Money Saving Mom®

Looking for cheap date ideas or maybe even some free date night ideas? Check out this list of 65+ fun activities you can enjoy on a budget!

65+ Free or Cheap Fun Date Ideas

There is nothing that will squelch the joy in frugality faster than pinching your pennies so hard that you never have any fun.

And if you’re planning to practice thrift for the long haul, it’s important to strategically come up with ways to keep life interesting, exciting, and fresh — while sticking to your budget!

Thanks to so many great ideas from our frugal social media followers, we’ve compiled a list of really fun, frugal activities that work well for free or cheap date night ideas! (Or for the whole family!)

Whether you want to stay in, go out, or take a little adventure, we’ve got dozens of frugal ideas to add some fun to your next date night.

Cheap Date Ideas for Going Out!

1. Coffee + Bookstore: We used to do this at Barnes and Noble back in our law school barebones budget days. We’d browse books, split a drink (often paying for it with a card I’d earned through reading emails and taking surveys!), and then sit and read and talk for a while. It made for a very relaxing evening that cost us next to nothing!

2. Coffee and/or Dessert: Sip your favorite coffees or split a yummy dessert. Or, if your budget is a little larger, get both and enjoy a relaxing evening with good conversation (either at the restaurant or at home after the kids are in bed).

3. Coffee + Devotions: We love to go for coffee dates and take our devotional books to read together. We get to really talk and we usually take the time to pray and dream about the future together.

4. Head to a Thrift Store: Take a small amount of cash and see who can find the most bang for their buck! You could also do this with yard sales, garage sales, estate sales, etc.

5. Visit the Library: Go to the library, just the two of you, and browse different books that you usually don’t get a chance to look at. Sit and read for a bit, and check out a few favorites. You’ll feel like you went shopping without having spent anything!

6. Go Window Shopping: If you can control your impulse purchases, it might be fun to simply walk through some of your favorite sports stores, antique shops, home improvement stores, etc.

7. Plan a CVS Date: Make a fun evening out of using up your extra ECBs. Purchase a few frugal treats and head to the park and share your goodies!

8. Bookstore Date: Each choose a book from different genres then bring it back to a table and share it with one another. For instance — find a book in the travel section that is a dream vacation you’d like to take together. Or, find a joke book with a great joke. It’s so fun and free!

9. Enjoy an Afternoon Date: Lunch prices are typically cheaper than dinner prices and matinee movies are always the cheapest, so if you can swing an afternoon date, you’ll likely save quite a bit.

10. Service Project: Volunteer together at a local food bank, soup kitchen, or other needy organization. Or just surprise an elderly neighbor by doing their yardword or bringing a meal (that you made together).

11. Plan a Happy Hour Date: Capitalize on special offerings for appetizers during the happy hour time slot. You’ll save a bunch, beat the dinner rush, and have lots of fun together.

12. Bowling: Check if any of your local bowling alleys offer a “dollar bowl night”. When we were first married, we’d go on $0.99 night and rent our shoes for $0.99 each and play two games at $0.99 each. It was such a fun outing and it only cost us around $6!

13. Samples + Shopping: Head to Costco or Sam’s Club together, right around meal time, and enjoy lots of yummy samples while getting your shopping done.

14. People Watch: Grab a pizza or sub sandwiches and head to the mall or a local airport to people-watch.

15. Local Airport: Grab fast food and sit outside your local airport to watch planes take off and land.

16. Grocery Store Sushi Date: Skip the fancy high-priced restaurants and grab some grocery store sushi before heading to your favorite local spot and enjoying the sunset.

17. Play Tennis at the Park: Go to your local park to play tennis, pickleball, or frisbee golf! Exercise and fun!

18. Fazoli’s: Split an Italian Ice and Sampler platter at Fazoli’s and enjoy the free bread sticks!

19. Grocery Store Challenge: Split up in the grocery store and each choose foods on a certain theme (food type, color, holiday, etc.) Keep your items a surprise until you get home and then create a fun meal together with your purchases.

20. Have a Car Picnic: Keep a basket in your car with chips, water, cloth napkins, and a tablecloth. Pick up deli sandwiches or make an easy lunch. Get in the car and drive to a place that seems fun to eat, chat, and listen to music or a book.

21. DIY Drive-In Movie: Take the seats out of your vehicle and fill the back with cushions and blankets (or use a truck bed). Drive up to an overlook area and watch a movie in your car on your phone, tablet, or laptop while enjoying snacks or drinks.

22. Watch High School or College Sports: Go to your kids’ sports games to support your kids and get a free/cheap date night! Many colleges offer free admission to some of the less-popular sports as well.

23. Use Discount Gift Cards + Coupons: Purchase discounted restaurant gift cards from Sam’s Club at up to 35% off. Then go enjoy a dinner date when you have a coupon or there’s a sale at the restaurant.

24. Card Shopping: Instead of buying expensive cards for all those Hallmark holidays, go together to your local grocery store, each choose the card you would buy for the other person, read them to each other, and put them back on the shelf!

25. Declutter Your Bookshelf: Spend some time going through your books at home and then take the books around to Little Free Libraries and distribute them!

26. Progressive Fast Food Dinner: Have a progressive date at fast food restaurants. Make it a fun game by only ordering items that are $3 or under. 

27. Go to the Gym: Hit up the local gym for an evening of working out together.

Fun Date Night Ideas for Staying In!

28. Just Be: Lay a blanket on the living room floor, light some candles, play some music, and just hang out together.

29. Grandparent Sleepovers: Encourage your parents to have the kids over for a sleepover some night, and enjoy being home without any interruptions or distractions.

30. Bonfire: Enjoy a cozy bonfire in your backyard — complete with comfy seating, cozy blankets, some music, and your favorite drink.

31. Spa Night at Home: Grab some dollar face and hair masks, sugar scrubs, and lotions. Do facials, foot soaks, hair mask and finish with sugar scrub shower. Give each other a back rub and finish with dessert.

32. Stargaze: Lie on a blanket together in the backyard or on top of your roof (if you dare!) and looks at the stars together.

33. Fancy Dinner at Home: If beans and rice make up a large part of your diet, plan ahead so that one night per week, you can have a “feast”. It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate – maybe something like meat loaf, a potato dish, some homemade bread, salad, and a dessert. Or if you can’t even afford that, add a dessert to your normal fare and bring out the nice dishes, a tablecloth, and add a centerpiece. A dessert and a candle can make you feel like you’re having a gourmet dinner even if it’s hamburger helper!

34. Progressive Dinner at Home: Decorate four different rooms with four different themes and then serve a coordinating menu item for each. This would be fun to do with other couples or with your kids, too. Have appetizers, a soup/salad, the main dish, and dessert as you travel around your home.

35. Dinner and a Movie at Home: Order your favorite takeout and enjoy it in your bedroom or den while watching a favorite movie. One reader mentioned that she and her husband took turns feeding each other blindfolded, and that it was very hilarious and fun!

36. Movie Night at Home: Rent a movie with Amazon Prime credit (or get one free at the library). Make some special snacks and watch the movie together under blankets after the kids go to bed.

37. Game Night at Home: Each choose a favorite game and play together, with your family, or invite a few friends over. Prepare some of your favorite munchie snacks and a special beverage. Mix up the games too — it could be card games, board games, video games (Wii is especially fun), or even recreational sports in the yard.

38. Dream About Home Projects: One reader suggested going to your favorite home improvement store and designing your dream kitchen (pretending you have an unlimited budget!) Write down the products you would use (cabinets, flooring, counters, appliances) and how much everything costs. Then compare notes with one another. It is fun, free, and you get to learn each other’s tastes!

39. YouTube Paint at Home: Find a YouTube tutorial and enjoy an at-home paint night — either just as a couple or with friends. One reader said they actually painted their parents’ portraits and another said they painted each others’ portraits. It was a blast!

40. Have a Treehouse Date: Do your kiddos have a treehouse or tree fort in your yard? If so, bring up a blanket and a special meal or treat and enjoy a fun date night in your own backyard!

41. Do Daily Chores Together: Make dinner together, walk the dog together, clean the garage together, grocery shop together. You’ll chat while you work, you’ll finish faster, and you’ll likely enjoy it more.

42. Fondue Night: Have an at-home date night with homemade fondue and all the fixings. Yum!

43. Charcuterie Night: Make a fancy charcuterie board and special drinks, and enjoy eating together outside on the patio.

44. Pictionary on Each Other’s Backs: Draw pictures on each other’s backs and guess what is being drawn!

45. Mini Book Club: Read a book together (maybe even out loud to each other) and discuss it!

Need an Adventure? Try these Cheap Date Night Ideas

46. Bike Ride + Ice Cream: If you live near an ice cream shop, ride your bikes or walk together and order two cones (or split something fancier). You could also ride bikes or walk to a local grocery store and grab a pint of your favorite flavor to eat at a park.

47. Go For a Drive: Drive around your town and enjoy the scenery and just talk. This is fun over the holidays when lights are out, and also in the summer when it stays light longer.

48. Plan a Loose Change Date: Take all of the loose change you can find in your house, purse, car, etc. and figure out a creative way to maximize it to have a fun date night. (One fun idea might be going to the local arcade to play games!)

49. Treasure Hunting: Check out a metal detector from your local library (many offer them for free) and hunt around your yard, a local park, a wooded trail, or wherever. You never know what you might find!

50. State Park Picnics: Check the State Park Pass out of the library and pack a picnic lunch. Splurge for some ice cream on the way home.

51. Plan a Scavenger Hunt: You could plan this around your home/yard, within walking distance, or something more elaborate around town. One suggestion is to go to your favorite places around town or places that have a significant meaning and snap a selfie together in front of the place. One could be a restaurant, one could be dessert or coffee, one could be an activity, OR they could just be landmarks that are special to you. Either way, you’re spending time together!

52. Watch the Sunset (or Sunrise): Head to the beach, a local trail, or even to your own backyard and enjoy a sunset or sunrise together. Pack a favorite drink or snack and a cozy blanket, or walk the beach holding hands. One reader and her husband drove out to an icy pond in the middle of the winter to watch the sunrise. She said it was amazing.

53. Hike + Picnic: Get some fresh air and exercise while you enjoy the beautiful scenery, wonderful conversation, and a yummy picnic lunch.

54. Free Local Attractions: Google free activities in your area and you might be surprised. There are free days at local museums and galleries, free concerts in the park, free ice skating, and other local events that you might not even be aware of.

55. Late Night Swim: If you have a pool or hot tub, or if you live near a lake, head out after dark and enjoy a late-night swim together.

56. Go Fishing: There’s lots of time to talk and just enjoy each other’s company when you’re waiting for the fish to bite. Pack some snacks, or plan to have a fish fry when you get home.

57. Feed the Ducks: Head to the local pond to feed the ducks and enjoy conversation with one another.

58. Dancing in the Moonlight: Drive out to a favorite (non busy) place and dance underneath the stars in front of your cars headlights!

59. Pick a Place: Open a map (or your phone) and pick a random place within 1 hour’s drive. Then drive there and see what they have to offer. You can talk and listen to music along the way, and you never know what lovely community you might find as a result.

60. Open Houses: Go to open houses to get ideas of how you want to style your home and/or dream about the future home you want to buy/create together!

61. Stargaze Somewhere Else: Drive outside the city where there isn’t as much light pollution and look at the stars together. Try to name as many constellations as you can!

62. Tour Your Own Town: Visit your local area as a tourist. Take photos with all the local landmarks. (You could even Google the history of your town and visit all of the historic places in it.)

63. Look at Street Art: If your city has lots of murals or street art, visit them all and take photos with them for fun!

64. Door Dash Together: Become a Door Dasher and Door Dash together for a fun date night. You can spend the evening talking in the car while making some extra cash!

Do you have any other free or cheap date night ideas you’d add to this list? Let’s hear!