A Frugal and Enjoyable Poetry Slam Anniversary Date

In September Mike and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary which felt like a huge deal- ten years married! I was so torn about doing something to mark the occasion since Mike and I went on a 5 day vacation without the kids in July in honor of our anniversary, 3 months before the date, since that is when it worked for our babysitters and Mike's work schedule. Even though we did our vacation in honor of our special occasion, I didn't want the actual date to pass by unmarked, but, understandably after the large expense of the vacation I didn't want to be spending a lot of money to celebrate on the day of. So I was trying to figure out a very low budget date idea that didn't involve food, as I also have gained about 5 lbs back of what I lost and am trying to stick more to paleo/lower carb and eating out paleo is definitely not budget friendly.

Then a friend of mine posted about a poetry slam she was organizing that evening and it only cost $7 per person to attend and my interest was piqued. As teenager I wrote a lot of poetry and was in creative writing workshops and even performed in and won a poetry slam. So even though I haven't written poetry in 10 years, I thought it sounded like a fun and different idea for a date. The slam was in a local comedy club that also had a bar with discounted drinks included in the cover charge.


When I brought up the idea to Mike, he was very noncommittal about it, and basically said "If that's what you want to do, then we'll do it." He would go along to humor me, but I was hoping he'd enjoy it, and, knowing him and his interests, I thought it would be up his alley. You see, Mike never wrote poetry, and when I would show him poems I wrote way back when, he didn't really care for the whole idea of poetry, but he's very much a music person, and lyrics are poems too. Poetry slams are more performance art than just poetic writing, so I had hopes.

Before we went to the slam, I wanted to buy a new ring together, as the (small) diamond of my engagement ring fell off because it was badly designed, and I wanted a replacement ring, though just buying a ring whenever would have been less sentimental. So for the first part of our date, I thought buying a nice cubic zirconium ring for my tenth anniversary would be a great start. Unfortunately, because we were pressed for time, we didn't end up going to the store that I wanted to buy the ring from, and instead bought it from just a random store that was near the comedy club, and though they guaranteed us that it was stainless steel and should last a lot time, after less than a week wearing it, the metal is discolored to an ugly pink, so that was a bust. At least the ring only cost $25. I am going to see if I can get a refund from the store, because that was ridiculous.

After the ring shopping, we went to the poetry slam, and it was better than I was hoping even! There were some really awesome performers there, delving into deep topics, tugging our heartstrings, and at the same time, cracking us up and entertaining us.
But it got better than that. A poetry slam is not just a performance, it is a competition, and for that, you need judges. There were five judges chosen from the audience... and Mike and I both ended up being judges. It was fun, but a little stressful. Because while it is a competition, you don't want to hurt people's feelings, even if their poetry is just really awful. So that was a challenge. Being judges made us even more involved in it and made it more fun than it would have been otherwise.

As I said, we got discounted drinks- Mike and I each had a cocktail, so then the total cost of our date ended up being $20 including our drinks, plus the ring...

At the end of the date, Mike and I discussed it, and we decided that it was such fun that we want to attend poetry slams on a regular basis- just having a date night was something great and that we need to do on a more regular basis, and a $20 date monthly is something I think we can swing, and would really enhance our marriage.

As for babysitting- we paid nothing for that, since it was done in exchange for a favor that we did for our sitter.

Last but not least, I want to share something else special. When a blog reader saw that I was celebrating my anniversary, she gifted me with these beautiful pearl, silver, and CZ earrings as an anniversary gift. That was so sweet. 

I really love pearls- find them the perfect way to add a regal look to any outfit, without being "too much". This reader runs PearlClasp.com where they restring pearl necklaces, and sell pearl jewelry for reasonable prices.

All in all, a really nice anniversary date, especially since it was one of our more frugal dates thus far (only cheaper date I could remember was our stay at home painting date, but this is a different type of thing). I'm really looking forward to the next poetry slam, and maybe, just maybe, I'll actually write a poem to perform at the slam...

P.S. I'm actually really excited- I have a free date coming up that I'm really looking forward to. I was part of a gift/service exchange in a local entrepreneur group, and I received admission for two for this group scavenger hunt/adventure thing I've heard amazing things about in the past.

Are you a poetry writer, reader, etc? Have you ever been to a poetry slam? What were your thoughts about that? Do you think a poetry slam is something you would enjoy going to as a date?
What is your favorite cheap date venue? Do you have a monthly budget for dates and other entertainment, and if so, how much is that? Or do you try to have bigger, more expensive dates, but less frequently?

Image source- By Kautty (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons