I tried my best to personalize the date ideas to make them specifically appeal to Leslie and Ross, but I did my best to share a handful of the date ideas I had for them that I hope will appeal to most of you below. I then filled in the blanks with a few more ideas that popped into my head based on past inexpensive dates Ryan and I have enjoyed together.
Happy dating!
- With a $15 – $20 budget, split up for two hours and pick up fun little things you think the other person would love, like their favorite cupcake from a local cupcake shop, a new pair of boxers, etc. Exchange the goodie bags at the end of two hours!
- Look for new hiking trails close to where you live. Swing by a local sub shop and pick up sandwiches to bring with you to enjoy halfway through your hike.
- On a Saturday morning, sleep in before heading out to a local coffee shop to order hot coffee or tea and start the day off slow together. Take time to hang out for an hour and catch up!
- Visit local food trucks together and have fun ordering a bunch of small dishes and trying new local food.
- While one of you looks for a new dinner recipe, have the other person look for a new dessert recipe. Go to the grocery store to buy the ingredients you need and spend time preparing your dishes in the kitchen together.
- Have an “ice cream for dinner” night! Either buy your favorite kind of ice cream at the grocery store (plus tons of toppings!) or visit a local hot spot.
- Spend a day at the pool together. Bring plenty of sunscreen, water and your favorite magazines.
- Have a “game night” at home with just the two of you. Great games for two people include Scrabble, mancala and tons of card games!
- Enjoy a heavy hors d’oeuvre night outside. Crack open a bottle of wine and enjoy it with your favorite cheese, crackers, olives and more.
- Go to a local restaurant known for their good food and low prices. Order for each other!
- See if your local Whole Foods or specialty food store offers free cooking classes and sign up to take one together.
- Drive to your local RedBox and pick out a movie to watch at home together. Choose one of these creative popcorn recipes to make and enjoy while you watch!
Question of the Morning
- What is your idea of a perfect date?
I love dates that include some kind of an activity! I absolutely love going out to dinner and all that jazz, but my favorite dates with Ryan are dates that have us out and about, exploring a new area or trying a new activity.
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Favourite date is a long hike (5 hours) then stopping at the store on the way home for meal fixings and wine. Spend the evening chatting about hike and catching up after busy week.
I’m always looking for new and fun inexpensive date night ideas for me and my hubs. Thanks for this list! I love the idea of one person looking for a new dinner recipe while the other finds a new dessert recipe and then spend some time in the kitchen together preparing the two!
I also love the idea of having a leisure morning, walking over to the local coffee shop, sipping on tea or coffee for a while, and starting the day off slow! Sounds perfect!
Those are great date night ideas! My husband and I enjoy riding our bikes around the older neighborhoods in downtown Orlando. It’s so beautiful! We will sometimes get a nice cool treat afterwards too! The quality time and having fun together is what I enjoy the most!
Anything that involves dessert!
Ha ha! I like your style!
I love Saturday morning dates with my boyfriend! When I’m off work we will go to the farmers market and local coffee shop in the morning. It’s always fun to enjoy the relaxing morning together and find fun foods to make for dinner.
We usually have a movie marathon night once or twice a month to help us save money. My boyfriend has Netflix and then we usually order a $5 pizza from Hungry Howies. We also enjoy going to dueling pianos. We just found a dueling pianos bar that actually has a dress code and it gives me a chance to see him all dressed up–which he knows I love!! We also have themed movie nights. Themed such as Disney movies, classic movies, and musicals of such. We also go on all day shopping trips to the outlets and pick out clothes that we would like to see the other person wear and sometimes they actually end up buying said outfit–it’s fun and goofy!
ice cream for dinner? ALL OF THIS IDEA!!! haha
Ha these are our go-to date nights! We love the food trucks and redbox nights! Cheap, easy and fun 🙂
I really liked your idea of going out to dinner and picking eachothers meal, definitely want to do that with the hubs soon!
We love cooking nights at home. Open some wine and make pizzas, little pies are the best so you can do different topics on each. Drink some Coronas and make nachos or quesidillas with all pf your favorite toppings. And of course I love breakfast for dinner with mimosas! Since it’s a date night you always need a little alcohol : )
“I would have to say April 25, because it’s not too hot, and not to cold. All you need is a light jacket! ”
Yeah I went there. 😀
Seriously, though, probably perusing a fair or going to an artsy exhibit our something like that. Love museums
Love that movie!
I agree that my idea of a fun date usually involves going out and doing something outside or active. Last Friday, my boyfriend and I went berry picking at local farm. We got to eat as many berries as we wanted while we picked, and we came back with plenty more to eat and use in smoothies. It was a really fun day.
My ideal date night involves my mother-in-law watching my 15 month old so me and my hubby can have some alone time, which usually involves going out to our fav restaurant and a redbox movie.
All of these dates seem fun! One that Drew and I have been on recenlty is we rented a canoe and went fishing for the day. It was the perfect alone time and we both caught fish. It also was something to keep us active. I think we canoed a total of 6 miles.
Great ideas! We do the Redbox one a lot… Probably a bit too often. 😉 I also love going out for breakfast on Saturday morning to just chat and slowly work our way into the morning. I’m excited to try some of these other ideas out!
Mmmm LOVE goat cheese!
I love to try something new too, be outside and just have fun! I also low low-key date nights at home with making supper together, having wine and watching a movie 🙂
Honestly my husband and I are pretty low key people – our idea of a perfect date night is a nice dinner out, some time relax and walking around, and then a good movie. We don’t need anything elaborate most of the time when we do get date nights we focus on just relaxing and enjoying each others company because we are so busy throughout the week.
Dates that involve getting outside and exploring are always fun!
These are great suggestions! I love game nights. But it is always fun to get out and explore new things together.
Thanks for sharing! I plan on using some of these ideas for my friends wedding gift!
Definitely dates that include an activity. We try to take advantage of what is around us, beach days, hiking, snowboarding, and local festivals, museums/exhibits. Last weekend we went to an avocado festival…. Never heard of one of those before. I would definitely recommend keeping up with your community, usually they have a lot to offer, and prices are pretty cheap too 😉
I’d be missing something important…the actual guy for the date 🙂 That would be a problem.
And I’d have “double dinner” with your ice cream suggestion. BOTH dinner + extreme ice cream ” second” dinner!
Our local surf shop has cheap paddle board and kayak rentals. We stop at Whole Foods, pack a snack, put in a dry bag, and paddle to a quiet spot for dinner.
I was one of the ones asking you to share your ideas, so thanks for posting this! 🙂
I like the idea of #5 – one of us cooking mains and the other a new dessert. Spending time together making dinner.
We are always playing new games with each other. (#8) At the moment, our favourite is an app on the iPhone for charades – you put it up to your forehead so others can see what they have to describe to you and it also records them at the same time! We have literally spent hours playing this! So much fun!
We always try and factor in a ‘date night’ once a week which involves no phones, laptops and just us (sometimes the cat comes along too!) We don’t always go out, but on this night we make a real effort to spend quality time with each other and keep our relationship strong.
my favorite date so far was when we went to a local park, spent the day on the trails then paddle boating. then that evening we made dinner together and drank wine. well, I drank wine 😉
Such great ideas! I love all of them! I think some great dates would be: fruit picking (i.e. apple, blueberry, strawberry, peach) and/or wine tasting!
One of my favorite date nights is when my husband and I do our own version of the Food Network show Chopped. I usually make the main dish and he takes the appetizer. We each pick 4 ingredients for the other person, then they can use anything at home. So fun!
I love this idea! Pitching it to the boyfriend tonight. Thanks for sharing!
This is so creative! I love it!
The ideal date would have a balance of activity and relaxation. With great conversation. 🙂
Love these ideas I can’t wait to show my boyfriend!
I love your first idea!
My favorite date night would have to be a night in cooking dinner. You can experiment with making new dishes, or try to put a healthy spin on some of your old favorites. There’s something about being in the kitchen together that’s really cozy, and meals that you cook yourself always taste better! (Unless they taste really bad, in which case you order pizza 😉
Great list, Julie!
One of our favorite inexpensive dates is simply just walking around a main street type of town. There’s always so many shops to wander around, or something going on in the streets. Then, we’ll find a cafe and grab a bite to eat.
I’m definitely an outdoors person and love to do activities like hiking and mini golf… Or even sky diving. However, I think the date at the local coffee shop to start off your day slow is really, really important! I think a lot of times everyone is always go-go-go, you never relax with each other!
These are such great ideas! I’m all about cooking together and renting movies from Redbox. I really do like some of the other ideas you posted! 🙂
This is a great post, especially as me and the BF are trying to be more budget-conscience! We do the hike/subs date a lot. Another thing we enjoy is just leashing up the dog, driving to a nearby town and just walking around and sharing a sweet treat from one of the little shops.
Love all those ideas!! I will defiantly be keeping those in mind. Mmmm your breakfast looks good!! I like to do little dates where I get to just relax with my bf. We don’t really just relax or cuddle too often, only because time only permits us to do so much. So whenever possible I take advantage of snatching him up and just relaxing and watching either a marathon (usually a couple) of shows, or a movie 🙂
Unfortunately, my boyfriend and I only get to share every other weekend together since he’s a full-time RN in the ER. The weekends that we do get to spend alone together are normally spent working on our home or we spend them at local flea markets (Lafayette, LA). We love turning trash into treasure. I love our little hobby together! Plus, it’s tons of walking and we always enjoy lunch somewhere super cute.
Love all of those ideas! So simple 🙂 Last night we ordered Pei Wei takeout and watched a few episodes of our favorite show together with a candle lit in the living room. Easy peasy “date” at home!
oh man, i miss pei wei! love that place.
I love doing something other than sitting during a date. I want to get out and hike or bike or something. We don’t do that too often together but it is a dream of mine.
So gonna bookmark this! Lovee it!
A perfect date: includes the one person you love, delicious food, walking around town or something and finding something new and cool, sit at O’Henry’s coffee and just talk, and go home to watch a movie until you fall asleep. I like simple. <3
I love any dates that involve trying new things. We went kayaking for the first time last year and it was interesting! This summer we are planning some new hiking trails!
Hmm…that’s a hard one..I’d say April 25th, PBF. It’s not too hot, not too cold, all ya need is a light jacket! 😉
LOL!
LOVE all those ideas! My idea of a perfect date includes dinner out and a movie at home. Oh, and the kids are at Grandma’s. 🙂
I love the date ideas!
My favourite date is anything done one-on-one. We do a date night every weekend and the only rule is no cell phones 🙂 My most recent favourite date was a romantic dinner out and then going for a walk in the park.
we do the no cell phone thing, too!
Love the idea of one person finding a recipe for supper and the other finding a dessert then going to the grocery store! My idea of a perfect date is just dinner maybe a post dinner walk and a movie. Or I would love a morning hike/run workout followed by brunch 🙂
I love the cooking class idea AND the goodie bag idea 😉 That is so cute! For a perfect date would be a nice, healthy dinner out followed by a walk on the beach and heading back home for a movie.
I love this list of inexpensive date night ideas! My perfect date night is going out to dinner to our favorite restaurant, then coming home and relaxing on the couch and watching a movie.
Love these ideas! It’s funny how most dates (if not all of them) revolve around food!
HAH! I was just googling cheap date ideas this morning! I’m surprising my boyfriend tonight with an indoor picnic, complete with food that I have a groupon for 😉 haha
indoor picnic!? that is too adorable. i’m totally doing this! 😀
These are all a great list of ideas.
I like the idea of cheap little dates like a picnic, a simple cooked Dinner, or even a movie and some ice cream never hurts either;)
These are such cute dates! Any ideas for “12-long-distance-date-ideas” hah a girl can dream 🙂
These are all a great list of ideas
I like the idea of cheap little dates like a picnic, a simple cooked Dinner, or even a movie and some ice cream never hurts either;)
not sure why that posted twice..oops