Date ideas that are (mostly) frugal

So today is my 2 year anniversary with my guy.  I know it’s not the super longest of times but I’m completely happy it with and felt like sharing!  And to keep this a little personal fiancey related, I decided to share some dates that my guy and I typically do.

Date 1: Picnic after a hike!

You know the picture up above? The one of the bog? Yeah, I love that wilderness park.  So if it’s nice out, we’ll pack a backpack with some sandwiches or cold leftovers, some water and some sort of dessert type thing and proceed to head out to the park.  We’ll hike about half of the park and find a nice place to sit down and eat.  Not to mention take pictures and just generally have a nice day.

Cost: Minute as we already paid for the groceries and gas because we use them throughout the week.

Date 2: Lunch and movies.

We generally set aside $50 every two weeks for a date.  So if there is a movie we both think is theater worthy, we head to the matinee that Saturday or Sunday and get tickets and popcorn.  After that, we’ll usually either grab a quick-lunch or a cheap dinner.  Have I mentioned we can get Chinese takeout for the two of us for under $10?

Cost: $25 for the tickets, popcorn and drinks.  Usually $10 for dinner or lunch.  Total: $35.

Date 3: Rent movies and grill out.

He loves to grill and I love to let him.  Less cooking I have to do and keeps the house cooler as we’re not using the stove.  So if we know we want to do this date, we go to the store, pick out two awesome looking steaks that we won’t normally buy from the grocery budget, veggies, and taters.   Then we head to the video store and look at a movie we both want to watch, one that I want to watch and one that he wants to watch.  Eat a relaxing dinner at home and watch movies together.  The difference from normal times that we do something like this is there are some rules.  We don’t go to other places or invite people over until our date is done.

    Cost: Typically around $30 for everything involved.

Date 4: Bowl!

Okay, we haven’t done this yet because every time we want to go and do this, the bowling lane is filled.  But they have cheap nights and that’s what we would aim for. We both think it’d be fun and this could be a nice double/group date.

Cost: Estimated for us: $30-$40

Date 5: Splurge! Go out to eat and don’t worry too much about the cost.

Obviously we don’t really do this a whole lot but from time to time we will go out and find a restaurant that we both really want to go to and we keep the bill to under $50.  That’s the only way we watch it.  This isn’t done a lot as we can usually do two dates if we are careful where we eat but this combined with date 1?  Is great. Remember, splurging is okay once in a while!

    Cost: Under $50.

Neither one of us is a go out to the bar or club type of person.  Once in a while, maybe but it’s not typically on our list of things to do.  Anyone else have some great ideas?   On a differnt note, every time I wirte “steaks” my spell check is askimg me if I want to write “stakes” instead.