BABYSITTING
- find a free sitter--grandmas are famous for this, but they're not the only ones!
- barter--perhaps a neighbor or friend would be willing to watch your kids periodically in exchange for something...Last year a friend babysat for us in exchange for some of the fish Hubby had caught that summer. This year, our neighbor has agreed to babysit once a week in exchange for us letting her dog out to potty (since she is not able to come home midday and she is usually gone for 9-10 hours).
- create a co-op with other parents. Once a month you have all the kids at your house on a friday night, but the other weeks of the month you take your kids to one of their houses, and they babysit for you. It's especially workable if you have it just with one other family (ideally neighbors), and maybe one parent stays home with their kids and one comes over to be with yours. Alternate weeks.
GO OUT
- go on a picnic
- go on a hike
- go for a walk
- go to a matinee of a movie (if you live in Utah you can catch the dollar theater and do an evening movie for cheap)
- go give blood at a blood drive. Chat for an hour over the sandwiches and cookies and juice.
- go somewhere local and get ice cream or milkshakes or malts
- go to a cafe or restaurant, order one item, and share it
- get happy meals, take them to the park and have a picnic. Swing on the swings, play on the teeter-totter, go down the slides
- volunteer at a soup kitchen
- if your kids are a little older, set up a baby monitor and go to the neighbor's house (next door) and just bring the receiver end with you. Most of them are good for across the street or one house over. Play board games or watch a movie with the other couple
- go stargazing
- if you live near a college, go to a lecture or special event of some sort (they are often free or cheap)
STAY HOME
- have a picnic dinner in the living room
- have a picnic in the backyard
- play games together (board games, card games, question/guessing games about each other, etc)
- have another couple over, and play games with them
- borrow a new movie from a friend or neighbor or the library and watch it together
- bake something scrumptious together and feed it to each other
- stargaze from your own yard
- once the kids are in bed, watch a movie together. Make popcorn, make it a special night
- listen to a podcast, broadcast, or other audio something together (we like listening to the Intelligence Squared debates for example)
- give each other massages
- take a bath together
- talk
2 comments:
Here are a whole bunch more http://loveactually-blog-ideas.blogspot.com/2010/03/date-nights.html
You've got some great ideas here for cheap dates.
My mom is 66 and has been married for at least 41 years and I still can hear her flirting with my dad on her Tracfone SVC phone (for seniors, $15.
My dad was worried about her cell phone bill going to high, but luckily she only pays $7/month for service. She works on it though, she makes an effort to phone my dad 2 times a day and they still hold hands when they go for walks together.
My dad makes an effort to treat my mom like a princess to add the romance to their relationship and they even dance together side by side when doing the dishes.
I've been to little Cuba in Miami and seen couples dancing together in grocery stores. That hit me as I realize you must seize every moment you can to add romance to your life, you don't have to go on an official date as such.
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