What’s Inside: 52 free or cheap date ideas — one for every week of the year! Sponsored by Subway.
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 52 activities on our list — one 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!
52 Free or Cheap Date Ideas
There’s one for every week of the year! See full list below image.
What can couples do for free?
Believe it or not, most of the date night ideas on our list don’t cost a thing!
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.
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!
- 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 hills and get some awesome exercise.
- Enjoy a bicycle ride.
- Go fishing — Or pick up some inexpensive fish food and feed the fish instead!
- Practice yoga — There are tons of free videos online!
- Volunteer — Dedicate your date to a good cause!
- Find a free movie night — Shopping malls, local parks, museums, and more all offer movie nights and other fun events on the regular.
- Head to the“drive-in” movies without leaving your driveway — If you don’t own a projector, try this clever trick to turn your phone into 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.
- 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.
- Trade massages — Make it even more special by setting up a room in the house like a spa with candles and relaxing music.
- Re-decorate (or re-arrange) a room in your house.
- 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 kids photos is guaranteed to make you smile!
- 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).
- Re-watch an entire season of your favorite TV show.
- Watch planes take off at the airport.
- 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!)
- 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.
- Have a video game showdown — Dust off your old consoles and bring out the classics!
- Learn a new card game — and then play!
- Play 20 questions — Grow even closer and find out things your never knew about your partner!
What to do 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!
10 Best Inexpensive 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!
- 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.
- Go garage sale hopping — Pick a weekend morning, plan a route, and start bargain hunting! Bonus points for the most off-the-wall find!
- 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.
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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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Subway. The opinions and text are all mine.
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