Looking for some fun and cost effective date night ideas? Well look no further! I happen to be an expertise in this field because we have 5 kids and no designated full time babysitter! We have had to get very creative over the years and utilize things we have at home to have a great date night. Now we do get out sometimes and when we do, we don’t know how to act! These ideas cost little or next to nothing. You don’t always have to shell out money to have fun! We do drink a lot together (Don’t judge me). However, I am including sober options as well!

 

• Netflix & Chill: The very obvious go to date night in is usually Netflix & Chill. We all know what that really means lol. Jazz up your Netflix and Chill by making it themed. For example, we watched The God Father, so we had spaghetti with garlic bread and an Italian ices for dessert.
• Game night: Play board games, card games, video games etc. Change the rules up! Make it fun! Have plenty of snacks on hand. We turned Battleship into a drinking game. It made for an interesting night and some laughs. There aren’t too many board games that are fun with just two people, but with some creativity you can change the rules and accommodate the two of you.
• Karaoke: You don’t need a karaoke machine. All you need is YouTube. Just go onto YouTube and search for it “karaoke songs”. Having some drinks also makes this activity interesting.
• Dance for each other: Yes girl! Bring out your inner stripper! If you are a guy reading this, think Magic Mike. Grab some Monopoly money and make it rain! Drinks usually help make this less awkward if you are shy. Dance like nobody is watching…even though they are but they love you; so even if you look like one of those inflatable people thingies with the flapping arms in front of the car dealerships it’s okay.
• Make Smores: If you have a fire pit even better! Smores are a yummy gooey fun treat to make. They also pair well with Bailey’s Irish Cream liquor 🙂
• Play Smash or Pass: Find pics of celebrities online for each other to rate
• Try new foods: Now this can be as extreme as you would like. I play it safe and just buy random fruits that are at the farmer’s market
• Play Iron Chef/Chopped: Pick random ingredients that you have in your kitchen or pantry and see who can make the best snack or dish with those ingredients.
• Put together a model car: Model cars can be purchased for pretty cheap. This is where you will see who is the real brains of the operation.
• Wine and beer tasting: Go to the store. Both of you pick out a beer or wine to try. We do this very often because we are into craft beers. It has given us something fun to do and we log what we have tried and if we liked it or not to keep track. Don’t play it safe! Try something outside of your norm.
• Don’t laugh challenge: Determine how many jokes you are going to use. Write them down or save them. These will need to be Popsicle jokes. Ya know the corny ass ones? Sit facing each other. Take turns rambling off the jokes. The other person doesn’t need to answer, however if they laugh they have to drink. If you aren’t into drinking then you can just play for points.
• Play Drunk Jenga: Purchase the game Jenga. Look up the rules for the drinking game Kings Cup. Take a sharpie and write on the Jenga pieces the different commands. Play Jenga as you normally would, but complete the commands on the blocks. If you knock the tower down you must finish your drink.
• Build a fort!: Yes I took it back to childhood with this one! Who doesn’t like building a good fort!? Also makes for a cozy place for sexy time 🙂
• Indoor picnic: This is usually my number one suggestion to my friends when they ask for date night ideas. You can make this themed as well! Finger foods only! Set everything up in the living room or the bedroom.
• I want you to draw me like one of your French girls: Draw portraits of each other. If you have the extra money, grab some small canvases and acrylic paint and brushes, have some wine and make art! If not, grab some paper, pencil or crayons and draw each other picture. You don’t have to do this Titanic style but if you are into that kinda stuff….
• Let him do your make up: Let your boo do your make up. You aren’t going anywhere anyway if it looks like total shxt. Be sure to take pics and have fun.

For date night, I like to make things kind of buffet style as far as food goes if we aren’t ordering pizza or some kind of take out. Some ideas for this is a taco bar, burger bar, salad bar, or a sushi bar. I also like to include junk food galore, and of-course as mentioned earlier and numerous times in this post, some booze.

Now one of the critical aspects of date night is to make sure your little people or cxck blockers as some people call them don’t ruin things by constantly interrupting etc. Now in my previous blog post The “lit” Marriage: Never stop dating, I mentioned date night doesn’t have to be a whole night and it can be something short and simple such as taking a shower or bath together, smoking a Cuban cigar together, or sharing a dessert together after dinner etc. Since I am a mama with 5 cubs, someone always needs something or is getting into something.It never fails. So date night 80% of the time is at night and starts at bedtime. On date night the kids go to bed early. Now on those rare occasions when date night is date day instead, then I make sure everyone is preoccupied and settled in. Everyone is fed beforehand or have snacks pre-sorted and accessible. I usually go for easy self serve stuff. Movies are your friend. Set things up like a mini theater for them in one room with some popcorn etc and let them have a mini movie marathon. If it is late, I usually let them sleep in one room and tell them they are going camping for the night and they love it! Since we have a baby who is only a couple months old in our crew, she basically hangs out nearby lol. If we are doing something that will be a little noisy like karaoke, dancing etc then upstairs she goes and the baby monitor is the third wheel. Luckily, she has a nice schedule and sleeps through the night.

In some cases your kiddos aren’t going to leave you alone. So when this happens, I give them a job and let them participate some kind of way so that they can feel included, and send them on their way. If you are eating, you can let them be the “waiters”. If they are older and insist on hanging out, simply explain to them that you love them very much and like spending time with them, but sometimes mommy and daddy like to spend time alone and that you will do something with them another time/day.

Personally, I prefer date night not to feel rushed so I pre-plan. First whenever we want to have date night we usually act as if we are still just boyfriend and girlfriend. We ask each other out. It just makes it feel a little more normal and it’s super cute.

 

If your spouse works, ask via text and def hype things up to build the excitement! Pics are always nice too 🙂

 

Even though a lot of our dates are at home, I usually make an effort to still look cute. If I am tired as hell, then he knows to expect me to be in my disheveled date night attire.  Try to make it feel like a “real” date. Approach it in this way and you won’t miss going out too bad and things will feel normal.