Nurturing Marriage: Date Ideas

 Interestingly enough, there is more than one way a date can nurture your marriage. Besides spending quality time together, having cheap date ideas in your arsenal means that alone time doesn't put strain on the budget.  "Financial related tensions...raise the risk of divorce." (NY Times) We all need some ways to fill up the love tank, without emptying the bank!

 The key to free or cheap dates is identifying them as a date. Often times, they are simple things you probably already do with your spouse. But when the kiddos and extra commitments come along, something about calling it a "date" and setting aside the time a week in advance makes it special. It gives you something to look forward to through your crazy week. 

We take turns planning dates too, which means nurturing comes from both sides of the marriage. It also means we get a better variety of dates and both get to do things that we like. 

 Last, we like to use these free date ideas as wedding gifts. We'll buy a couple card games, stick a $5 gift card for ice cream (or something similar) in each one. Then we'll stick a few date ideas, cut up in strips of paper, in each one. The new couple has some fun date ideas and a little date fund to help them start their lifelong journey of nurturing marriage. It's a winner every time!

Enough "how to", let's get to the ideas!!! (These are the ideas we used for new married couple gifts. I'll post more as my hubby and I continue in our adventures as well).

1. Visit a book store where you can sit and show each other your favorite books from childhood or of all-time, or even read a new one together from the store's collection. Going there to read the next few pages or chapters could become a fun ritual.

2. Choose something neither one of you has ever eaten but always wanted to, grab a cookbook and try to cook it together. Invite over some friends to act as your jury panel.

3. Look around for book stores, libraries and societies who are having guest speakers for free - you never know what you'll learn.

4. Have a "pennies day" every so often. Everyone puts their change in a special jar or piggy bank, and every once in a while take the money and cash it in to do what ever it can afford (but no more!)- buy ice cream, play miniature golf, buy penny candy at the mall, buy a DVD.

5. Drive to a remote, but safe place (preferably scenic, but any quiet place will do). Turn up the radio, get out of the car, and ask your spouse for this dance, stepping on feet as little as possible.  

6. Fly kites, for an added twist, make your own kite using newsprint and other fun embellishments you find around the house.

7. Watch the sunrise or sunset, your local newspaper has a time table of these daily occurrences, then go out for hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls.

8. Picnic in your living room on a rainy day.

9. Recreate your first date together.

10. Schedule a breakfast date.

11. Pull out some bug spray and a cozy blanket and curl up together in your backyard or a local park for some stargazing. Or lie on your backs in the grass and try to identify the shapes in the clouds.

12. Read through the Guinness Book of World Records together, and find something the two of you could potentially achieve as a couple and then do it together as a cheap date idea.

13. Golf in the snow with colored golf balls.

14. Put together a puzzle with 1000 or more pieces.

 

What are your fun, cheap date ideas?