5 affordable date night ideas

If you’re like me, then you understand wanting to spend money on your children over yourself. Nevertheless, because my husband and I have recently decided to start dating each other again, and have opted to take turns planning these dates, I am always on the look out for new and exciting, yet budget friendly date ideas.

1. The Bookstore Date

   I happened to stumble upon the perfect affordable date night. I got my ideas from this site http://www.thedatingdivas.com/tara/the-bookstore-date/This is something that allows you to share your past, plan your future and have a little fun. Task cards are made consisting of something like, 1. find a recipe you want to make for your spouse, 2. find a quiz in a magazine to do together, 3. find your favorite children’s book from your childhood, 4. find a joke to share with your spouse, 5. locate a place you wish to travel to someday and 6. find a poem that describes how you feel about your spouse. While this website has some great ideas, you don’t have to follow it exactly. Personalize this date night to make it enjoyable for both you and your spouse.

2. Scavenger Hunt

   I turned our bathroom into a romantic spa, to be complete with lit candles, rose petals, music, lavender bath salt, strawberries and whipped cream. The at home spa date just didn’t seem to be enough; I wanted to start the night with a little anticipation, so I decided to plan a scavenger hunt for my husband. I came up with creative rhyming clues and had the first clue card taped to the front door which led him to the linen closet to grab a basket, then to the refrigerator to grab the strawberries and cream, then to the spice cabinet for the bath salt, outside for the rose petals, behind the TV for the music player, to the laundry room for the freshly washed and dried warm towels and finally to the bedroom. The last clue was a trail of rose petals from the bedroom door to the candlelit bathroom with a drawn bubble bath and me.

3. Board Game Date

   My husband and I love to play board games, card games and dice. We’re both very competitive and love to win, so a night filled with board games is right up our alley.

4. Puzzle Date

   I find the most complicated puzzle I can, add some easy finger food and our favorite movie together, Princess Bride; One we’ve already seen so that we don’t have to watch to know what’s happening (it’s more for background noise). Throw in conversation and you have the perfect night of spouse problem solving.

5. Morning Date

   Having children makes your mornings hectic, which is great for me, I like to get up and go. However, my husband has never been a morning person, but he’s a trooper and gets up with us each morning. So I decided to wake up before he did, and I took the kids to my mom’s for the morning. I came back, made his favorite breakfast and surprised him with his favorite morning physical activity (that used to occur quite frequently before we had children), breakfast followed with a TV show marathon on Netflix.

Dating doesn’t always have to be about getting dressed up and going to dinner. Sometimes it’s about the little things and thinking outside the box, especially after being married. Chances are, we’ve been there and done that, so to make a date new and exciting after all these years is difficult; but I gladly accept the challenge.