Tomorrow = the Maury show

Throughout the dreary bleakness of my day today, there has been one constant, shining beacon of light: knowing that I will be sitting in the audience of the Maury Show tomorrow.  I’m not really a hardcore Maury fan per say, but I do enjoy watching the show in the morning from time to time.  So last week, when I was watching one morning with my boyfriend, something came up on the screen that said “for free tickets to the Maury Show, call this number.”  Knowing full well that my boyfriend and I are the least-employed couple in NYC, I picked up my phone and got the tickets.  

 

I have a few ideas about what the topic may be (paternity test, cheating spouse, misbehaving teens bootcamp) but ultimately I hope to be surprised, entertained and also to learn something valuable.  Expect a full synopsis upon my return home.

 

Must-read: NYC Recession Guide to Wining and Dining

A friend just sent me this life-changing guide that features inside dining tips on prix-fixe meals, BYO, cheap eats, happy hour, wine discounts, brunch deals and weekly restaurant specials in NYC. Apparently two brilliant women named Kelli and Eleanor put this guide together and it’s since been making the internet rounds.  I don’t know who Kelli and Eleanor are, but if you’re out there, THANK YOU.

The guide is definitely worth checking out, but before going to any of these places, I recommend calling ahead just to make sure the deal is still valid.  I know from experience: showing up to a no-longer BYOB restaurant with several bottles of wine in hand can be a little awkward.  Anyway, click on the link below, read up and take advantage of some of these great deals. 

 

nyc_recession_dining_tips

 

Lost Challenge Update

Yesterday I watched the next three episodes of the first season. Here is what I am left wondering:

1) What was Kate’s crime?

2) What is Sawyer’s problem?

3) Why is Locke so strange?

4) What is the giant creature in the woods?

5) Does the island have magical powers?

Trying to get a free haircut

There exists a kind of myth amongst females in NYC that you can get a free awesome haircut from salons like Bumble and Bumble if you try hard enough/get lucky.  I’ve been searching on Craiglist for “free haircut” and usually come up with a few results, but it seems like the stylists only want to give “Bob” haircuts.  One day, I saw an add for a long, layered cut so I sent a reply with a picture of my hair and didn’t get a response.  Maybe my hair isn’t good enough?  A good haircut can set you back anywhere from $60-100 so you can imagine how much I would love a free, awesome haircut. If I can’t get one, I’m probably just going to grow my hair really long, like Guinness Book of World Records-long.  Has anyone had luck getting a free haircut in NYC? Or is the free haircut just an urban legend?

Keeping my mind sharp with Lexulous

Today is a very happy day for me: I realized that Scrabulous is back on Facebook, reincarnated as Lexulous. Yes!  As an English major dork, this is huge news.  I love crossword puzzles and scrabble so naturally I love scrabulous. It’s free, fun and a great way to have fun with friends when you’re in separate places. Now I can keep my mind sharp while I’m not working every day.  C’est magnifique!

 

Lost: episode 1

So, I watched the first episode of Lost last night and it was AWESOME! Not awesome in same way that an episode of Mad Men is carefully orchestrated with symbolism, foreshadowing, etc, but awesome in the way that there might be some kind of monster/animal/killer dinosaur on the island. It ate the pilot and spit him into a tree! Today, I will continue with the next few episodes.

Weekending on Unemployment

I’ve touched on this a little bit on this blog, but it can be really difficult trying to balance a social life with the financial restrictions of being unemployed.  On one hand, you don’t know when you’ll be employed again and the little voice in your head is constantly calling out to you: “don’t waste money!” and “be frugal if you don’t want to be be bankrupt,” which makes perfect sense.  But on the other hand, there’s only so many hours a day you can spend holed up in your apartment.  And it’s only natural that you want to see your friends and have a good time.  Going out with friends inevitably involves spending money (duh) so as an unemployed person, I need to either 1) limit how much I go out and/or 2) be thrifty when I do.  

This weekend, I had a friend visiting so I really wanted to go out to a bar at least one night. Friday night I decided to stay in, so Saturday I invited some friends over to pregame and then go out. I brought $40 out with me and was still able to get my buzz on and have a great time, all without feeling guilty about spending too much money.  

 

Here are my Suggestions for Weekending on Unemployment:

• Pregame at an apartment.  Yes, pregame is a very college term (and not even a real word).  But it’s true…if you drink at someone’s apartment before going out, you can save a lot money that you would be spending on your first few drinks at the bar.  

 

• Buy alcohol for said pregaming at discount liquor stores.  I can say with almost 100% certainty that your local neighborhood wine shop marks up its wine and liquor tremendously.  You pay a price for convenience.  So if you’re unemployed and have some free time, take a trip to a Buy Rite liquor store or to TRADER JOE’S WINE SHOP (which is truly heaven on earth).  If you buy cheap wine in advance and keep it on hand, you won’t have to waste money on marked up liquor when you’re in a rush. I highly recommend Trader Joe’s Three-Buck Chuck.  You can get some great bottles of wine there for around $5.

 

• Forget top-shelf liquors and take advantage of deals.  Let’s face it: a Grey Goose martini doesn’t even taste that different from a house vodka martini.  If you’re drunk you probably can’t even tell the difference.  Why do you even need a martini anyway?  Beer tastes good.  Also, happy hour is a great time to meet up with friends and take advantage of great deals on beer and well drinks.

 

• Skip going out to dinner. Cooking and eating at home is probably one of the best ways to save money in the city.  Going out to dinner is fun, but completely not necessary. Meeting friends for coffee, cooking for friends at home, or just meeting friends for a drink are all much more economical ways to catch up without spending too much money.  Any real friend will understand and respect that you need to save money because you lost your job.   

 

• Bring cash to the bar and leave your credit card at home.  If you bring a set amount of cash out and leave your card at home, you’ll be able to stick to a budget. Plus, you’ll actually know how you much you spent the next day when you wake up.  A lot of bars have a credit card minimum of $20ish, so if you’re stuck without cash and use your card, you’re forced to spend at least $20 no matter where you go.  Oh, and I’ve learned the hard way that buying rounds of shots and drinks at the bar for friends when you’re drunk will come back to bite you in the ass.  If you must rip Jager bombs, let people buy shots for you: they have jobs and you don’t.

 

• Coordinate cabs so you can split the cost.  A cab split four ways rarely amounts to much, but lots of cabs alone and split two-ways can add up.  Coordinate cabs with your friends who live nearby, or even ask the driver to make more than one stop.  Little savings add up.

 

• Tell people you got laid off. They will feel bad and buy you drinks.  Trust me, I tried it last night and it worked.  Also, it’s a good way to strike up conversation.  Sometimes.

The Lost Challenge

I like to think that I’m up to speed on most aspects of pop-culture, tv , news and entertainment.  It WAS my job and is one of my biggest interets.  I’m a huge tv fan (good tv, at least –  think Mad Men) and like to be in the know as far as water cooler tv convo’s go (even if I don’t have a job).  But somewhere along the line, it seems like I missed the boat on a colossally important pop culture phenomenon: Lost.  I don’t know where I was, or what I was doing in September of 2004 (probably getting drunk at college), but I missed the memo that Lost was the next big thing.  So, I let the years go by without watching and here I am in 2009, regretting that I missed out on an epically good show.  

So, as this blog is my witness, I present myself with the Lost challenge: watch every episode and bring myself up to speed so I can enjoy the rest of the fifth season and be cool.  I know it will take a while, but : 1) I don’t have much else to do and 2) I am always looking for free ways to entertain myself.  You can watch every episode of Lost for free on abc.com in HD.  According to my research, that’s a total of 83 episodes.  It might take a long time to watch all 83, but hey, I have time.

 

Good Idea: Join the Library

If you are unemployed, like me, a good idea is to join your local library. I joined yesterday and much to my delight, was able to check out books about: cooking, wine, and Fiji and some dvd’s. I never realized that you could rent free dvd’s from the library, but you can, and it’s awesome. Good dvd’s, too – I rented Gone Baby Gone and No Country for Old Men. Woohoo!

If you are a book dork, like me, and buying books is probably one of your favorite things to splurge on, joining the library is a good way to save some money and keep yourself busy. Because let’s face it, there’s only so many hours a day you can spend looking for jobs on the internet. Oh, and join Goodreads.com to get great book suggestions. I love to see what my friends are reading.

 

NYC on the cheap

 

Part of being unemployed is learning how to find things to enjoy in the city that are not so pricey.  This past week, I discovered a few very awesome deals around the city. Here they are in no particular order. (Oh, and there will be more to come as I discover them).

1)  Matinee movies at AMC: I saw Benjamin Button at the Kips Bay movie theater on Friday  morning at 11:40 for only $6.  That’s a $6.50 savings from if I had gone to a regular show. Apparently, some AMC theaters in the city offer matinee prices ($6 admission) for show times before 12:00pm on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. It’s probably a good idea to call your theater before you go just to be sure they have the deal, but still, this is RAD. 

2) Lunch Specials: Anyone who knows me knows that I’ve never been a fan of spending ridiculous amounts of money on expensive dinners in the city. Walking around while everyone else in work, though, I started to notice a lot of signs in windows and chalkboards on the sidewalk advertising lunch specials. I like to cook but sometimes I’m feeling lazy or just a sucker for a good deal.  So this week, I got one great sushi lunchbox special and another lunch deal at my favorite diner, Gemini.  At Gemini, I got a wrap (with fries), soup and a soda for about $8. It was so much food that I just shared the whole thing with my boyfriend and it came to $5 each with tip.  That’s a good deal right there. Yelp has a good list of restaurants with lunch specials that’s worth checking out.

3) Suggested Donation Admission at Museums: I found this website, which has a great guide to free admission, pay as you like, and suggested donation museums.  Below are the pay as you wish times. After reading this, I hopped up to the Met for an hour yesterday afternoon and had a great time.  They were really quite laid about the suggested donation, and we didn’t have to pay anything at all (well, nobody asked).  In the future, I wouldn’t be opposed to donating $5 or so just to support the culture, though.  I will definitely be checking out as many of these museums as possible during my unemployment.

 

PAY AS YOU WISH TIMES AT NYC MUSEUMS:

Tuesdays
Brooklyn Botanic Garden all day
Cooper-Hewitt from 5-9pm
Jewish Museum from 5-8pm
Wave Hill all day

Wednesdays
Bronx Museum of the Arts all day
Children’s Museum of the Arts from 5-7pm

Thursdays
American Craft Museumfrom 6-8pm
New Museum of Contemporary Art from 6-8pm

Fridays
Asia Society from 6-9pm
ICP from 5-8pm
MOMA from 4:30-8:15pm

Saturdays
Brooklyn Botanic Gardenfrom 10am-noon
Studio Museum in Harlemfirst Sat. of each month

 

4) Free Movies on Demand: In my limited unemployment experience, it seems that there a great deal of temptation to order movies from Time Warner On Demand during the daytime when no one is around and you start to feel bored.  Since it only takes the click of a button, it’s pretty tempting.  But alas, I have found an entirely new On Demand channel: Free Movies on Demand!  The amount and quality of the movies are not exactly the same as the paying channel, but there’s some hidden gems.  Yesterday I watched the movie Half Nelson for free, and it was really good.