Wallingford date

What would you do if the government gave you $1400 to use however you’d like? 

Well, creating a spreadsheet to best use the funds is the logical first step. Along with the $1400, the government tacks on $600 in surprise, but-welcomed tax returns to total an incredible $2000. You title the top of your spreadsheet “$ Influx Allocation”. After thinking through expense categories, you list out: savings, vacation, date, furniture, donate, local business, and other. 

You agree with the categories, but disagree with yourself on the distribution of funds. Debates ensue. Tensions rise. Filibuster. Shouting matches with mean self-name-calling. Political gridlock. Your entire apartment economy shuts down. Workers go on strike and the cats aren’t fed. But then, you say to yourself, "Ok yeah. That works." You shake hands with yourself and sign the budget into law. The budget:

• Savings = $1000

• Vacation = $500

• Date = $100

• Furniture = $100

• Donate = $100

• Local Business = $100

• Other = $100

You congratulate yourself on your budgeting acumen, but in the same breath, ask how you can blow through an entire category in a single day.

***

Here's a fun date idea: On a warm, spring Sunday you and your boo each start with $100. Over the course of the day, you’ll both spend the entire cache, trying all the small businesses in your neighborhood. Despite living in your neighborhood for over a year, you blank on restaurant recommendations, so the date checks two boxes with a single pen. Enter the Wallingford date!

After waking up early, we hit two coffee shops, ordering a coffee and pastry from each. One shop suited better for writing, whereas the other lacked convientnt power outlets. Points deducted. 

For each business, we gave a ranking along a five-star scale. Also part of our ledger, we documented the time, cost, and a short review. As an example, the top two lines of our keep-sake notebook read:

• The Bounty - 9:30 AM - $10.90 - 4 Stars - Comfortable coffee shop for writing or working

• Diva Espresso - 9:36 AM - $7.89 - 3 Stars - Great outdoor area for sitting and talking; use case = before weekend tennis match

The delightful day stretched from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, covering three coffee shops, three restaurants, a gag emporium, a wine cellar, a pet stop, a record exchange, a ceramics browsing (because the classes were too expensive to buy on a whim), a sock store, Oscar shorts at the movies, a plant store, and to top it all off, ice cream. The whole day went by in a romantic montage, so the screen time flew by in seven or so minutes. 

In total, we burned through about $150. Special thank you to the government for subsidizing the date!