"Splurge" Meal

One of the things that I treasure about being frugal, and one of the things that keeps me going, is knowing that my regular frugal habits allow me to (occasionally) splurge on holidays and other special occasions.

Yesterday was my husband's birthday, and I made a recipe that I had marked in a magazine months ago as the perfect birthday meal for him: Scallops in Sage Cream.

(I think the recipe is currently available online only to subscribers to Taste of Home, but after the next issue comes out it will probably be available.)

Michael loves scallops, but he hardly ever gets them, so I cooked this meal yesterday as a surprise.  He really enjoyed it, as did I!  I got fresh wild-caught sea scallops from Wegmans, and while they were not at all cheap, they were delicious. 

Although this meal was many times more expensive than our regular dinners, I did reflect that is probably cost half of what a similar meal would have cost for the two of us at a restaurant, and we even had a good amount of leftovers.

There is also something very satisfying about a really high-quality meal with ingredients that you don't often get.  It was a delicious splurge indeed!