Comments on: Romance on a Budget: Is it possible?

By: Jeannie

Jeannie — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:57:53 +0000

With the only grandchild in both of our families, we often have relatives jumping at the chance to babysit! My husband’s sister gave us movie gift certificates and a promise of baby sitting services for a Christmas Gift. We love that our son is with family & they love getting to spend the extra time with him. We can sneak away to dinner (sharing an entre) or just run to home depot to figure out our next home investment purchases.
Most of the time though, we prefer to stay in, our boy goes to bed at 7. The rest of the night is ours, to be J & N, not mommy & daddy. We borrow movies from friends/family and cuddle on the couch. Works perfect for us!

By: Karen Rucker

Karen Rucker — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:39:04 +0000

Mystery shopping at the movie theatres is my favorite. You don’t really make money doing it once you pay for the non-shopper’s ticket. But it’s a free first run movie for only a small amount of effort.

We also look for promotional specials, like how Pop-Tarts boxes have tokens that you can redeem for free movies right now. Combined with a sale and coupons, it makes date night pretty cheap.

By: kristen E

kristen E — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:50:09 +0000

My husband is not very creative in dates, he hates playing card games which I love. He would rather watch a movie, which gives me no social outlet which I need. He is in college so we have a limited amount money, but we both have membership to the gym on campus. He took a racquetball class and loved it so I decided that this was something we could do together since he enjoys it and we can talk about how we are going to beat each other, which amazingly creates unit. LOL!!! Go figure!! After working out it makes the other person more attractive I think. We have friends that live on campus so we ask them to watch our kids for an hour while we go play racquetball. Our friends don’t have kids so they are willing to do it since they still think little kids are cute and fun, and an hour is about all they can take before it becomes babysitting. Hope someone else can use this idea to get a cheap quick workout and date all in one. Our gym also has smoothies so if we had $$ we would share a smoothie, but we dont have that kind of $$.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:59:45 +0000

We put the kids to bed and watch a movie on the OLD lawschool laptop from the bubbly bathtub…(Seriously what’s not romantic about that?!)

By: Jan

Jan — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:29:02 +0000

Amen about kids going to bed early- the earlier the better

By: Kristine

Kristine — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:18:28 +0000

I do a lot like the first poster and have created a babysitters club with friends. We designated the 2nd & 4th friday of the month for date nights. 6-10:30p. We rotate the houses for hosting. 2 families host each time. We go through the school year since nobody seems to stay put in the hot AZ summer. So we get from Sept – May, 14 nights of free babysitting and 4 nights of hosting. It is great and the kids have lots of fun too. It is like a party night for them.

Some of our dates have just been coming back home to have a quiet dinner just the two of us, or going for a walk. It is nice to just be alone and keep ‘our’ relationship strong.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:37:15 +0000

We traded date nights with another family we knew…one week we would watch their kids and they would go out…the next week it was our turn. It helps that our town has a Dollar Movie Theater too!

By: Linda W

Linda W — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:31:28 +0000

Oops…forgot to mention doing that while having 3 kids still at home (7 altogether) makes it more difficult, but it’s an every now and then thing!

By: Linda W

Linda W — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:29:56 +0000

Every now and then we’ll grab a loaf of french bread (fresh baked at the store) and a block of cheese and go for a nice drive out in the country, just looking around, or up in the mountains. Cheap trip and food that fills you up; not to mention some much needed time together!

By: Leah

Leah — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:05:21 +0000

Some good friends of ours and us trade babysitting. They go on a date one week and we go the next. This has been so great because it holds us accountable to going on the dates – we are always in a hurry for it to be our turn again so we bug the other couple to go on theirs (and visa versa). I highly recommend this!

By: Melanie

Melanie — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:01:17 +0000

We find swapping with a friend once a week is good. We choose different days, but really once a week to watch someones kids isn’t a bad trade for our own date each week. Besides when I have other kids here, they seem to keep my kids entertained better anyway. A good rule of thumb is to swap with someone who has about the same number of kids as you do. Another thing my husband and I do while he is on his current night shift, is to swap during the day with someone else, which during the school year, means they have fewer of my kids and they never mind my youngest 2 (I actually get several offers from friends) and I don’t mind watching other kids at night- it’s not like they are taking away from “family” or “spouse” time. There is a lot more that can be done during the day, then you think, and a lot of places are less crowded- and lunch prices are so much cheaper! So, I know night shifts sometimes bite but, there are some added bonuses.

By: SarahJane

SarahJane — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:04:07 +0000

We’re DINKs (not by choice!), and while we love spending time together at home, we’ve found that it’s important for us to get out together, to get away from the stress of work and household chores. Sometimes we just go walking or hiking, but once or twice a year we go to a secluded forest service cabin in the woods. It’s roughing it, but for $35/night we get a lake-side cabin with heater, fireplace, dock and canoe. We feel rejuvinated and have a great time.

In addition to the $35 rental fee, on our last trip, we spent $2.79 on fuel driving to the trailhead and $1.85 for popcorn. For the rest of the supplies/food we made do with what we had in the pantry. Not the cheapest “date” but pretty good for a night away.

By: Cassandra

Cassandra — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:57:46 +0000

We’re lucky enough to have free babysitting by Grandma, and my absolute FAVORITE cheap date packing a night-time picnic on the beach. The beaches are all but deserted on weekday nights, and there is NOTHING more romantic than listening to the waves crash while lying under the stars!

By: Joy

Joy — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:03:38 +0000

Just last night we went to Chili’s with a coupon, total w/ tip was $13.84
Then we went to Baskin Robbins for $1 scoop night, total cost was $2.10
Went to the nearby park to eat it, sat and watched the sunset.
Got a free Redbox movie with a code.
Got a bottle of wine to have during our movie $5.94
Grandma babysat, free
Total for a wonderful date night was around $20
All of this paid for by some broken gold jewelry that had been in my jewelry box since I was a kid. I sold it at a local jewelry store for $21.30

By: Living So Abundantly

Living So Abundantly — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:10:20 +0000

Going out for ice cream cones is my favorite! We LOVE McDonald’s ice cream cones, which are around a dollar each!!! Sometimes we’ll park the car somewhere, eating them and talking. Other times we’ll just come home and hang out. It’s so affordable, and ladies, it’s only 150 calories!!!

By: Avary

Avary — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:03:14 +0000

*Sonic Happy Hour on the weekends, and go for a drive
*Picnic at a park
*Switching with friends to baby sit

By: Andrea

Andrea — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:57:03 +0000

My boys love their daddy…which means when he hits the door they attack him. This also means when don’t get a lot of time together some nights. We have the advantage of a set of grandparents near by so at least a couple times of month we plan for them to come over & watch the boys. My hubs & I sometimes go to eat(using a coupon of course), the library, the grocery or just anywhere alone. It’s a great time to have some uninterrupted conversation and just be together. We also ALWAYS take advantage of the free Redbox codes!

By: leah

leah — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:54:04 +0000

We trade babysitting every other week with another family each Thursday night from 6-8pm. We picked a night during the week when most likely both couples will be in town. We each get two dates per month… it is wonderful!

By: Melissa Multitasking Mama

Melissa Multitasking Mama — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:51:49 +0000

We love to go out for ice cream, eat a picnic in the park, take the dogs for a walk, those kind of “frugal” things for our date nights.

Thanks for the fun article.

By: Homemaker Barbi (Danelle Ice)

Homemaker Barbi (Danelle Ice) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:26:30 +0000

@Rachele: Using the computer for little love notes is such a nice way to show affection while apart during the day! Even a little tweet here and there to your hubby (my hubby tweets me sometimes) can be a special surprise that is absolutely free! Thanks for sharing about your date night tip!

Danelle Ice / Homemaker Barbi