Can you go out at night for $20 or less?

(Photo credit: Karyn Polewaczyk)

After spending the entire month of April celebrating my birthday, my wallet has been pleading for a break. But with warmer weather and longer stretches of daylight finally here, the thought of staying in to curl up with a book on a Friday night to save money just doesn’t have the same appeal as it did in, say, January.

And so, I’ve created a challenge for this coming weekend: to go out for less than $20 per night. That figure includes transportation, food and libations, entertainment, and anything else that might pop up between the witching hours of 9 PM and 2 AM.

Of course, it helps that I have a set of loosely-defined plans in place to keep me on course—two art gallery openings and a tequila launch party—but even the most well-thought out plan can take a turn for the unknown, as evidenced by my preference for shiny, bubbly things capped in gold foil.

I’ll report back next week with my findings—and in the meantime, feel free to share your own tips on going out on the cheap in the comments below. Wish me luck, as long as it goes with the boots made for walking I’ll invariably be wearing all weekend to cart myself around sans taxi.