Week 9: Positivity: Attend a sporting event together with a goal of spending little or no money.
We stretched the intent behind this date a little, but we tried. Fitz and I actually had two different versions of a cheap sporting event date in March so I’ll share both experiences.
We are not avid sports fans. It’s rare to have a game on at home and even more rare for us to go to a live game (even though we have ample, cheap opportunities do so. More on that below. #inwego). While others may not consider watching a sporting event on TV as “attending a sporting event,” it seemed like purposely recording or turning on a game should count as a date for us, particularly when it was one that Fitz was really excited about. I mean, it was in Cardiff. His sister was going in person if that helps.
This year, the Six Nations Championship was between Wales and Ireland. Six Nations? Not familiar? It’s the rugby tournament that includes England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, and Wales. Fitz grew up supporting both Wales and Ireland and wanted them both to play well, but in the end, Wales had to win. They were undefeated, up for the Grand Slam, and their coach had announced his retirement after the season. It was a big enough game that we had considered driving to Santa Monica, CA to watch the game at Ye Olde Kings Head with a friend from Wales. However, that would most definitely disqualify this from being a cheap date. We opted to watch it from home with tea and a traditional English breakfast. The only problem was once the time came for the game to start, I was up and at ‘em and Fitz wanted to sleep more. Hrmph. I do not like watching big games on a tape-delay. Trying to stick with the “positivity,” theme, I got Fitz’s Wales jersey out and made tea thinking that might motivate him to get out of bed. I kept myself busy with work until he was up, but that meant I had to stay off my phone in case friends were posting about the game. My phone is now my music remote and how I VPN into work. It shouldn’t be that hard, but avoiding my phone and the internet was getting annoying. Finally, Fitz was up, we watched a great game of rugby that was pretty one-sided, but at least Ireland scored in the end. Even though Wales trounced Ireland, the game was still fun to watch and there were positive vibes all around. Rugby is hands down more exciting than American football. Yep, I said it. We didn’t end up having our traditional English breakfast. Instead, Fitz started preparing a St. Patrick’s Day dinner of corned beef and cabbage for the next day to enjoy with friends. It was delicious.
The next weekend, we had our friend from Wisconsin in town and decided to head to the Diamondbacks-Brewers Spring Training game on Sunday. Going to a Spring Training game in 2019 is not going to qualify as “spending little or no money.” It’s almost impossible to be cheap, but I think we did well at getting value out of the money spent. I remember as a teenager, lawn seats for Spring Training were somewhere between $5-$14 dollars. Well, they have jacked up the prices because they can. Gone are the days of going to sit on the lawn as a cheap, entertaining way to have your kids meet the players or to people watch while getting a farmer’s tan.
What did we spend?
1 regular lawn seat ($36)
$5 parking
2 InWeGo tickets ($29.00/month for the subscription x 2 = $58)
2 beers ($11 and $14)
Free water from the fountain… BYO-Bottle (empty)
No food… but we stopped at Portillo’s on the way home. Cheaper and way better!
We spent about $41 each if you just average the total but by my calculations, we really only spent $22/person. If we didn’t drink, we could have spent $14/person. What are my crazy math calculations?
Our InWeGo tickets are a subscription service where we pay $29 each per month. In March, Fitz and I paid $58 for InWeGo, and attended a festival (Innings Fest: March 3: $118.24), a play (Airness: March 13: $86.00), another Spring Training game (Diamondbacks vs. White Sox: March 17: $36.00), a concert (Catfish & the Bottlemen: March 18: $32 plus fees… let’s generously say $37), and this Spring Training game (Diamondbacks vs. Brewers: March 24: $36 x 2 = $72). That means we went to $349.24-worth of events for $58. According to my math, our subscription fee already paid for itself many times over and so going to Spring Training was free for us except for $5 parking. We just had to add in our friend’s ticket and you can do that from the app so you can sit together if there are assigned seats. I go to a lot more events than Fitz, so he keeps his subscription paused most of the time, meaning that he is paying $5/month to keep the service and his points and only activates his subscription if there are events that month that make it worth it. I keep mine activated and pay $29/month to go to a bunch of events.
Before you get super excited about signing up for InWeGo, it probably won’t surprise you that they are discontinuing the unlimited plan (because I’m bankrupting them). They just changed their subscription service starting April 3, 2019. If you become a member by Tuesday, April 2, you can still go to 3 events a month for $29 for one more year. If you use my referral code, we both get $10 off one month.
If you join InWeGo April 3rd or later, they will have 3 plans for new members:
1 event/month will be $15
3 events/month will be $39
5 events/month will be $59
I would still recommend joining, especially if you do it before April 3rd. If, unlike me, you are an avid sports fan, there are a ton of options. Diamondbacks, ASU baseball and basketball, Coyotes hockey, Phoenix Rising, Cardinals, and Arizona Hotshots tickets are all regularly available. There are also many comedy and food festival options. Sorry this just became an unsolicited ad for InWeGo, but I do really love it.
Back to the date at our Spring Training game. There were three of us and so I barely thought of it as a date. That’s probably good because I totally frustrated Fitz from the beginning. The guys were going to walk around Salt River Field and so I said, “I’ll go find a place near right field for the blanket. Text me.” Apparently he didn’t hear the “right field” part. I walked off while they got beers and walked around. Well, somehow they split up and I waved when I saw Doug but Fitz couldn’t find us. I did finally go get him and walk him to our spot, but it didn’t start well. He was frustrated that I wandered off. I was also barely watching baseball. Really, I was getting a tan and studying for a certification test I had to take the next day. I enjoyed it, but the most date-like part was eating at Portillo’s afterward. Fitz had an appetite and went back for seconds. It was our friend’s birthday, so we got Portillo’s chocolate cake that I’d been hearing about. I had a bite. I don’t see what the big deal is, but it was a good way to celebrate his birthday with a little treat. Anyway, it was a good day and felt like it was worth the price based on how we did it. I doubt many other people at the game left feeling like they had gotten a deal. Though we may not have spent “little or no money,” we’d done pretty well.
Next up, Week 10. Compromise: Declutter and donate items from at least one area in your home. Determine how you will agree on what to keep, relocate, or donate.