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These days, going on a date is expensive!
Before my husband and I got married, we often had very simple dates, like taking a walk around the city, chatting in a coffee shop, cooking dinner together, or going ice skating. This continued even after our wedding, and after we’ve had kids.
We still enjoy the adventure (challenge?!) of finding fun things to do that don’t break the bank. After all, one of the most important things to us is quality time spent together, not necessarily how we spend it.
Here is a list of inexpensive date ideas that should get your wheels turning if you’re not sure what to do without spending all your hard-earned money. These ideas can be used year round!
Whether you’re going on your first date or 500th…meeting a blind date or spending time with your spouse of several decades…here are 88 cheap date ideas you’ll want to try!
88 Cheap Date Ideas
- Have a picnic (inside or outside)
- Make a romantic dinner at home
- Volunteer together
- Go to an estate sale
- Check out local thrift stores
- Reminisce about your past by looking through old photo albums and yearbooks
- Go to the driving range to hit golf balls
- Pet animals at the local animal shelter
- Jump from one restaurant to another, sharing appetizers as your meal
- Go ice skating or rollerskating
- Go to a community or high school play or musical
- Build a snowman and then drink hot cocoa
- Have a movie marathon with homemade popcorn
- Play hide and seek in the woods or a cornfield
- Take a long walk around your neighborhood
- Challenge your date to a ping-pong, pool, or foosball game
- Make a homemade pizza with personalized toppings
- Ride bikes around the neighborhood
- Fly a kite
- Play “2 Truths and a Lie” and see if your date can guess right!
- Work out together
- Look into the local bus and train schedule to see if one will take you anywhere interesting
- Window shop (take your time looking)
- Visit a local hardware store and envision all the things you’d want in your dream home
- Take photos of each other (and together)
- Babysit together
- Go hiking
- Go camping
- Go fishing
- Go canoeing
- Create a CD of your favorite songs
- Build something together
- Go dumpster diving for treasures
- Forage for berries, nuts, and seeds
- Take a painting class
- Play board games
- Search local coupon sites for an activity you wouldn’t normally do
- Browse a local antique shop
- Test drive an expensive car
- Attend a food or wine tour
- Teach each other a new skill
- Climb a tree
- Take a cooking class
- Shop garage sales
- Have a breakfast date
- Work on a puzzle
- Buy ice cream cones and enjoy them as you walk together
- Attend a local high school or college sporting event
- Find the highest point in your city to star gaze on a blanket
- Go to an open mic night
- Make a list of the qualities you like about each other
- Do a seasonal activity (carve pumpkins, hide Easter eggs, decorate the Christmas tree)
- Reminisce about your first date
- Take turns planning dates for $10 or less (and make it a competition, with a prize for the winner!)
- Train for a race together
- Hold a book club (for two)
- Take swing dance lessons
- Talk/dream about your future together
- Write each other a love note and then read them to each other
- Draw each other…with your eyes closed
- Play frisbee
- Explore a new part of town you’ve never been to
- Reenact your favorite movie scenes
- Visit a local farm and pick your own fruit
- Bake a cake or cookies together
- Make each other breakfast in bed
- Plan a scavenger hunt with a gift or sweet letter at the end
- Take a relationship test (such as the Love Language assessment)
- Watch as many episodes of one TV show as you can in one sitting
- Pray together
- Make a list of things you’d like to do (as an individual and as a couple) and then compare your ideas and plan if necessary
- Try to break a world record
- Create a dream home board on Pinterest and fill it with all your favorite things
- Go to an arcade and play like a kid!
- Watch YouTube videos all night
- Cook out
- Give each other a massage
- Build a fort over the furniture using sheets, blankets, and pillows
- Invite friends to a potluck dinner party (with a theme, if you want)
- Have a spa day at home
- Rearrange the furniture in one room for a new look
- Take a nap together
- Make a memory book with pictures of each other or places you’ve been together
- Run an errand together (shop for groceries, pick up dry cleaning, or wash the car)
- Have a dance party
- Camp out in your backyard
- Walk around a local farmer’s market
- Make homemade fondue and enjoy with your favorite foods to dip!
Spending quality time with someone we care about doesn’t need to be expensive. No matter what you choose to do on your next date, make it memorable!
For many more creative and inexpensive date ideas, check out the The Dating Divas! They also have tons of valentine printable packs, themed date night printables, and more!
What are YOUR favorite date ideas?
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