Starving Students?

My life doesn’t revolve around food, really. But I still want to mention last night’s score with our soon-to-expire Starving Student Cards. (If you don't know, they are cards you can buy for a flat fee that contain all sorts of deals and discounts.) I was skeptical about these cards when I first heard about them years ago. Spend money to save money? Awkward encounter with door-to-door salesman? Pressure to make a purchase? No thanks. But one fateful evening when the SSC salesman knocked, my sister Emily and I were in the mood to haggle. We wheeled and dealed until the salesman gave us a deal sweet enough that it was worth trying the card out for the sake of science. I’ve never gone back. Seriously, even if you only get the free stuff on the card, you’ll redeem its value after just a few items and then all of your other savings are truly savings. (As a side note, I believe Em and I got the married couple discount. We sort of qualified: We lived together, we’re related, and we often spent Friday nights together.)

Anyway, Dave and I have SSC cards that expire on September 15th, so we decided to live it up and max out the value of our card during this last week. Meaning we planned last night’s dinner around a few of our remaining free items. After Dave picked me up from the bus stop we got free tacos (shredded pork with mango salsa in a double corn tortilla) from a Mexican restaurant that advertises itself as 110 percent authentic. Not quite sure how that works, but the tacos were delicious. Perhaps even 110 percent delicious. On the way home we picked up free personal pizzas and stopped at Guru’s, where we snagged free root beers to go with the pizza. (It was a little funny to just ask for drinks, but the cashier had the grace to ask if we wanted them to stay or to go. We went.) I threw in a fresh salad at home and we had a veritable feast. Once again for the sake of science, I added up our “savings” and discovered that our combined meal was worth $14.60. There is something very satisfying about knowing you could have spent $14.60 on dinner . . . but didn’t.

By the way, I think what really converted me to these cards was the time Emily and I took a free “Christmas cruise” that we saw listed there. It was as stunning as you might imagine.