An Entertainment Treat

We are fortunate in our small community of 10,000 to have a beautiful community auditorium.  The auditorium was built in the mid 1990's and it is beautiful.

Tonight Simon Estes, the famous baritone singer, sang in concert at the auditorium.  Our high school orchestra and choir also performed a couple of songs.   It was an outstanding concert.  Simon is a native of Iowa and resides here.  He has performed with major opera companies around the world. 



The above video I found on You Tube and after you listen to a little of it you may understand my excitement at going to his concert.

The cost was $25 per ticket and I told my husband that we were going and he could count it as an early birthday present for me. This is an incredible bargain.  Our son plays viola in the orchestra and although they performed only two songs, one with Simon singing with them, I would have paid twice that amount to hear Simon sing.

So, No Spend Month or not, this was one of those great opportunities that I was not going to pass up. 

Guess what is part of my entertainment budget?????

Yes, that's right.  Feeding the squirrels is a form of entertainment to me.  I sit in our den, at my desk and I look out a window and I can watch the squirrels eat.  They are quite entertaining.  I have 2 squirrel feeders around the yard.  Our dog doesn't bother them in the least but when our son's dog, Brody, comes over he chases and tries to catch them.  Unfortunately this winter Brody did catch 2.  One died and one escaped.  I did a lot of screaming and learned to feed the squirrels after Brody goes home.

And let's not forget about the birds.  I have three feeders set up around my yard.  One is also outside the Den window.  I have my desk set up right next to the window so all I have to do is look to my right and I can see the birds feeding.  There is something about seeing a beautiful red cardinal against the white snowy background.

I also have a squirrel feeder and a suet feeder in a tree outside of my kitchen window.  I have watched squirrel "acobatics" while I am doing the dishes.  And then there are the birds who love to eat the suet especially in the wintertime.  They need the extra fat since they spend so much time trying to stay warm.

 It is therapy for me to watch these birds and squirrels feed at the feeders I have set up around our yard.  I enjoy nature and I am constantly on the lookout for new birds. 

Since I account for everything in our budget, I put squirrel and birdfood in the entertainment category.  Of course, my hubby disagrees with me on this one, but he has his own forms of entertainment that are in the budget. 

It costs me about $7.00 for a 30 lb. bag of squirrel corn and I go through that bag about every 10 weeks.  I use about 25 lbs. of birdfood each month which costs me about $20.00 (if there aren't any sales going on).  If I had to I would find other areas to cut back on before I would take this out of the budget.

And last, this is the feeder I set up outside our diningroom window.  This is made from an old lawn ornament.  It is a pitch fork stuck in the ground.  On top of it used to sit a decorative birdhouse that broke and came off.  I took an old pie tin and nailed it to the top to put bird food in.