7 Ways to Still Date Your Spouse When Money is Tight – Just because money is tight doesn’t mean that you have to stop dating your spouse! These ideas will help you spend quality time without breaking the bank.
When we were trying to save money, the biggest thing that suffered was my marriage. My spender husband was miserable and angry. I was hellbent on not spending a dime outside of bills and putting the rest into savings.
Our marriage was hanging together by a thread and we both felt the stress. Finally, we both realized that something needed to change.
We discovered that there were still ways that we could enjoy time together without blowing our budget or even spending any money. There are, in fact, ways to still date your spouse when money is tight.
7 Ways to Still Date Your Spouse When Money is Tight
Netflix and Chill.
I mean… y’all… isn’t that what marriage is? Find a movie that just came to Netflix that you want to see. Binge watch a season of a TV show that you’ve been dying to catch up on.
Just crash on the couch. Banish phones to the other room and just hang out. Wait until the kids are in bed and just have a low-key date.
Pinterest recipe date
This is still one of my favorites! The deal is that you each find a recipe that you want to try and you cook it up. If it’s awful, then at least you can have a good laugh about it together!
Of course, make sure that the recipe is doable! Don’t go trying to make fois gras! This is about saving money while still making each other a priority. Keep the recipes to things on-hand if you can.
Again, waiting until the kids are in bed or doing this during naptime will make life much easier.
Here are some of my personal favorite recipes:
- Cheap and Easy Instant Pot Recipes
- DIY Starbucks Copycat Recipes
- 100+ Cheap and Easy 15-Minute Meal Ideas
- 32 Easy & Cheap Dinners From a Rotisserie Chicken
- 26 Paleo Crockpot Freezer Dinners
- 16 Slow Cooker Dinners
Do a babysitting swap.
Who else have kids? Great! Now, who else has friends with kids? Yup! Now… who do you think wants to get away from those beautiful balls of joy and energy every once in a while? Everyone!
Coordinate a babysitting swap with your friends. You can watch their kids for a few hours so that they can have some alone time for free, and in return, they will watch your kids for the same amount of time. This saves everyone a lot of money, plus you know that the kids get to have some fun as well!
You can do this with just one friend or you can get a bunch of you together to help out. Just make sure that everyone is respectful of the time and shares the responsibility of watching the kids!
Spend a lazy day together.
Yes, even if you have kids, you can stay in your PJs and have a lazy day. Even hanging out on the couch can be a way to still date your spouse when money is tight!
Take every opportunity that you can to make each other feel loved. Even if it’s just a lazy day on the couch while the kids watch some cartoons and you get to enjoy some hubby cuddles while sipping coffee.
You can do this with or without the kids awake. Or you can banish the kids to the playroom or the yard (no judgment here, y’all!).
Not sure what to talk about? I get that! Start with some of these date night questions to ask your hubby.
Hire a teenager who you trust to watch your kids.
True story: we didn’t EVER pay for someone to watch our kids until my oldest was 6. We either didn’t have the money or ever feel confident in someone.
Finally, we found our current sitter! She is an absolute Godsend! Plus, she’s 16 and so she watches all 3 of my sons (ages 6, 3 and 2) for $8/ hour. We go to church with her family and have known them for almost 6 years.
Trust me: we’ve tried to pay her more and she refuses. We trust her to watch our children and her family lives close in case of emergency.
I am in NO way advocating you to short change someone who watches your kids! But remember how exciting it was to get paid $25 to hang out with some kids watching TV for 3 hours when you were 16? I do! Don’t try to pay someone $2/hour to watch 5 kids or anything, but a teenager with no bills will ask much less than a 25-year-old with rent to pay!
Grab coffee.
Who says dates have to be over a $100-per-plate dinner? Some of my favorite dates have been trying out new coffee shops in our area. $5 goes a long way in a coffee shop, so there’s no need to destroy your budget to get a treat.
Coffee (or tea if coffee isn’t your thing) dates give you the freedom to only be out of the house for a half hour if that’s all you can afford for a babysitter. Spending some time in an environment that isn’t constantly pressuring you to buy expensive food or more money is really refreshing.
I don’t know about you, but I feel like a real jerk if I go to a restaurant and just ask for an iced tea and sit there with my husband for an hour talking and never getting food. Going out to eat is a lot of fun, sure. But this is more about spending quality time together.
Leave the phones in the middle of the table, face down, and just chit chat over coffee. Remember what it was like to date this person before life got tough. 🙂
Pro tip!: You could also make some delicious DIY Starbucks drinks at your own home if you’re on a tight budget!
Find something fun that’s on sale to do.
Groupon is one of my favorite places to find cool dates for less than $20. Most of their deals are things that my husband and I have said that were just too expensive for us. But when they have a sale on something, grabbing it is worth it.
You can do fun little things like mini golf for $2 or you can even catch a show at a local theater (or a bigger venue, too) for a tiny fraction of the price.
Sometimes, just being able to do something where there is no temptation for you to check your phones and to just enjoy being together is what really counts.
Remember what’s the most important thing here: spending time together… not money.
Check out these other ways to save money:
- How to Save Money When You Don’t Feel Like It
- Money Saving Hacks from an Extreme Cheapskate
- Never Pay Full Price at Restaurants
- How To Save Money When You Can’t Afford It
- Top 10 Things I Did to Pay Off Debt in 2 Years
- How to Save Money When You Live Paycheck-to-Paycheck
- How to Start a Budget the Easy Painless Way
- How to Talk With Your Husband About Money
- The Best Budget System When You Can’t Budget
- Budgeting Books You NEED to Read
- How We Lived Well on $17,000 as a Family of Four
- What Do You Do When You Get Behind on Bills
- Should you take a vacation when you are struggling with money
- How to Get Out of Credit Card Debt Fast
What do you do for a cheap date with your hubby?
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