With Valentine’s Day coming up I thought it would be appropriate to make a giant list of free or cheap date ideas. This way, if any of us are having trouble deciding what to do, maybe we’ll be inspired!
1. Picnic – either in your living room, a place with a pretty view or in an interesting place (grassy knoll in the middle of a roundabout?) Laying out a picnic instantly makes any dinner a little more fun!
2. Teach each other skills. How to play an instrument or decorate a cake, bowhunting skills… computer hacking skills…
3. Go to a free community event. There are usually free activities going on, give one a try!
4. Have a movie night with a theme – challenge each other to bring the worst movie ever made, the best musical, etc. For worst movie ever made I recommend Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus.
5. If you have snow, play in it! Go sledding, make a non-traditional snow man, have a snowball fight!
6. Make a special candle-lit dinner and play a two-person board game.
7. Have a culturally-themed date where you serve traditional food and learn about another culture and the way they celebrate or date! Add in a movie that takes place in that specific country, or a documentary about the culture.
8. Go to the bookstore! Read magazines together, find books about places you want to travel together, etc.
9. Go stargazing in the backyard or at a local conservatory.
10. Have a Wii tournament! Wii sports or Just Dance are super fun to play on a date. (Borrow a Wii from a friend or family member if you don’t have one!)
60 more ideas below:
11. Have a movie night with one basic theme like Nacho Night: eating fancy nachos for dinner and watch Nacho Libre, or Star Wars: Watching the movies and eating Light Saber Pops.
12. Go ice blocking (slide down big hills on a large block of ice – bring towels to lay on the ice or your bum will get very cold!)
13. Mystery date: Put three or four ideas for dinner, activities, and dessert in unmarked envelopes and pick one at random each time you finish with the last task.
14. Go for a walk or ride bikes.
15. Make t-shirts. Get cheap, plain white tees from the store and decorate them with sharpies or paint. Stencils are helpful or you can just wing it!
16. Go to thrift stores and pick out an outfit for the other person, with $5 budget each.
17. Make ice cream sculptures out of cheap, very frozen ice cream. Add toppings for details and then eat them after you show off your creations.
18. Rent a tandem bicycle, segways, or a paddle boat and get outdoors.
19. Take a dance class together. Sometimes community centers offer these free for first-timers.
20. Make a blanket fort.
21. Go swimming or hot-tubbing.
22. Go pick fruit in season at a local farm or orchard.
23. Go see a local band or musician, or open-mic night.
24. Visit a factory in your area and take a tour. Usually these include free samples.
25. Go to costco, have some samples, and buy $1.50 dinners.
26. Go miniature golfing or to batting cages.
27. Go roller skating on disco night at your local rink. See who can do the best tricks by the end of the night.
28. Go to the mountains or camp indoors, roast marshmallows & make banana boats.
29. Play poker with peanuts, candy or cheap, fun items from the dollar store.
30. Stay at home and play table tennis or go bowling.
31. Go people watching at a crowded place like a fair, movie theater, monster truck rally, etc.
32. Visit antique shops and thrift stores and compete to find the funniest, rarest or oldest items.
33. Buy flowers or balloons and give them to people on the street who look like they need cheering up.
34. Race tin-foil boats in a stream or river.
35. Finger paint together, try to create a masterpiece.
36. Bake and decorate sugar cookies.
37. Go to open houses and talk about your dream home.
38. Do a puzzle.
39. Go to the zoo or a petting zoo.
40. Play ultimate frisbee or frisbee golf.
41. Have a fondue night.
42. Watch stand-up comedy specials together.
43. Do touristy things – in the city you live in.
44. Go fishing and cook your catch for dinner.
45. Volunteer at a festival together, you do something good and get in for free!
46. Go get pedicures together at a cosmetology school.
47. Attend a book or poetry reading at your library.
48. Dress up in your fanciest clothes and order dessert at a nice restaurant.
49. Go to an art gallery, museum or exhibit in town. Many of these have local or student discounts.
50. Take a dog for a walk. If you don’t have one, borrow one!
51. Build something with Legos. If you need an idea I would like to see a life-sized lego cat. Please send pictures.
52. Make bucket lists together and try to cross one off that night. This could potentially give you tons more date ideas.
53. Go to McDonald’s for dinner and then to the arcade. Bring out your inner kid.
54. Feed the ducks at the park.
55. Carve something out of a giant block of cheese. The more elaborate the challenge, the better.
56. Support local sports teams! Go to a college or high-school game, any sport you’re interested in.
57. Go to a free movie screening at the library.
58. Take an art class together or visit a pottery painting studio in your area – in Utah we have Color Me Mine.
59. Make Valentine’s Day cards for each other, decorate Christmas ornaments, carve pumpkins, anything crafty that pertains to the nearest holiday.
60. Go ice skating. Hold hands.
61. Play darts or billiards at a local dive.
62. Go see a play or show at a theater in your area, or even a high school.
63. Learn how to show love to each other. Take the 5 Love Languages quiz and talk to each other about what things you appreciate the most. Have a yummy dessert to go with it.
64. Set a movie night up like a movie theater, complete with a VIP curtain, movie theater candy, popcorn, and italian sodas.
65. TV show marathon. This is the most romantic kind of date ever. Start a TV show from season 1 and keep the date going until you’re done!
66. If you are gun friendly, go to the shooting range.
67. Go to a drive-in movie.
68. Test drive super nice cars.
69. Go to an ice-cream or chocolate store and see what you can taste-test.
70. Buy several brands of one food or drink, cover up the labels and have a blind tasting contest. See who can guess which is which brand, and decide which they like the best before the big reveal. Root Beer for the root beer lover is a fun one to do.
If you liked this post, you may also love How to Ensure Your Marriage Will Get Better With Age and Light Sabor Pops Date Night!
I might have missed some… Got an idea I didn’t list? Please share in the comments!
+This post may be linked up to one of these parties.
Pretty much anything involving a park! My bf and I like to go play on the swings or go on the hiking trails
I need this! With all of the adult kids needing something, it seems like there isn’t a lot left over for us. Thanks so much. Pinning this!! Kathleen @ Fearlessly Creative Mammas
Love this list! We just had a new baby so it will be some time before we can try out a few of these fun things for a date night!
Shauna @ The Best Blog Recipes
Study budgeting and investments, Do something really nice for each others parents. Learn car repair and house repair and landscaping. Go to auctions. Go to air shows. Barter work in stables to ride horses. Give blood.Work on a political issue that you agree on (obtaining petitions, etc.)
My daughter and her husband lived 3 hours apart when they were dating. They read aloud to each other over Skype. You could also dramatisize (different voices and sound affects) reading together at a children’s ward in a hospital. Volunteer to serve a meal at a homeless shelter. Go to church together, and visit different type churches you’ve never been to. Learn to play a tandem dulcimer together (these were made specifically for courting couples). Sing together. Go to shape note singing. Blow bubbles. Go to an airport and watch the planes. Throw frisbees in the park. Bird watching. Go looking for shells, pretty stones, etc. Do yard work for some elderly friends. Listen to your grandparents tell stories. Look at photo albums. Watch home movies. Play get to know you games like; Two Truths and a Lie. One person tells three things about themselves and the other person has to guess which one is not true. Take pictures of each other in unusual places. Learn orgami, make some and give them away to cheer people up. Write a story together.Go hiking. Interview each other as if you were a reporter and a celebrity. Play tennis or badmitten. Go to an antique car show. Go to children you know, to their recitals (piano, voice, dance, etc.) Go wading in a brook. Visit a pet store. Go to a botanical garden. Go to an aquarium. Have a water fight. Have a watermelon fight. Climb trees. Visit shut-ins. Color each others hair. Learn to trim/cut each others hair. Take furniture from the trash and fix it up and paint it. Visit a furniture store and talk about what you like. Do anonymous acts of kindness together. Pick wild blackberries or blueberries. Play catch. Build sand castles at the beach. Go surfing. Go snorkleing. Find out where groups fly miniture planes and go watch. Watch sunrises and sunsets. Visit animal farms (ie. horses, sheep, llamas, pigs, etc). Make a lemonade stand. Go skateboarding. ice skate.. Read how to books at a hardware store. Have a baking contest.
These are perfect for the frugal college gal in me :)
Yay! So glad you like them!
This is a great list! In case no one has mentioned it yet, just a little trivial correction in number 9. CONservatories are for plants. OBservatories are for star gazing. BOTH places make for great date nights :) (I used to work at a conservatory and people get them confused all the time, so you’re not alone.)
My boyfriend and I like to make a list of things we want to do in a certain season. For example: 100 things to do this Summer, 15 things to do this Fall, etc. Its fun, and always gives us something to do!
^^^Love that list, btw! :)