A Less Frugal, But Still Very Frugal Day in New Orleans

I've been wanting to write about my vow to be somewhat LESS frugal going forward. You see, I turned 60 recently. I'm too old for early retirement. What I do in the next five years in the frugal department won't make that big a difference. My house is paid off; my kiddos are done with college.

It's hard to change old habits. Actually, I think I may be hard-wired for frugality.

Yesterday, my family of three (Frugal Son is elsewhere) went to New Orleans.

First stop: Buffalo Exchange with bunch of stuff.

Next stop: Palace Cafe for the special summer Temperature Lunch, where you get a soup/salad and entree for the preceding day's high temp!

Third Stop: New Orleans Museum of Art, free for residents on Wednesdays.

Fourth Stop: We had parked at Canal Place, an upscale shopping venue. If you buy something, you get reduced parking.  We got a coffee at Starbucks.

Outcomes

Buffalo Exchange: Oops! Accidentally brought a box full of intended discards. This box lowered the "look" of our good stuff. Plus, the buyer stopped after 10 minutes to take an Advil, which didn't kick in till after she was finished. More plus, the young woman selling next to us--who looked like nothing special--had brought in boxes of Louboutin shoes and Chanel boots (among other upscale stuff), which further downgraded our items. Still, we got almost $70, even after Miss Em used some of the credit on a lovely tunic.

Palace Cafe: Pretty good but very noisy. Salad was Caesar; soup was red bean, main was chicken and dumplings. I don't think I'd go for regular price because there are much better options in NOLA. The high temperature was 89 degrees, so each lunch was $8.90. We were too full for a real dinner.

Museum: Two wonderful special exhibits, one on the Spanish-American home and one on the murals at Talledega College.

Canal Place: We ran into the person who watched our house while we were gone! A pleasant surprise.

I asked Miss Em how I was doing on getting the pathological out of my frugality. She started laughing. A good day all in all.