Mr. Canuck Buck and I are big fans of an author called Christopher Moore, and he just came to Toronto to do a book signing. There’s no actual charge for the book signing itself, but that certainly didn’t mean it was a free day.  We actually spent a fair chunk of change.

1. Train fare. About 30 dollars to get in and out for the 2 of us. Driving and parking might have been cheaper, but with 2 other events going on that day, there was no guarantee of it, and taking the train is more relaxing then driving.

2. Buying the book itself. I don’t tend to buy a lot of books, and I almost never buy them in hard cover. So – another 30 dollars on buying the new book, “Sacre Bleu”.

3. One very large Starbucks hot chocolate to keep me going while I stood in line for several hours. 5 bucks. That being said – I rarely buy Starbucks, but I love their hot chocolate. It’s amazing and I call it “Heaven in a cup”.

I did bring a bottle of water and couple of snacks.

So – the “free” book signing cost almost 70 dollars.  I’m not sorry I put out the money though. Mr. Moore was a great speaker, and I even got a chance to ask him a question, which was nice. I did some thinking and realized that being frugal doesn’t mean you don’t ever do anything or spend money – it just means accounting for costs, making sure you can afford them, and that they are worth it.

I had a great day out, and I’m looking forward to reading the book. It was worth every penny!

On a side note – if I lived in town, and didn’t want to get my book signed , I could have heard him speak for free. Something to keep in mind if you’re broke, but want to attend a book signing anyway.

What “free” event have you attended that ended up costing you money? Was it worth it?