Dating on a budget can be a challenge, but if you’re focusing on spending quality time with your partner, you can’t beat a cozy night in together. Nights in can be a great date night, but don’t just sit on the sofa and ignore each other in favor of scrolling on your phone. Instead, try out some of these fun ideas for a date night at home.
- Cook together. If you’re both foodies and would usually spend date night at a restaurant, have a food themed date at home. Get out the recipe books and choose a new recipe to try out together. Whether you try and recreate your favorite restaurant dish, or take on a three course dinner, cooking together can be a lot of fun. As an added bonus, you can eat it afterwards too!
- Have a video game marathon. Are you both gamers? Get out the controllers and have a game night. Whether you compete on a two player racing game on the XBox, or play co-op on a game for Steam for Mac, a game night can be a fun way to spend time together.
- Create your own cinema. If you both love seeing the latest movies, you can create your own cinema at home. Close the curtains, turn off the lights and create a cosy nest of blankets on the sofa. Buy your favourite movie snacks, like candy or popcorn, and put a DVD of your favourite movie on.
- Have a board game evening. Board games are a great, classic activity. Share your old favourites from childhood, like Monopoly or Clue, or buy a new tabletop game that you can play over several nights, like Risk. Buy some snacks and drinks to fuel your game. Loser does the washing up!
- Mix some drinks. If you have a well-stocked drinks cabinet, take advantage of it and have a go at recreating your favourite drinks. Shaking cocktails can be a fun activity, even if you’re not very good at it. You can enjoy the results sitting on the sofa together, or take them outside in the summer and enjoy drinks on the patio.
- Have a music night. If you have quite different music taste, use this as a way to share some favourites. Each pick a song in different categories, such as your favourite ever song, a song that makes you think of being a teenager, or a song you listened to a lot when you were first dating. Sharing these songs can be a great way to share some memories together too.
- Have a tasting night. Choose something you both like, whether that’s wine, cheese or chocolate and buy a few different options. Lay out all your choices in a ‘tasting station’ and try and compare all the options. Make tasting notes and choose your favourites.
- Have a themed night. Choose a theme, like a country or a year and build a night around it. For example, if you chose Italy, you could order or make a pizza, buy a bottle of Italian wine, and watch a movie set in Italy.
