Whether you are working to get out of debt or you are just trying to sustain a budget, there are plenty of good budget friendly date night ideas! Getting out of debt & staying on a budget can be challenging at times. If you are married, it’s really important to take time to reconnect with your spouse. If you both are working towards a specific goal like becoming debt free, it’s good to practice connection. Staying connected unites you leading you to get to your collective goals with more ease! Here are a few creative solutions to date night that have little to no cost.
At Home Date Night Ideas…
I love “at-home” date nights. Sometimes I can get a little overstimulated by crowds and loud noises. If a restaurant is really crowded, we tend to have less conversation which leads to less connection. We try to prioritize date nights at home so we can spend time actually connecting.
Set up a cozy corner. Take a date night in! With a little bit of prep work & creativity, you can create the most dreamy corner in your house. This can be great for those who don’t want have to get a babysitter! If you have kids, after you put them down for bed, order some takeout or prepare a nice little dinner. Make sure you have your corner set up to enjoy dinner together in your room as a couple.
When it comes to date night, what I value most is really good food, good atmosphere & good conversation with Kennedy. You may have a different love language & different values.
Cooking challenge night. If you love being in the kitchen together, try a cooking challenge night! Stay in for date night by going to the store together & pick out a couple of ingredients without the other seeing. When you get home, you have to unveil the ingredients to your partner. Then each of you has to create a dish in a specific time frame using only the ingredients your partner purchased for you at the store. This could be an incredibly fun date night, especially if you are competitive and like a fun challenge!
Build a fort! We like to order take out, build a little fort out of sheets, & watch a movie under it! It makes us feel like we are kids again. After we finish our dinner, we snuggle up under the fort & we enjoy our movie.
I encourage you to figure out what makes you feel loved. Try more date night ideas with your top values & love language in mind.
Looking to go out for date night?
Picnic somewhere beautiful. Take date night out – without breaking your budget! When we were in the middle of our debt-free journey, we would make our own dinner at home, and drive somewhere beautiful to eat our dinner with a view. We live in a city with a beautiful waterfall running through downtown. This is one of our favorite places to go to eat dinner, enjoy the scenery, and enjoy one another!
Go out for appetizers or dessert. Maybe you are keen to get out of your house & go out to eat. Going out to eat for dinner has continued to get more expensive. I suggest eating your main course at home. To save money, you can go out beforehand for appetizers or even after dinner for desserts! This will cut down on the cost of going out & will make it feel more elevated than just eating at home.
Go to the movies on a discounted night. We have a local movie theater that offers discounted tickets on Tuesdays. It seems like they are trying to encourage people to come to the movies on a night they wouldn’t normally go! Check the theaters in your area to see if there is a day they offer discounted movies. We’ve also noticed that movies happening earlier in the day are typically less expensive since most people want to go see a movie later at night!
Keep it simple…
Grab a drink & enjoy the lobby of a nice hotel! In our city, a brand new beautiful hotel has just been built downtown. We love to walk down there with a hot chocolate or ice cream & just sit in the lobby near the fireplace & talk. We really enjoy the scenery as well as the people watching.
FREE Date Night Ideas…
Check out day passes from your local library. Our library system provides free passes you can check out to have free entry into museums and a state park in our area! Check out your local library to see if they have a pass you can check out in order to experience a museum, a zoo or a state park for free!
Check out a board game or movie from the library. You can utilize your library’s services by renting out board games or even movies depending on the branch! We hate having to pay to rent a movie on Amazon prime! Most of the time we can find a really good movie to rent at the library for free. There may be a board game that you’ve been wanting to try that’s too expensive at target – check out your local library to see if they have it available for you to check out!
Go to a local dealership and test drive your dream car. Although we have never done this, this is on our date night bucket list! Cruise around town feeling like a million bucks… without spending a million bucks!
For those who love a good car ride…
Name that tune. This may seem so small, but this is one of my favorite things to do with Kennedy! We love driving around town & picking a themed playlist on Spotify. Since I have an older car model, I still have the skip buttons on my dash. I connect to my bluetooth & turn my phone face down after starting the playlist. We use the skip button on my car to go from song to song. We will drive on a small loop or route. The game begins when we pull out of our driveway & the person with the most points by the time we pull back into the driveway wins. In order to get a point, you have to name the song title before the other person.
Additional bonus points: if you can guess the artist in addition to the song title before your partner! We end up getting back to the house full of laughter from the amount of fun we had! Some of our favorite themed playlists are 2010 bangers, 2000s R&B, 2010 pop songs, & Disney songs! Search up on Spotify/ Apple Music your favorite time period/genre & let the games begin!!
Ideas from my Instagram Community…
I asked my Instagram community to share some of their favorite low budget date night ideas! Here is what they shared…
- Thrift a canvas & paint!
- Play Pickleball together
- Cooking together & watching Harry Potter!
- Get coffee (or make it at home) & walk around a bookstore! (Our favorite coffee shop in GVL is Bridge City Coffee)
- Taking a walk in a park
- Go somewhere to play music bingo or trivia! (We’ve done this several times & LOVE it!)
- Watch your favorite movie together with popcorn (+ turn off your phones too!)
- Get coffee & go to the grocery store together.
- Make decaf coffee at home & walk through a scenic downtown near you!
Comment below some of your favorite budget friendly date night ideas!
