5 Cheap Date Ideas For Couples Who Are Totally Over Dinner & A Movie
Embrace your inner child with a scavenger hunt or living room fort.
ellladee | Unsplash, blackCAT | Canva We’re always on the lookout for easy things to keep the romance alive in our relationship without breaking the bank. Below are some of our favorite fun and cheap date ideas we’ve created that are easy to implement.
Here are 5 fun (and cheap!) date ideas:
1. A scavenger hunt
There are lots of ways to do a scavenger hunt for your honey. What we love about them is that you can put one together easily last minute.
To get started you want to create it backwards. What is the reward and where do you want to end your scavenger hunt? Are you the reward? Does it end in the bedroom or somewhere else?
Once you have the end in mind you are ready to start writing your clues. Remember not to make them too hard as that can be frustrating.
Need help coming up with clues?
Take a few minutes and think about some of the highlights of your relationship. Think about meaningful items or locations that are relevant to some of your favorite relationship memories. Then tie the highlights, location, and items together to create your clues
The scavenger hunt can be done around the house or you can take it out on the town.
2. Penny date
There are a couple of ways to do this and we recommend putting your spin on it. You can end up at a restaurant or maybe prepare a picnic. This can also be done any time of day.
Grab your partner and a penny. Ask your partner to pick a number between 10 and 20.
Head out on the road. Flip the penny — heads you go left and tails you go right. Every time you come to a stop flip the penny and head in that direction. Once you get to the number selected, stop and this is where you will have your date.
3. Cooking class date night in
You can purchase a beautiful cookbook and pick recipes to prepare. Do all of the pre-shopping for ingredients. Gift wrap the cookbook and give it as a gift at the start of the evening before you begin cooking together. Be adventurous and select something you have never made before.
Keep in mind if creating the experience at home, taking some extra time to create an inviting ambiance is well worth the effort. Dim the lights and light some candles. Have some great romantic music playing.
The key here is to set the romantic mood for the evening. Set the table nicely and use placemats and cloth napkins. You can find great deals at a local home décor store if you don’t already have them. Adding fresh flowers to the table is another way to add elegance to the table.
4. In-home spa date
One of our favorite spa stores is Lush. They make amazing bath products that are good for you and the environment. If you don’t have one in your town you can always order online.
Take a romantic bubble bath with candles and champagne. Make a bath cocktail with the Lush bath bomb and a bubble bar for silky soft skin.
At-home facials can be very relaxing and you can take turns pampering one another. Using a bed or sofa as the facial table makes it a breeze. Here’s what you will need:
- Cleanser
- Scrub/Microdermabrasion product
- Mask
- Moisturizer
It’s very simple to put things on the skin and wipe them off. While the mask is on usually 10 minutes or so this is a great time to massage your partner’s hands or feet. Have a small bowl with water and use towels to protect items from getting wet. You will also need several washcloths. You could follow this with a full-body massage.
Ambiance is really important for this. Low lighting, relaxing music, and lots of candles are a must. You can also combine the cooking class with the spa date. We recommend doing the spa date first then the cooking class.
5. Make a tent
Sometimes it’s fun to be a kid again and do silly things. You probably already have everything you need around the house. If you don’t have these items you can locate them at a dollar store or Target.
- Sheet or plastic tablecloth (the lighter the better)
- Clothespins
- White twinkly lights
- Battery operated candles
- String or wire
- Damage-free hanging hooks (do not get dollar store brand)
You can always create an easy one with a few sheets, chairs, and your living room furniture to create a tent on the ground.
If you would like to be more elaborate we took Damage-free hooks and put them on 2 walls with a string across the bedroom. We then wrapped white lights around the string before draping a sheet over it. We used clothespins to attach it to pillows on the bed.
You can get creative with this. Another option is to use plastic tablecloths from the dollar store as they are lighter and may stay up longer. You could also go to a fabric store and get some tulle as this is also super lightweight.
Dana Lam and Martin Kupper are authors and co-founders of the Surprise Date Challenge. They are passionate about making an impact in people’s lives and helping couples be the happiest couple they know.