When the guy came to our office to talk about the company's 401k plan, he asked the group of new employees to consider how much they spend on a weekend.  He then asked us to compare that to what we spend during the week and paused for emphasis.  "When you're retired, it's the weekend all the time."  His company's estimate is that people spend three times as much on the weekend as they do during the week.  So I was a little concerned about how much I might spend or be tempted to spend over the three-and-a-half-day weekend.  I got away with spending $5.15 on food -- not too bad, I think.

Admittedly, I was at home a lot - I have a big project I'm working on and I was a little sick - but still I went out a few times and saw a couple of my friends.  I went to a free museum party for the Fourth - an option my friend and I were both delighted to find.  After we left, we found a stoop out of the rain and talked for another two hours; neither of us felt like buying a drink or dessert we didn't really want just to be sitting somewhere.  (If it had been nice, we would have just gone to the park.)  On Saturday, I went to another friend's to use her food processor to make veggie burgers and bread crumbs out of stuff from my freezer (and the jalapeno I bought).  An expert cook, she watched me clumsily make my way around her well-appointed kitchen and take an extraordinarily long time; I enjoyed catching up with the details about her upcoming wedding and honeymoon, her job, and various other bits of news.  Finally, I had my first face-to-face meeting with Julia from blogland; we went to a freegan meal together (more on that tomorrow or Tues).  The funny thing is, I contributed $5 for the "freegan" dinner; the sign they had posted over the collection jar noted that they were trying to raise the $36 that they had spent.  I'm sure I could have gotten away with not contributing but it was such a lovely meal.  Free is never really free, is it?  Someone has to collect the ingredients and make the dishes, even if it is a great time.

I took money out of the ATM on Saturday, just to have some, but didn't end up spending it, probably a first for me in an NYC weekend.  Without any pressure to spend money (errands, etc.) - indeed, the pressure to not spend money - I feel like there is more space to concentrate on the things I want/need to be doing.  The only thing I got far enough to turn down was a pair of $19.99 polarized sunglasses at the drugstore, where I went to pick up a prescription.  The headaches have been killing me, and I'm wondering if some dark or polarized glasses might help.  Twenty bones is a lot for this little experiment, except last week I looked at some that were $200 and almost got 'em as a Happy Birthday To Me.  I might change my mind this week - $20 seems pretty reasonable in comparison.