Since we were on a budget, we skipped the alcohol. Restaurants upcharge that like you wouldn't believe (since they sell most wines and liquor by the pour, they generally make 70-80% profit on a bottle). Instead we agreed to pull out a bottle of wine at home.
Olive Garden gives you free bread sticks and salad, so I try to fill up on those and then take part of my entree home for lunch the next day (another money saver). We also skipped the appetizer, but since my husband really wanted the calamari appetizer, he got it as his entree instead, with a soup. Appetizers are generally much cheaper options than a main course, and we got a heaping plate of calamari when a pasta dish with a sprinkling of calamari might run you almost twice that and you end up getting a bunch of pasta which is extremely cheap for the restaurant to buy. Restaurants make their money on things like pizza, pasta, and various other dishes where they have a lot of cheap "filler" so they can skimp on the expensive stuff like meat and seafood.
Since we filled up on bread sticks and salad, we also skipped the dessert. However, and this is important, if you don't have a lot of money, skip an appetizer, but do NOT skimp on the tip. That waiter or waitress worked just as hard to please us on a $32 check as she would have if we'd also gotten drinks, appetizers, dessert, and coffee. And it's not her fault that the restaurant she works for gives away unlimited bread sticks and salad to the diners. It's not fair to punish the server just because you're trying to save some money. If I have a set budget for dinner, I prefer to cut down on a drink or dessert, rather than run out of money to leave a good tip.
After our dinner we walked home, both to burn off some of the heavy calories of the pasta and bread, and to save wear and tear and gas on the car (which is actually a lie that we were telling ourselves, because the real reason why we couldn't even really afford a trip to Olive Garden is because our car needs to go in to be repaired after my recent accident and we'll be paying a $250 deductible to get it fixed). But the walk did give us a bit more time away from our kid, who was safely ensconced with a friend who'd offered to watch him (for free, because he loves our kid, and potentially in the hopes of reciprocation once he has a kid of his own, which we will be happy to do). And it gave us time to talk and just generally catch up on our day and the past year of married life.
We got home and after putting our kid to bed and thanking our friend profusely (and politely shooing him out the door, after making plans with him later in the week, so we could have the rest of the evening to ourselves), we opened that bottle of wine ($12-$14 Gollywobbler Peach from St. Michael's Winery). This is way cheaper than drinking a bottle or 4-6 glasses at a restaurant any day, and amazing to boot! If you haven't had the Gollywobbler Peach, I highly recommend it if you can get your hands on it. It's made by a small winery in Maryland, and is sweet like a dessert wine but cheaper than most dessert wines, and even my husband who is not usually a sweet wine sort of guy, loves it.
We watched an episode of Leverage on the laptop, while snuggling together in bed and drinking our wine. This saved us a boatload instead of going to the movies, especially since my husband is one of those people who has to buy a drink at the concession stand when we go to a movie, and maybe some popcorn or candy too. And we were nice and cozy at home to boot. We also had access to ice cream, but since the wine was so sweet, it satisfied our cravings for dessert as well.
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