My weekend was….eventful! I kicked Friday off with the Vegas-style auction and poker night at Fuqua. The event seemed to be a big success, which means lots of $$ raised for the NC Special Olympics.
And the weekend concluded with an Oscar event. Jill and Brendan hosted a fabulous viewing party this evening and costumes were required. Can you guess who we are? Every time the Oscars come around, I always regret not seeing more movies – they really are a beautiful form of art.
And between my two events, you know food and beer had to be involved. Saturday night, Matt and I enjoyed a barley wine from one of our favorites breweries:
And then we headed to one of our favorites for dinner. I was so pumped to see a giftcard deal for Pop’s on the internet last week. Pop’s is already one of the more reasonably priced restaurants in Durham, but $50 of food for $25? Yes please!
The focaccia bread is ever so fluffy.
Matt and I shared a steak and sausage salad to begin. This was a hearty portion of meat! Mmm.
And the main event, oh the main event, was a grilled salmon with gnocchi, arugula, ricotta and a spicy tomatillo relish. Pop’s continues to impress. This was fantastic, and would you believe that Matt’s mussel-stuffed flounder was even better? Love.
We finished off the night with conversation and port and friends at the wine bar.
That, my friends, was a good weekend. Night.
Rachel
February 27, 2012 at 1:10 pmLove your Oscar Outfits!
Mom
February 27, 2012 at 5:25 pmYa’ll are ready to take on Hollywood. You look great! I hope you both won Oscars.
Katie @ Plates and Paste
February 27, 2012 at 8:17 pmKatherine Hepburn and Howard Hughes? I agree about seeing more movies! But now I have a list of ones I want to see 🙂
Laura
February 27, 2012 at 9:41 pmMarilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller:)
kate
February 27, 2012 at 8:37 pmToo personal?
My other half is about to embark on the grad school journey and I am scared silly because of the money and how it will affect us, given that we have worked since college. I will have to give up my job! But i see that you guys manage to eat out regularly, live in a really nice place and continue to have a really, very nice standard of living! Any tips? Did you guys save like crazy for this? Is real estate super cheap down there? I’m envisioning living on instant noodles and never going out, but you guys seems to do fine……!
Laura
February 27, 2012 at 9:41 pmHi!
We definitely didn’t save like crazy (well Matt did, but it still doesn’t come close to covering grad school costs), but Durham is significantly cheaper than most cities. We can get a nice meal here for about $50-$60 and in Boston a nice meal was easily $100. Apartments are also really reasonable here, so we don’t spend all of our money on monthly rent like we did in Boston. That being said, finances are still VERY tight and Matt and I stick to a strict budget each month. We never go over our grocery budget, pack all of our lunches, and usually eat out once a week. We budget for our weekly night out (usually $30-$40/weekend) and then one of us pays the difference or we look for coupons/groupons. We set the money aside each month and put it into a joint account so that, no matter what, we can always enjoy a weekly splurge together. Matt’s grad program is also great in that they provide a lot of free food/events, including dinner and drinks every Friday night. Will you be looking for another job? I don’t make much, but it obviously really helps that I’m working while Matt’s in school (which is the main reason we didn’t go at the same time). GOOD LUCK!!!!