Not Your Standard Monday Office Conversation

Standard Monday conversation in the office:

“So, how was your weekend?” asked John.

“Pretty good.  How was yours?” responded Bob.

“Real good” said John.  “Have a good day”.

“You too”, Bob replied.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been a part of this ritual.  Often times, it’s just something two people do in order to just say hello, be friendly, or show that they’re team players.  Simply an innocent icebreaker.

That being said,  I’ve found that many other times someone asks this question, it often means they did something pretty interesting.  Or, at least it was something they thought was interesting.  Invariably, it’s something they’re proud of and wanting to share with you for some reason.

Of course, the next step is to get you into dialogue where you share what you did, and then ask them what they did.  Sometimes, with certain people, you know that they want that reaction out of you, to make themselves feel good.

“Wow! Sounds like you had a good time with those tickets on the 50 yard line.”

“Cool! That’s awesome that you and your husband bought a new car.  Great choice.”

“You went to Brazil? For the long weekend, really? Incredible!”

Yes, that last one actually did happen.  Someone once casually told me that he went to Brazil for a long weekend.  He went to see a woman he was dating, and I have to say that his particular story did impress me.

Well, given that this is a personal finance blog, how about doing something a little bit different here.  How about asking “how was your financial weekend“?  For most, this would mean how you did in terms of spending your money.  This is a place where we talking about squirreling away money, after all.

Plus, if you work Monday through Friday, you might have time available to shop or be entertained over the weekend….thus being tempted to spend money.  At least this is the time when I’ve spent a lot in the past.

So, I’ll share my modest personal finance weekend story here.  I’ll be the first to admit, it’s not as cool as flying to South America for a few days.  But as someone who advocates squirreling away money to help grow wealth, this one weekend highlight will have to do.

Here’s our household’s personal finance highlight for the weekend:  dinner, movies, and snacks all for free!

This is how it happened.

Dinner: a gift card that was received some time ago was used to get a pizza.

Movies:  got a few good choices for all ages, making use of the public library to save money on watching movies.  ParaNorman and The Smurfs for kids, and Argo for the grownups.

Snacks:  each person got a few pieces of Halloween candy, which just made a dent into the excess of sweets obtained courtesy of people in the neighborhood.

How much was saved?  Well, if you went out to eat at a restaurant, and later went to a theatre, I have to think that this would have cost somewhere in the $75 range.  At least, and possibly more.   Rather, in this case, it was all free.  Other than the departure from healthy eating for one evening, but it tasted good 🙂

I’ve written about inexpensive fall activities before, but this was a zero cost one.  Not a bad way to spend a chilly evening at home!

My Questions for You

At the risk of sounding like the conversation I was mocking, how was your weekend?  Though in this case, I mean: how was your financial weekend?

Do you ever have those weekends where you have a really fun time, and simply don’t spend much at all?

Back to those Monday morning conversations: do you also engage in those often?