When my husband and I were first married, we were both working full-time and had no kids, so each week we would head out to dinner or a play or a concert or a movie . . . date nights were so fun and easy!
Fast forward 9 years and three kids under the age of 6. We have a student loan debt the size of Alaska (thank you Physical Therapy school) and can't afford a babysitter every weekend. Plus, I don't want to leave my 4 month old baby with just anyone!
So, we have had to be creative with our dating life. We still make it a priority to set aside one night a week where we turn off the computers and focus on just being together. Here are some of our favorite at-home date ideas that we have tried (and loved!)!
Plus . . . even if you don't like these ideas, there are links to approximately 350 MORE date ideas at the bottom of this post. You have no excuse! That will take care of date nights for the next 7 years! You are welcome. :)
1.
Play "Would You Rather?" You will learn a lot about a person that you never knew when they are faced with a crazy question . . . you can find a lot of questions
here.
2.
Forget Wine and Cheese . . . how about a Chocolate Tasting night? You can get all the info right
here, along with a cute printable to make it happen.
3.
Watch a sports game together (or record one on the DVR and watch it together later). Eat nachos and hot dogs and cheer for your favorite team. Make bets on who will win and choose a fun prize for the winner.
4.
Give each other massages. Use Google or You Tube to learn some proper techniques and get to rubbing!
5.
Have a "finger foods only" dinner and feed each other.
6.
Invest in an ice cream maker or a bread maker (you can actually get some pretty decent ones for really cheap at a local thrift store or consignment store) and invent your own concoctions.
7.
Go on a picnic. If it's warm enough, try to go outside (even if it's in your own backyard). And if it's too cold, spread a quilt out on the floor, make some sandwiches, and keep your picnic indoors.
8.
Have a karaoke night! Find songs with lyrics on You Tube and sing your heart out. This is funniest if you can find some heart-wrenching ballads to belt out. :)
9.
Decorate mugs for each other. You can pick up mugs at the Dollar Store and use a sharpie marker to decorate it. It will be such a fun reminder of how much you love each other as you drink from it each morning (oh, how I love cute, cheesy love!)!
Here is a cute example.
10.
Play the Newlywed Game! See how well you really know one another. Have prizes for every correct answer. You can check out some fun questions
here.
11.
Make Homemade Donuts. This recipe for
Homemade Spudnuts is my favorite and it makes a TON so you can totally share some with the neighbors (or eat them all yourself . . . I won't judge).
12.
Have a Video Game night. Seriously, I did this after we had been married for a couple months and we stayed up playing video games until 3 am . . . and my husband pretty much knew then that I was the best wife ever.
13.
Make it a theme night! Choose a theme and center everything you do around it. For example, if you choose an Italian theme, you could eat spaghetti and gelato, then watch a movie like
The Italian Job or
Life is Beautiful. Some other fun theme ideas: Mexican, Asian, Christmas, Kid's theme, 1950's (or any decade), etc, etc.
14.
Have a romantic candle light dinner. It doesn't matter if you are eating hot dogs and macaroni and cheese . . . anything eaten by candlelight is romantic (like our
Crazy Dinner!)
15.
Have a Fondue Night. Don't have a fondue machine? No worries! You can melt chocolate or other dipping sauces in a slow cooker or even on your stove top! Check out my favorite
Rocky Road Fondue dip.
16.
Host a Book Club . . . for two! Check out two copies of the same book at the library and discuss the book as you read it.
17.
Have a Homemade Pizza Night. We love to do this with our kids, but it would be fun to do with each other. Here is our
favorite homemade pizza crust recipe.
18.
Write out the story of how you met (and fell in love). Better yet- video tape it! Your kids and future posterity will be so grateful and it is so fun to go back and read (or watch) years down the road. It's amazing how much you will forget!
19.
Have Breakfast in Bed (even if it's a night date! Breakfast for dinner is one of my favorite meals!). Pull out the TV trays and go out all. Here are some of our
favorite breakfast ideas!
20.
A Year In Review. It's always so fun to go back and remember all the things that have happened in the last year.
Use this printable to easily record and remember all that has gone on in the last 12 months.
21.
Make marshmallow guns and have a marshmallow war. Buy some PVC pipe from a hardware store and
make your guns. Then have an all out war!
22.
Break a record! Find a record in
Guinness Book of World Records and spend the night trying to break it. Try doing it together as a team or make it a competition and compete against each other to see who has the better record.
23.
Pop some popcorn and watch YouTube videos all night. Ask friends and family for recommendations or find some of the most popular ones. We were cracking up at some of the funny stuff on there!
24.
Have a living room campout. Make indoor s'mores and tinfoil dinners in your oven. Make a tent out of forts and pull out your blow-up mattress and sleeping bags.
25.
Have a snowy night party (winter time). Sneak outside (if you have kids, make sure they are asleep) and build a snowman or have a snowball fight. Come back inside when it gets too cold, make hot cocoa and warm up under some big blankets . . .
26.
Have a movie marathon. Pick a theme (whether it's an actor, genre, or series) and watch as many as you can. If you fall asleep, you can always pick up where you left off in the morning. :)
27.
Babysit for a friend. If you have kids, offer to watch a friend's kids while they head out on a date and then trade them the following weekend. If you don't have kids, watch some kid movies, play with Play Doh, and eat chicken nuggets and mac and cheese. Don't have any friends with kids? You could always try dog-sitting! :)
28.
Take some personality tests and compare your results. Here are some good ones:
Jung,
True Colors,
The 5 Love Languages, and
The Color Code.
29.
Play Twister! See how tangled up you can get . . .
30.
Bubble bath for two. Need I say more?
31.
Break out the board games. Make it interesting by adding a rule that the loser of each game has to lose one piece of clothing. :) Guarantee your husband will play Yahtzee like his life depends on it just so he can win.
32.
Play this fun Love Match game using personal things from your relationship.
Looking for more date ideas?
