Cheap Date

Last night I had dinner with my great friend of 22 years, Diana.

Diana lives in San Jose, and works in Palo Alto. We try to get together for dinner/catching up at least 2 or 3 times a year. I usually drive down to Palo Alto to meet her after work, and we almost always eat at Chili's. (We used to each at Fresh Choice at the Stanford Mall, but it's been closed.) We go to Chili's because it's cheap, convenient, and more importantly, because they won't mind if we hang out for a few hours. (We warn our server early on that we plan to be there for a while, and we tip big when we leave.)

Neither of us goes to Chili's on a regular basis, and I'm pretty sure we only go with each other. It's like our "thing". It's probably also because that's the type of place that we would go to together when we were teenagers, and old habits are hard to break.

When we first arrived, I told Diana that "Dinner is on me!" because I had a gift card for Chili's (or Macaroni Grill) that I had received as a Christmas present from one of my Uncles.

When our bill came, we were amazed when we saw that it was only around $13.50. (My gift card was for $30) I had ordered Chicken Tacos (with fries and steamed veggies, instead of beans and rice) and a Sprite. Diana had ordered a Chicken Fajita Pita with water. So, yeah, that makes sense, but really.... when's the last time you went out for dinner for two for less than $15.00? What a deal!

Afterwards, we walked around downtown Menlo Park for a while. We stopped for dessert at Baskin Robbins, where I had my favorite sundae: Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream with marshmallow topping! Mmmmmmm.......

I think we got out of the whole evening for around $25 - including a hefty tip!

Who says you have to spend a lot of money to have a fun evening out with a friend?