(who said that spending time together has to cost anything?! :))When Daniel and I were just dating, he would take me out to eat or to see a movie for a fun night out. Because we lived 3 hours apart the first 3 years of our dating, going out to eat was a special occasion for us. In fact I remember when Daniel took me to a local restaurant that served the best BBQ pork and hushpuppies. Can I just tell you that I can eat hushpuppies for breakfast, lunch and supper?! Months later I wanted Daniel to take me back to the BBQ restaurant.
Me: I really would like to eat BBQ tonight. Can we go to the place that you took me on our first date?
Daniel: Where is that?
Me: I think the name of the place is Hilly Billy
Daniel: (laughs hysterically for 5 minutes) You mean Hill Billy?
Me: (not understanding what was so funny) That’s what I said!
Needless to say we had a fun night to remember dinning at my favorite BBQ restaurant.
Then Daniel moved to Columbia, SC during my senior year at USC and we only lived 7 minutes away from each other. We didn’t go on too many outings and mostly spent time by hanging out with each other. Then after I graduated from college, we got married and our date nights of going out to eat and out to the movies became few and far in between.
When we do go out to eat, we try to do the following:
- Look for a coupon. There are so many restaurant that offer either B1G1 or $ off your meal coupon. You can find these coupons either directly on restaurant’s website or in Sunday’s newspaper.
- Drink water. We don’t drink soft drink, so drinking water is not a sacrifice for us. However, by opting to drink water one can save a few bucks.
- We use loyalty cards. Our local Mexican restaurant offers a loyalty card that after x visits you are entitled to a free meal.
- You can visit www.bulktix.com for discounted movie theater tickets. You can purchase a discounted pack of four tickets and the good news the tickets never expire. (we have never tried this trick, however I read about it in a magazine and wanted to pass the tip on to you).
However, instead of going out to eat to a nice restaurant often and then spend $20 at the movie theater we opt to spend time with each other at home. We quite often rent a movie from a dollar box or Netflix and spend the evening watching it together. There is nothing better to me than cuddling with my husband and falling asleep (my hubby then finishes watching a movie all by himself) within minutes of a movie start. The moment of feeling loved, protected and treasured in the arms of my husband is priceless and is better than any date out.
How do you save money on date nights?
What a great post! I understand about date nights being few and far in between! After 6 years of marriage and 2 kids, date night is very rare! However, we do rent a movie every Friday night and order take-out. We give the kids a healthy dinner, send them off to bed and then eat out take-out while we watch our movie together. I love it and look forward to it every week!
ReplyDelete~Busy Buzzer
Buzzing the Day Away
Date night? What's that?! Date nights become more of a RARE thing when children come along :-)
ReplyDeleteI like eating pizza and watching Netflix movies at home, but as a SAHM I really need to get out of the house sometimes! For our last date, we ate at Chik-fil-A, which is a rare treat since we don't have one in our town, and browsed around in Barnes & Noble bookstore, another rare treat. We spent $12 on food and I had won a gift card for B & N so we only spent $4 on a book.
Great post! I guess you can't really recommend a good movie to us, since you always fall asleep!
You two are adorable :)
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