Date Night Ideas on a Budget!

Good Morning! I am so excited to have my amazing friend over at Everyday Circus guest blogging for me today! She is an expert on date nights, party planning, and sewing the Boybarians favorite blankets. It's Friday and I am sure that most of us would love to go on a date with our man tonight. But if you are like me,  you think that there is just too much that goes into planning to steal away for 3 hours and there is no way it can all come together. Well, you can have date night tonight, and it will be a date night to remember! Take it away friend!

Hello! I am Kendra over at Everyday Circus.  I am a busy mom of four, wife to the love of my life, lover of anything sweet, and am ecstatic to be guest posting for my dear friend today on one of my favorite subjects:  Date Night.

Before we had kids we did not have to call it date night.  We called it going to dinner and the movies.  When you were dating every night was date night.  Now you are tired, money is tight and a good babysitter is hard to find. While all those are very reasonable obstacles, Date Night is worth fighting for.  Why you ask?  To reconnect with your best friend. Life gets busy and overwhelming and it is easy to go day in and day out and not connect. Also to keep your romance alive. When you come together for a set apart special time with the Love of your Life you remember why you fell in love and why your marriage is worth working for.  When your children move away, it is you and the man you married.  Make sure that he is still the “love of your life” and your “best friend”.  Never stop dating, you won’t regret it...I promise.  With all that said, I want to share with you some date night ideas that won’t drain your wallet and a few that don’t require a babysitter.  No more excuses.

1)      Dessert Date:  Dessert only Date!  Start your date a little later in the evening and eat dinner before you leave.  Go out for Dessert.  Desserts are cheaper and something that we usually don't splurge on when we go out.  Share a couple of different desserts and an espresso.

2)      Night at the Museum: Museums have a way of sparking conversation and many are free.

3)      Pizza and Beer: May seem simple, but I guarantee that if you put on some great jeans and fantastic heels it will be the best pizza date ever.  While you are there sit and reminisce about some of your very first dates, when all you could afford was Pizza and you were too young to have beer. 

4)      Pack a Picnic:  A bottle of wine, crackers, cheese and some fruit all packed in a pretty picnic basket during sunset the beach or a local park is a relaxing way to spend date night!  What is better than a sunset and a picnic with your love?

5)      Redneck Spa:  Fill a backyard baby pool in your backyard and enjoy a glass of wine.  Enjoy the laughs that are sure to happen and the starry night sky.

6)      Order Take Out and Set a Fancy Table: Pull out all the stops.  Make sure you put all the food in pretty serving dishes and light candles.  Dress up and put on Frank Sinatra. 

7)      Write Your Love Story: Get everything you need to make ice cream sundaes and then sit together and reminisce.  Write everything down in a journal.

8)      Bubble Bath and Massages:  Pampering one another will be a stay at home date that will not be soon forgotten. 

9)      Have a Staycation:  Wherever you want to go, steal away in your own living room.  Say Italy is your dream vacation.  Make a delicious Italian dinner, buy a bottle of Italian wine, set the table how you imagine an Italian Café to be set and watch “Life is Beautiful”

10)    Go Camping: In your living room.  Make a fort in your living room and make indoor s’mores over a candle.  And no electricity!!  Makes it a little more exciting!!

11)   Game Night:  Naughty or nice a little competition is always good for a relationship.

12)   See a game: Go to your local high school and watch a football game together. 

13)   Go to the bookstore: Grab some coffee and sit together at a local bookstore. For a fun game to play while you are there check out this link. 

14)   Play 20/20 for a Little Pillow Talk:  Prepare 20 questions for your spouse and have them prepare 20 questions to ask you.  Lie in bed and question away.

15)   Coffee Date: Remember the days when you had all the time in the world to sit at the coffee shop, sip your drink and talk? Sometimes it is the simplest pleasures in life that make us reconnect.

16)   People Watch: Go to a local park and take a walk.  As you walk past people create stories about them.  What super human power they might have.  Have fun with it!!

17)   Only $10: Here is the game.  Go to Target.  Each of you gets $10 to spend on the other.  Split up and purchase something for $10 that must be used that night!

18)   Read Out Loud: Start a book together and read to one another in front of a fire with some hot chocolate.

19)   Movie Night: Rent the first movie that you ever saw together and buy all your favorite movie snacks. 

20)   Create a Masterpiece:  Buy two canvases at your local craft store (Don’t forget your coupons) and paint a masterpiece to hang in your home. 

 Wow, Kendra! These are awesome! I can't wait to have a date with my hubby very soon!
 Hope you all have a great weekend!

Keep Calm and Count Your Blessings...and your Boybarians!

~Gillian