Thursday, May 13, 2010

Thrifty Thursdays: Cheap Dating!!

For Thrify Thursdays I have decided to write about how to do different things in a thrifty or cheap way.  Today I am focusing on cheap dates! That's right folks, this is all about cheap/thrifty date ideas!

I realized that I was pretty much always a cheap date-I am not picky, I like to be adventurous and I am easily impressed. No need to take me out to La Cai to impress me. (Not that I don't like a fancy meal once in a while, I do, but mostly I just want to hang out with my date!)  So, following are some fun, cheap (many free) date ideas I have done (OK-some are not my ideas, they are Stefanies). Please feel free to read through these and give them a try, and please add your own cheap date ideas to the list-I would LOVE to hear from you! Here's my list:
  • Making Cookies together
  • Dollar Movies
  • Cook dinner in (guys-seriously girls love it when a guy cooks for them and visa versa ladies. The other option is to cook together which is always fun! If you are in a big group, have each couple be in charge of a part of the meal and they have to put it together as a couple-make a game of it)
  • Flip a coin adventure (When I was in college, a guy I was dating and I were reading through and laughing at one of those cheap date books and found this idea.  Pick a number, then grab a coin and get in the car. We picked 13.  Then each time you hit a light or an intersection flip the coin to see whether you go left or right.  When you hit the 13th one, you have to stop there-wherever you are and do some kind of activity out of the car-we ended up in a parking lot and danced in the rain then got back in the car and started over again. It may sound odd, but it was a blast.)
  • Goodwill date (we went to DI which is like Goodwill, and each had $2 to buy something for our date to wear the rest of the night, then we went for a walk around sight seeing places in our city dressed in our crazy stuff) 
  • Dinner under $10 (Each Couple gets $5-$10 to spend to get dinner with and you go in a grocery store and give like a 10 minute time limit and see what you end up with-always an adventure and funny to see what you get-you can consider it like Iron chef to figure out how to combine all the items into a big meal).
  • Iron Chef or Amazing Race - Take a game like those listed and make it into a date.
  • General admission to local sports-often local sports have cheap general admission-especially college sports. Go to one of those, or for a FREE option, go watch a little league game for free and cheer for all the kids no matter which team-just make sure not to get too obnoxious at that one-and remember, in little league, it is often more fun to watch the parents than the kids anyway!!
  • Bigger and Better - Stefanie did this one-take a paper clip to a house and ask them to trade you for something bigger and better. Go house to house and see what the best thing you can get is. Do this on teams and give a time limit. Meet back together and see which team got the best item!
  • Scavenger Hunt- Go door to door with a list of items you need to get-just like a scavenger hunt as a kid!
  • Treasure Hunt - This one takes some effort, but I more than once set up treasure hunts for my dates to meet me places. I would sent from place to place like on the Amazing Race and at the end there would be a picnic dinner or something fun set up to do.
  • Go to a Park -seriously fun to do-just make sure you leave the actual kids alone-don't be that creepy couple bugging kids. I liked to go to empty neighborhood playgrounds when I was younger. I like to go to parks now still with Wes and the kids-we love that!
  • Curl up in the cold - Stefanie said she likes to curl up in a blanket on the heater and talk. I also like this, but I am a fireplace girl, so ideally I would curl up in a blanket by the fireplace.
  • Do something active-anything! Play a sport, go jogging, do anything active!
  • Find Free activities in your city - There are often Free concerts, Store openings, farmer's markets, free museum days, all kinds of freebies if you just look around!  
  • Watch the Simpsons - That is what Wes and I do...there is some kissing involved...  :) 

 Ok-that last one might just be funny to me only because the whole time we were dating before we were married, Wes and I were both broke and so we basically just watched The Simpsons in my apartment and hung out all the time. We never even wen out to eat while we sated (we dated about 3 weeks before we were engaged and were only engaged for 3 months, but that is a story for another time.) 
 
I have a lot of funny dating experiences, and Wes thinks I should share some here on the blog. Today I am out of time to blog, but if you want to read about some of my funny dating experiences, I can write a follow-up to this. Just let me know if there is interest, and PLEASE share your cheap date ideas!!!

 

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