	Bob Hostetler > Writing

52 Low-Cost (or No-Cost!) Date Nights for Husband and Wife

by Bob Hostetler

When my wife and I reveal to other couples that we’ve celebrated a weekly date night for twenty-seven years now, they often respond: “How can you afford it?”

I usually explain that being cheap and having a weekly date night don’t necessarily conflict. The keys are creativity, economy, and seasonality.

Get Creative

1. Go back in time. Return to the site of your first date. If you don’t live in the same area as you did way back then, recreate some of the most memorable parts of your first date.

2. Stroll through a museum, historical society display, arboretum, or zoo. Some are free. Most are low-cost. Some have free days or late afternoon specials.

3. Borrow a digital camera (if you don’t already have one), go to a mall, and take turns photographing each other just for fun (wearing different hats or sunglasses, for example, or mimicking famous poses, such as the sailor kissing the nurse on VE-Day or Rodin’s “The Thinker”).

4. Enjoy live theater--affordably--by attending a local high school, community college, or university performance. They’re not usually free, but many are reasonably entertaining...and inexpensive.

5. Rent (or borrow from the library) a movie that promises to be truly awful (as in a bad script, bad acting, or bad special effects) and make fun of it together. Or make it a contest to see who can choose the worst movie.

6. Go somewhere you’ve never been before. Everyone’s hometown or area has an interesting site or attraction most locals never take the trouble to see. So take the trouble and experience your area’s “main attraction.”

7. Experience “The Taste of Your Town.” Plan a trip to some of your area’s unique restaurants, but order only the least expensive (or free) item on each menu. For example, order the cheapest appetizer at your first stop, the cheapest salad at the next, and top it all off with a free spoonful of ice cream at the local ice cream parlor.

8. Buy a jigsaw puzzle together at your local thrift store, and assemble it together (stick to 500-piece (or fewer) puzzles; these can be done in one night).

9. Visit the foreign foods or exotic foods section of a large grocery store and find a meal neither of you have ever tried before; take it home, cook it, and eat it together.

10. Bake a batch of cookies together and take them out to friends or neighbors.

11. Begin a new hobby together. Like birdwatching, pottery, or photography. Or, if you want to keep it free, start a collection: matchbooks, rocks, shells, etc.

Get It for Free

12. Take in a free concert. Check with university music departments for student recitals (especially in Spring) or church calendars for concerts and cantatas.

13. Catch a deer in headlights. Drive to a secluded wildlife area, turn off your car engine and lights, and wait. When you see movement in front of the car, turn on your headlights and exchange amazed glances with Bambi and her kin.

14. Take a hometown tour. Many Chambers of Commerce have walking tours or tape-guided car tours. A university near our house has a walking tour of the many kinds of trees planted on campus!

15. People-watch. Go to a mall, park, or anywhere with crowds. Sip a drink, munch some popcorn, and watch the cinema of real life unfold before your eyes.

16. Find a free lecture or live music at a local bookstore. Many larger bookstores schedule regular jazz music or author appearances (usually on Fridays or Saturdays); share a cup of coffee or tea from the coffee bar, sit back, and enjoy.

17. Live like the other half. Visit the fanciest hotel in your area. Tour its public places. Enjoy the harpist in the lobby. Soak up the ambiance. Pretend you’re rich.

18. Take a “Magical Mystery Tour.” All you need is a car and a coin. Each time you come to an intersection, flip the coin. Heads, you turn right; tails, you turn left. See where you end up. See if you can find your way back.

19. Window shop. Agree on a “budget” of imaginary money and then “spend” it as wisely, foolishly, or creatively as you can.

20. Treat your partner to a stroll down memory lane. Light some candles, play some music, and browse through old photo albums together.

21. Take in a poetry reading. Art centers, bookstores, and universities often host free readings for the public.

22. Take a test drive. Always wanted to drive a big car? Convertible? Scooter? Take a test drive; they’re free. Don’t mislead the sales person to believe you expect to buy anything, but don’t let him twist your arm with high-pressure tactics, either.

23. Play Frisbee Golf together. Anyone can play; all you need are a couple Frisbees. Some parks and universities have Frisbee Golf courses. Or create your own course (there’s even a “Professional Disc Golf Association” at www.pdga.com!).

24. Go parking. Drive to a scenic overlook and enjoy the view from inside your car (in cold or rainy weather) or outside (in warmer weather). Take along some refreshments or some romantic music, and make a night of it.

25. Play your favorite childhood game(s) together. Like hide ‘n’ seek, Parcheesi, or hopscotch. Or Spin the Bottle. As you do, spend some time sharing playtime memories with each other.

26. Go to church. No, really. Seize an opportunity to go to a midweek or Saturday night service at a church you’ve never been to before.

27. Go to a large bookstore or library, claim a couple armchairs, and browse through books you would never buy. Or choose a theme for your browsing: children’s picture books, for example, or home improvement books.

28. Ride a bike. Even if you haven’t done so for years, it’s like riding a bike, right? If you don’t own any bikes, you can borrow or rent them. Some city and state parks will even rent tandem bikes.

29. Dance the night away. Check out a library book such as The Complete Book of Ballroom Dancing (Stephenson and Iaccarino), an accompanying CD, and learn to foxtrot, rumba, or waltz.

30. Get some auction action. Check your local newspaper’s Wednesday or Thursday edition for auctions in your area. You don’t have to buy--or even bid on--anything to have a great time together.

31. Swing and slide. Go to a playground and push each other on the swings. Walk barefoot in the sand. Slide down the slide. Exchange stories about your earliest or best childhood memories.

32. Have a “Question Night.” Each of you write down ten questions for your spouse, put them in a hat, mix them up, then draw out the questions and take time answering questions back and forth. Be careful what you ask, however; you might have to answer it yourself.

33. Go by the book. Sit beside a pond and read to each other from Thoreau’s Walden. Or lie on a blanket in a grassy field together and read selections from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. Or grab a loaf of bread and a jug of wine and read from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. You get the idea.

34. Watch a sunset together. Check your local newspaper for the time, and plan to take in the sunset from beginning to end.

Get with the Seasons

35. When the weather warms, go for a walk. We love to go to a nearby park or a university’s formal gardens to walk hand-in-hand.

36. Make a picnic lunch and take it to a park. Or get a little more creative: picnic in a public building’s atrium, for example, or in a mall food court.

37. Go fly a kite! Buy a simple kite (or better yet, make your own) and go to an open area on a windy day . . . and get high.

38. Row, row, row your boat. Go to a lake and launch out together. You might even take along a picnic lunch to eat in the boat.

39. Attend a local festival or community event. Our town hosts a dazzling display of ice sculptures every year. A nearby community has a classic car rally. Check with your Chamber of Commerce or visitors bureau for a list of events.

40. Cruise a farmer’s market or flea market. Remember: the goal is not to buy anything, but to spend time together.

41. Grab a bag of saltines or oyster crackers from your cupboard and take them to the lake to feed the ducks or to the beach for the sea gulls.

42. Catch a fireworks display. Take a cooler and lawn chairs along.

43. Spring or summer is a great time to enjoy a stroll through a cemetery. It may seem creepy, but some cemeteries are beautifully landscaped, and many old headstones bear fascinating inscriptions.

44. Enjoy a summer concert. Many communities host free summer concerts in a park or band shell. Check your newspaper, search the web, or call around for schedules.

45. Take in a game. Keep an eye out for the busiest and most competitive little league or softball diamonds, soccer fields, or hockey rink in your area. Then pack a couple chairs or cushions, pick a team to root for, and have a good time.

46. Get stars in your eyes. Borrow or rent a telescope (from a museum, nature center, or planetarium), spread a blanket, and gaze at the stars. Better yet, plan ahead to catch a meteor shower or lunar eclipse.

47. In late summer, find a farmer or gardener with a raspberry, strawberry, or bean patch. Pick a few pints, and make a pie or cobbler together. Or take the fruits of your labor to the elderly or shut-ins.

48. Go to your state or county fair. If you eat before you go and choose only free shows and attractions, all it will cost is the price of admission.

49. If you live where the seasons change, take a fall foliage drive, finishing somewhere you can sip warm apple cider together.

50. Build a snowman. Or a sand castle. Depending on where you live, of course.

51. Go sledding. If you live in areas where it snows in winter, rent, borrow, or buy sleds and, after you’re both good and cold, come in to a pot of hot chocolate. If you live in balmier climates, buy a fifty-pound block of ice and go sledding on a grassy hillside (really: it works!).

52. Drive to TinselTown. When our children were small, we would bundle them in the car in December and drive them to a hilltop overlooking “TinselTown” or “SantaLand,” which was merely the sparkling lights of the city. It can be just as fun without children. Or simply take a “Christmas lights tour.”

And these 52 ideas are only the beginning. Chances are, once you start working your way through the list, you’ll discover more low-cost or no-cost dates of your own! You’ll discover that being cheap and having a weekly date night are perfectly compatible. And, most importantly, you’ll discover more and more reasons to love the person you married.