I faced down a lot of temptations today... and got lucky a few times.
Work happy hour with the boss out of town, figured we'd all be getting our own drinks. I just had one soft drink and it turned out the new guy has a company credit card! Expensed.
Went to a concert at a nice venue, which would normally be $30, but I bought one of the limited annual passes in January (they were a screaming deal) so I didn't have to pay anything. Had a glass of tap water instead of buying a drink at the bar.
Met up with family at a somewhat fancy restaurant (very fancy by MMM standards - $25-$30 entrees) after the concert - I'd planned to arrive after dinner and would just join for a drink or coffee, but I was earlier than I expected and the restaurant was slow, so the food arrived 60 seconds after I did. The portions were really big and they all insisted on sharing their dinners with me (and still didn't manage to finish their meals). Steak, pasta bolognese, roasted mushrooms, salad, etc. I ordered a glass of wine so the waitress wouldn't hate me, but my mom paid for it ("it's almost your birthday!").
Didn't take any taxis or rideshares, just used my already-paid-for subway pass. (I did ~28 flights of stairs in the subway today. On fucked-up foot joints. I *really* wanted to take a cab. I am currently icing both feet.)
So basically I did a fancy dinner, drinks, concert, etc. without having to ever pull out my wallet! Not sustainable or repeatable, of course, since you can't always assume other people will buy you drinks and give you food, but I'll take it as a win for tonight. ;-)