When Jared and I met we were in college. We got married too young when we were sophmores. We went to school together, graduated together, and started our first “real life” jobs together. We took out too many student loans together, spent a semester teaching English in Asia together, and bought our first home together. We’ve had times when we did have money, and more times when we didn’t have money.

Eight and a half years and three kids later.

We’ve had lots of up times and down times, but we’ve tried to always do it together. Not always easy. But one of the things we’ve found that helps keep us close is having a weekly date. Now that we have kids it’s harder, but with a little creativity, we’re making it work. We’ve never lived close enough to family to have a regular free babysitter, but we do occasionally swap with friends or hire someone we trust. Babysitting can be pricey though, so many times our “dates” are at home after we’ve put the kids in bed. In the spirit of upcoming Valentine’s Day/trying to save money, I was thinking about some of our past dates and thought I would share a few of our “dates on a dime” with you.

• Cereal at the stadium. When we were first dating Jared showed up at my door early one morning (actually this date started out kind of bad because I wasn’t appreciative of the wake-up call and that he was seeing me in my pjs, no make-up, etc.). He had a basket with cold cereal, bowls, and milk, and he took me to the top of the football stadium where we ate cereal and watched the sun rise and talked. Pretty much free, but super sweet and a lot of fun.
• The Valentine’s Day picnic. One year for Valentine’s Day I bought a heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy’s (but thinking about this again, it would have been easy to make) and we had a picnic on our living room floor.
•  The foot rubs. We bought some pedicure supplies–foot scrub, pumice stone, massage oil, etc. and gave each other foot rubs/pedicures while talking.
• Truth or Dare. You’re never too old . And it can be a lot of fun!!
• The Question Jar. One budget-conscious year for Christmas we typed up random conversation-starting questions–some funny, some serious–such as ”What is the least useful word in the world?” or “What is something you regret having done?” and gave them to our families. We pull the jar out occassionally and ask each other questions. It helps breakup the monotony and stress that sometimes comes with parenting and helps us get out of mommy and daddy mode, to connect as friends.

What creative/frugal dates have you done? Hook me up with ideas! I need to plan something for Valentine’s Day.

I’m linking this post to Frugal Friday @ lifeasmom.com