Happy Halloween!

Well, I was trying to take a nap, but the MKE trick or treaters are out in force. Luckily I stopped by Pick N' Save and picked up some candy. I went with the cheaper generic candy, but didn't want to disappoint the kiddies. We went to a costume party last night-we brought a bottle of wine and munched on free food and had free mixed drinks. The costumes were recycled from last year's $10 costume purchased at a clothing store that was going out of business. Tonight is Ned's house for a pasta and sardine recipe he wants to try on us-he recently went to Italy and is trying out some dishes he had there. A cheap finish to a relatively cheap weekend-the major cost was on Friday: we used a Groupon at Transfer which helped offset the bottle of wine we had with our pizza-well we had to have wine!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-6XxF2Ul2g

I never drink...wine

Florentine Opera Camerata

Florentine Opera Camerata  hosted a free performance and free food at the room last night. We hadn't eaten dinner, so this was a great, relaxing way to end the evening. I'll make sure to take advantage of this again. :)

Fall Gallery Night 2011

We started out at the Grohmann Museum at MSOE for a great photographic exhibit of trains from the 40s through 70s. Entrance was free for Gallery night and they serve great appetizers-wine was $4, so we skipped it. :)


Then on to the condos at 1st place on the river, across the bridge into the 3rd Ward. Our dentist is in the building and had some photos, glass work and free appetizers, 'natch. :) An 11th floor condo was open-spectacular views of downtown and free champagne. Met up with some friends at Tulip, the Turkish restaurant. We had a Groupon, so had a bottle of wine and appetizers. Then went to Walker's Point Center for the arts. A phenomenal Day of the dead exhibit. Here's a picture of a Marilyn Monroe wannabe.

Next was Humboldt Park to see their pumpkin carving display-a huge number of pumpkins. They also had a band playing some sort of rock, folk art.
Got a little chilly so heade to Thief Wine in the public market-we had a gift certificate so had a carafe of wine.


Last stop was the pfister, where Shelby Keefe, the artist in residence, was painting. It was nearing 11pm by now, so took a quick walk around the 2nd floor of the Pfister looking at old pictures and artifacts before heading back to Brewer's Hill.

The Secret to Living Well on $20,000 a Year

I like articles like this in Yahoo! Finance. I use them to get ideas about where I can cut corners. I was able to live pretty comfortably last year at around 30-some K. Now that I'm making more, I see that I'm starting to splurge a bit, so have to be careful. I'm putting money in my 401K again, and saving for unforseen expenses. We went to Chicago yesterday for the opera and ate at a BYOB wine place. For $38 we had a great meal for 2 and leftovers (in the old days we would have spent well over $100). Plus, my Yaris fit into a small parking space some behemoth of a car tried to get into. Another reason to get a cheap, small car. :)