frugal date night

[Sara Noel]

I'll admit, we've never had a frugal date night. But I see so many do this. Tell me what your frugal date nights are about.

[homesteadmamma]

We don't have very many date nights. However, we do go for a walk every night (not exactly a date), yet it's our time to talk, share our goals and dreams and just be together without phones ringing, kids needing something. etc. We often stop for a chocolate bar and split it in two and that's it.

[zakity]

We run errands and hit somewhere cheap for lunch. Not totally frugal, but it is a date...

[McD]

We send Wesley to the grandparents and bumpity bump bump all night long!

[3tomboys]

When my dd's were younger we would hire the teenager down the street for 1 hour of babysitting ($5) and take a motorcylce ride. We still talk about how much we enjoyed are 1 hour adventures. Non babysitter thing we did were to put in amovie after the dd's were asleep or turn the TV off and just talk.

[pkellyc]

DH and I are having one tonight. We are going to a bargain movie $6 over the $10.50 it usually costs. We also do this in the summer a sort of dinner and a movie. I pack a picnic and we stop at a rest stop near the theater. I suppose if we ever get to be actual empty nesters this might lose some of it's appeal but for now it is just bliss.

When the kids were little years ago we had nothing but cheap date nights, we couldn't afford anything else. Over the years we have have been to expensive restaurants, weekends away, ect. but our best memories are of our cheap dates of years ago.
This time a year we would swap babysitting with my sister, do our Christmas shopping and stop for pie and coffee. We could not afford to eat out in those days.

We would put the kids to bed and DH would drag the mattress into the living room, I would make special snacks and we would watch old movies till the wee hours of the morning. We would do this in the summer quite a bit when the only air conditioner that we had was in the living room. We called it camping.

We cooked together after the kids went to bed. A cheap bottle of wine and a couple of candles with a lace tablecloth.

On the rare occasions that the grandparents took the kids we would go hiking and stop on the way home for ice cream.

I am reading my post and thinking lots of food there. I guess when your constantly living on a tight budget small things like snacks are at a premium.

Mostly it was just time to laugh together, dream together, talk and listen to eachother and to remind eachother what it was that drew us together in the first place.

It's funny how everything really does turn in a full circle. With my DD her husband and our two granchildren living here, DH and I really are missing not only our privacy but time alone together as well. As far as our cheap date tonight why pay $10.50 when there is $6 night? If you like movies like I do there is still nothing like the big screen.

[Darlene]

Lol MrsMcD

Mom would watch the kids & Jack & I would pack up some wine, cheese & crackers & take off in the canoe and fish & perchance frolic on a deserted island.
We also love making a fire outdoors, talk and there is that frolicking thing again...
Now hot dates are to home depot,lol, or doing yard work together.
When he retires we want to check out museums, free tours of various business and hike & bird watch more.

[phoeny_moonstar]

DBF and I like to go out and take pictures of nature, take in a matinee movie (usually 3-4$ cheaper), cuddle on the couch and watch a movie, or just read a book side by side.

[shortstack]

Rent a movie and eat stove top popped popcorn on the couch.

Andrea

[homesteadmamma]

We send Wesley to the grandparents and bumpity bump bump all night long!

This one sounds pretty good to me.

[zakity]

We send Wesley to the grandparents and bumpity bump bump all night long!

That wasn't frugal for us. We got twins from that. **big sigh** Twins aren't exactly "frugal". **teehee** Double this, double that, they keep eating and growing... Definately not frugal at all...

[Thrifty Mom]

DH & I had a challenge going for a while. We took turns each week picking a "date". We started out with a $10.00 limit, then we sometimes had a really cheap date to save the ten so we could spend $20.00 all at once. For a period of time we had a contest of who could plan the best date the cheapest.We've gotten away from this lately, maybe we should start again.
Some of our dates:
Movies at the $1.00 Theater
Drive in movie - we have one a mile from our house- take own snacks
Trip to the library & stop at Steak & Shake for a malt
Any car show in the area - split FF at the concession stand, take our own pop
Street fairs/county fairs/state fair -get discount tickets, or go on one of the special days that one of us gets in free.Enjoy all the free entertainment.
Kroger day at the zoo- got in for $2.00 each
We used to be able to go out for appetizers(shared) and a beer for under $10.00, but no more!!!

[pip]

We will eat dinner at home, and then go to the discount movie theater. We will often get some popcorn, just to get the full movie experience . Or, watch a movie at home and sip on some wine. Guess our date nights have become more tame these days...

[Cricket1]

DH buys me a cocoa and we hang out at Barnes & Noble browsing. Sounds lame, but I never get to browse B&N with two kids in tow.

[zakity]

Not any lamer than us running errands as a date...