “hotel”. Annoying, but do-able. Well, as you have already gathered from my bitterness, it didn’t go as plan and we ended up with a $295 bill instead. BOOOOOOO.

Once we got there, here’s how the night played out:

• We down our pre-party beverages to get a head start on the night (it’s the cheapest way to go!), and walk out into a sea of cabs – Awesome!
• We cab it 3 miles to the downtown D&B, tip the cabby $4 bucks on a $6 ride (I was in a good mood..probably from the drinks!), and got out.
• We walk in and there’s a $5 cover JUST TO GET IN! No way jose, we explained we were w/ a party here, and they said we could just go ahead w/ out paying. nice.
• We walk in, can’t find the bowling alley, and ask someone to direct us. this is where it gets bad…
• She states, “Oh, there’s no bowling alley here. You must be thinking of the D&B outside of town”. Come again? there’s more than 1 D&B around here? Uh-oh, the fear sinks in, especially considering we’re already 20 mins late…
• Turns out the D&B we needed was a good 15 miles away!!! So after blowing $10 on the original cab ride, we now have to grab another and go even further out!
• We flag down another, jump in, and the cabbie explains it’ll be around $45 EACH WAY. Now, we had two options here: Continue on our un-merry way, or go back to our friend’s place, pick up the car, and drive there our selves. Logic told us to go the latter route, but momentum was telling us to keep going. so we did :( it was a quick decision to make, and since we already had 2 drinks a piece inside us, was it really worth the risk of driving?
• It cost us $48, including tip, to get there.
• Then, because we were pretty pissed, we spent another $15 on drinks while there to help get us in the spirit of things. Luckily, we’re both pretty good at keeping it inside ;)
• We bowl a bit, eat some food, talk some talk, and 2 hours later leave.
• It cost us $50, including tip, on the way back.

When it comes down to it all, we just didn’t do our homework. We were so focused on cutting costs the whole time, that we didn’t even think to google map the address! One simple mistake that cost us $113 dollars. On the plus side, at least we were able to celebrate with the happy couple. Let’s just hope they *remember* us being there! haha…

PS: And that’s an actual picture from the night too. At least we have that!