56 Free or Cheap Date Ideas
You’ll never run out of things to do with your honey when you bookmark our list of fun, free, and cheap date ideas! There’s one for every week of the year!
Sometimes Cheap Date Night Ideas Are the Best!
Isn’t it funny how the simple moments are the ones we often remember the most fondly?
My husband and I went on a spontaneous lunch date this week. Our oldest daughter was at school and our youngest daughter was running errands with Grandma.
With a couple hours of free time (and rumbling tummies) we popped in to our local Subway to grab an Italian Hero sub, because we heard it was back and it’s one of our favorites.
My husband and I had an amazing time — just hanging out, sharing a sandwich, and catching up.
It’s amazing how we sometimes forget to actually talk throughout our busy days and sitting down for lunch gave us the opportunity we didn’t even know we needed!
A simple, inexpensive lunch date — but it was one of the best dates we’ve had in a while!
It got me thinking, why not put together a list full of simple, affordable date ideas? There are 56 activities on our list — at least one idea for every week of the year — ranging from relaxing to silly to calorie-burning.
So grab your honey and have some fun — without breaking the bank!
What Can Couples Do For Free?
Believe it or not, most of the date night ideas on our list don’t cost a thing! You don’t need a lot of money to make memories or even cross off things on your bucket list.
We’ve got plenty of free date night ideas to get you started, but I’ll bet you can come up with some on your own too! Think of activities that get you active, or exploring your community. Check the schedules at your local museums, zoos, etc. for free or discounted days. Look for clubs to join or neighborhood groups.
There is lots of fun to be had getting to know each other and your hometown better! You might even get a good workout in with some of these fun cheap date ideas!
42 Totally Free Date Ideas
- Go kite flying (Make your own kite with this DIY kite tutorial)
- Take a drive — Pop in some tunes and hit the road with your sweetie! You could even test-drive your dream car together!
- Go for an evening stroll — There’s just something so romantic about holding hands and walking together as the sun sets!
- Take a hike — Hit the trails and get some awesome exercise and fresh air.
- Enjoy a bike ride. If you don’t have bikes, many big cities have ones that the public can rent for a low cost. They often have scooters as an option too!
- Go fishing — Or pick up some inexpensive fish food and feed the fish or feed ducks instead! Make sure that your local park pond allows fishing first.
- Practice yoga — There are tons of free videos online or on YouTube with yoga routines or other workout ideas, such as dance class. My husband and I started taking hot yoga together and it became a weekly tradition that’s lasted for years!
- Volunteer — Dedicate your date to a good cause! Lend a hand at a soup kitchen, help out at the local animal shelter…there is never a shortage of places that could use new volunteers.
- Find a free movie night — Shopping malls, local parks, museums, and more all offer movie nights and other fun events on the regular. These are some of our favorite Valentine movies to watch together.
- Head to the“drive-in movie” without leaving your driveway — If you don’t own a projector, try this clever trick to turn your phone into one! You could also hook up your laptop to a mobile projector if you have one.
- Do your own carpool karaoke — Drive around and take turns picking songs for the other to sing. Optional: the passenger films the driver while they sing so you can watch and giggle together later.
- Find a free craft class at your local crafting store.
- Hold a cooking contest using the most random ingredients you can find in the fridge. The dish that tastes the best wins! However, everyone is a winner when you end up with a delicious meal! If you prefer sweets, you could bake cakes or compete to make the best ice cream sundae instead.
- Game Night — Get out your favorite childhood board game and have a friendly competition.
- Celebrate one of these 105 unique holidays.
- Go stargazing — Enjoy a meteor shower if it’s the season, or try to find constellations.
- Play extreme frisbee — Some of my favorite dates are the ones where you burn calories together!
- Play on a playground — I’ll admit I still love to swing sometimes!
- Take in a free concert at a local gallery or coffee shop. This is also a great way to support local music acts!
- Trade massages — Make it even more special by setting up a room in the house with candlelight and relaxing music.
- Re-decorate (or re-arrange) a room in your house. Or, you could set up a blanket fort and just be silly together!
- Paint each other’s portraits — Round up whatever art supplies you have on hand, whether it’s the kids’ markers or ballpoint pens and draw portraits of each other at the same time.
- Sleep under the stars — If the weather’s nice, hit the backyard and pitch a tent!
- Play truth or dare — This can be as innocent or as “grown-up” as you like!
- Break out the photo albums — It sounds corny, but flipping through your wedding album or old photos is guaranteed to make you smile! Take a trip down memory lane together!
- Play birdwatching bingo — Look up some of the local bird species in your area and make bingo cards for each of you. First one to fill a line on their card wins!
- Learn about your town’s history — Visit the historical district in your city and you’re sure to make some interesting finds!
- Watch the sunset — It’s probably the most romantic activity in the world.
- Grow something — Plant a garden, either in your backyard or indoors (like a potted herbs for the kitchen). TIP: Check out this list of gardening tips for beginners!
- Re-watch an entire season of your favorite TV show — Grab the snacks, candy, popcorn and binge a classic!
- Spa Night — Pamper your sweetie and enjoy some quality time with this easy home date.
- Visit the library — Check out a new book or learn something new at a free class (you’d be surprised what libraries have to offer!) Make your date night an ongoing tradition by joining the book club!
- Find a local festival — Our city has literally hundreds of festivals every year, many of them free. Yours likely has more than you’d think too!
- Challenge each other in a crossword contest — First to solve their puzzle gets bragging rights!
- Spend an evening in front of the fire — Get the fireplace roaring or build a bonfire in the backyard (safely of course!)
- Spend the day photographing interesting sights around your city.
- Scavenger hunt — Take turns creating one for each other and picking an exciting prize to put at the end of it.
- Play a photo guessing game — Take turns shooting extreme close-up shots of items around the house and guessing what they are.
- Watch the sun rise — Set your alarms (or stay up late…) and take in nature’s beauty. There’s something magical and dare I say, romantic, about a sunrise!
- Have a video game showdown — Dust off your old consoles and bring out the classics! This is one of our favorite things to do…we love to compete in Mario Kart races!
- Learn a new card game — and then play!
- Play 20 questions — Grow even closer and find out things your never knew about your partner!
How Do You Go On A Date When You’re Broke?
Perhaps you want to get out of the house, or you’ve already gone through all of our free date ideas — good news! There are quite a few things you can do together as a couple even on a tight budget!
And by tight budget, I mean like $10-20 tops!
Fancy dinners are nice, but it’s especially awesome to go on a date AND know that your bank account won’t be hurting the next day!
If you’re not in a relationship yet and are looking for first date ideas, these are perfect for that too. Honestly, it would be a little weird if a first date spent a TON of money when we didn’t even know each other!
That’s why I love first date ideas that are activities! Instead of staring at a stranger over coffee, you can get out and DO something. This is how you really get to know someone!
These are also wonderful bonding activities for established and married couples.
16 Best Cheap Date Ideas
- Share a footlong Italian Hero sandwich at Subway (seriously ya’ll — this is one awesome sandwich!)
- Go roller skating — Our town has a local rink a couple blocks from our house and it’s hours of fun for only a few bucks each! In winter, you could go ice skating!
- Picnic — Remember that Italian Hero I was talking about? It’s perfect picnic food too!
- Visit a farmer’s market — Grab some fresh produce or just take in the sights.
- Brewery tour — Whether or not you choose to imbibe, it’s fun to see how things are made! Most tours are cheap or even free. If beer isn’t your thing, go wine tasting instead!
- Go garage sale hopping — Pick a weekend morning, plan a route, and start bargain hunting! Bonus points for the most off-the-wall find! Even if you’re just window shopping, it’s still a lot of fun!
- Visit a flea market — These are never-ending sources of interesting sights!
- Learn a language — This is a date you can do over and over again! Look for a low cost language class in your area or you may even be able to find free videos online!
- Go thrifting — Hit a local thrift store and see who can find the funniest T-shirt hiding in the racks!
- Go fruit picking — Find a list of local farms that let you come pick produce here. Apple picking in the fall, berry picking in the spring…see what’s in season and enjoy some fresh fruit at the same time!
- Open mic night — If you’re feeling brave, hit your local comedy club and watch the show, or join in!
- Dive Bar — Who needs to dress up for date night? Wear your comfiest jeans and grab a cheap cocktail together!
- Visit the Zoo — Our city zoo has a free/discount day and other zoos might too!
- Outdoor Concert — This is another activity that could be cheap, or even free! Check your aquarium schedule too!
- Ride the Ferry — For the price of your ticket, you can take a little cruise together!
- Go to a Carnival — An amusement park might be pricey, but a local carnival can be budget friendly fun!
Do you have any go-to cheap date ideas that should be on the list? Share them in the comments below!
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Disclosure: This post was originally written as a part of a sponsored campaign for Subway. It has since been updated with current information and to remove expired links.
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