Date Night Basics

One thing I get asked more often than I thought I would now that I'm married is, "What do you do for date night?" It's not that John and I are really great at planning date night, it's just that sooo many couples are looking for something new and fun to do together on their dates.

Although some people are fine doing the same thing every week, others are constantly searching for ideas of what to do. This got me thinking about how John and I do date night and the things I've found that work for us.

Ground Rules

First off, set the ground rules. I'm talking budget. How much are you willing to spend each week or month on your date?

When John and I were first married, we set our date night budget at $15... Mostly because that was the price for two meals from Costa Vida at the time. Haha!

Although to some people, this might sound like a low budget for a night out, we agreed that if we wanted to spend more on a particular date night, we would save the money from a different date night and let it rollover to the next one. For example, we wanted to visit the aquarium, but it was out of the budget. So, we planned a few free or cheap activities and used the money we saved to have a more expensive date night later that month.

Another basic we had to decide on was who plans the date nights. We decided it would work out better to trade off who is in charge of date night. So, we trade off every other week. This works best for us, although some couples might still want to plan it together and that's fine.

One main reason we trade off is because it sets full responsibility on one person. Before we did this, some date nights would turn into an hour of driving around and being so indecisive that we would get frustrated and go home... We had such a hard time deciding together that it would take forever to figure out what to do and we would start to run out of options. Now, we don't have to go back and forth trying to decide because someone is in charge. It is literally their job to decide.

Planning

Once the ground rules are set, plan the basics of date night. I consider the "planning" as having 4 basic steps.

1. Set the date and time. 

Actually write it in on your calendar or schedule it on your phone! I think a lot of couples would actually have date night if they wrote it down and made it like an appointment. It makes you more committed and forces you to actually make time for your date night.

2. Decide how to spend the budget. 

If you choose to spend all the money on dinner, plan an activity that's free. If you plan to spend the money on the activity, make dinner at home or eat leftovers.

You can also do a mix of both. One example of this would be a past date night we've had. We used a coupon to buy a cheap meal and then used the extra money to buy some Dollar Store kites. We then ate dinner at the park while flying our kites. Simple, but fun and definitely within the budget!

3. If you have kids, decide on daycare. 

You can either bring them with you, get a babysitter, or do a "late night date night" where you do the activity (something you can do at home) after the kids are asleep. We've done all three of these at some point.

4. Plan your date night based on the above three decisions. 

Although making those decisions won't automatically plan your activity for you, they definitely help steer you in the right direction.

Now that all of that is done, follow through and enjoy date night!