100+ Unique and Frugal Date Ideas
Here is a huge list of frugal and fun date ideas! There are ideas for at-home dates, date night out, and even dates you can go on with other couples. These date night ideas for staying home or going out will be some of your best memories, no matter what outfit you choose.
Frugal Date Ideas With Other Couples
One of our favorite things to do is go out with other couples! (We miss being able to do it more from our pre-kid days.) Here are some great frugal ideas for group date night!
Go on a Walmart scavenger hunt
Have a murder mystery night
Make and bury a time capsule
Play “Top Chef” with what is in the pantry
Have a game night with silly house rules
Race to complete Sudoku or crossword puzzles
Go to Barnes and Noble, choose five books or so each, and read the first couple of chapters at one of the tables. Afterwards, tell each other about them.
Play “Would You Rather” with free ideas from Google
Virtual double date with a couple that lives far from you – play charades via Skype, eat ice cream “with” them, or just catch up
Search your pockets for coins and play a claw game at the local store – compete to be the first one to win
Get a four-person tandem bike and head to the park
Play recess games, like Red Rover or four-square
Take turns blindfolding each other and guessing the flavors of jars of baby food by their scent and taste
“Favorites” dinner. Each couple is assigned a portion of dinner (appetizers, salad, dessert, etc.), and they bring their favorite. If you need recipe ideas, we’ve got a bunch on the blog!
White elephant gift exchange with a $3 gift limit
Give each couple posterboard and have them design their dream home
Find someone in your neighborhood that needs some type of service performed and do it for them
Hold a dance in your living room! It can be casual, formal, or themed (i/e: Western). Just play music you used to dance to when you were younger.
House sit or houseswap for a low-cost datecation
Read also: 5 Ways to Have a Biblical Marriage
Frugal Date Ideas for Going Out on Our Own
When Tiffany is feeling up to it, we love to go out and do things together! Here are some of our favorite ideas for inexpensive and frugal dates.
Read also: 4 Key Lessons From Health Issues in Marriage
Go to Goodwill or a similar thrift store, choose outfits for each other, and then go share an ice cream cone at McDonald’s wearing the outfits!
Clip coupons together on items you’ve never tried before. Then go purchase the items and make them together!
Find a park you have never been to and have a picnic.
Attend a dress rehearsal of a theater production or go to a school production. They are much cheaper than the full evening productions.
Go to local open houses of homes for sale
Go berry-picking
Leave notes on Post-Its in your favorite books at a book store
Play Walmart Bingo
Take care packages to the homeless
Dress in your fanciest clothes, give each other fake names, and go out to eat at a low-class restaurant
Find something on Groupon that is out of your comfort zone to try
Go to the airport and watch planes take off and land
“Gift Card” game – if you have gift cards that only have a dollar or two left on them, have a date night to use them all up! Need a way to stock up on gift cards? Check out these ideas!
See if your city has a suggested routes for bike rides
Fly a kite from the dollar store. Try to knock each other’s kite out of the sky.
Test drive your dream car
People watch at the mall; make up stories about their lives
Have a penny date: get a penny and go for a drive. At each stop, flip a penny to decide whether to turn left or right.
Play spotlight – go to some bush/forest area with torches. Let your eyes adjust to the light then look for animals. If you see one, flash a torch on it and it’s spotlighted.
Attend amateur mic night at your local comedy club.
Walk around the local university and reminisce about your school days (college, high school, etc.)
Start preparing to do a 5k together. If you don’t usually exercise, follow this couch to 5k plan.
Make dinner only with items from the local grocery store’s Manager’s Special section (aka, the clearance area)
Go fishing
Take a walk to someplace you’ve never been
Go to the nickel arcade (this is one of our favorites!)
Have a ghost hunt at your local cemetery
Give yourself a small budget and visit a candy store to try candies that you’ve never had before
Walk an antique store and find items you can look up to see if they are valuable
Go to your local home improvement store and plan your dream kitchen, bathroom, etc.
Find a field of wildflowers and make bouquets for each other
Read also: The Most Important Marriage Advice You Will Ever Hear
Frugal Date Ideas for Staying In
With Tiffany’s health being so inconsistent, sometimes date night needs to be at home. Here are some of our favorite ideas for a frugal date night when we have to stay in!
Sexy Jenga. Get a Jenga game and on about 1/3 of the “bricks” write different intimacy things to do (like french kiss, take off a piece of clothing, etc.). Then play the game and do what each brick says as you play!
Drive-in in the car. Get a portable DVD player (or use a laptop) to watch a movie on the dash of the car. Then sit in the back seat and enjoy some popcorn.
Play Twister
Play a game that can be easily played with two people. Here are some of our favorite games for married couples to play.
Turn all the lights off at home and play board games by candlelight in an area of the house you don’t usually play board/card games, like in the closet or under the kitchen table!
Get a game from Goodwill that you’ve never heard of before
Have a campout in the backyard (if you don’t have young children)
Build a fort in the living room
Have a Nerf gun war
Buy the biggest puzzle you can find at Goodwill and see how much you can get done in 1-2 hours
Watch YouTube video tutorials on massages, and practice what you learn
Take a bubble bath together
Sexy Chutes and Ladders – you’ll never play this game the same way again! Replace ever 3 squares with a sexy thing to do
Read a book together, taking turns reading chapters
Draw with sidewalk chalk
If you have an indoor pool table, basketball net, or similar game, then play “strip billiards/basketball/etc.”
Watch a TED talk on a topic you are both unfamiliar with
Let him give you a makeover – he will pick your clothes, style your hair, and do your makeup
Read the “missed connections” section of Craigslist – you may want some popcorn for this!
Write a short script and act it out. (We dare you to put it on YouTube!)
Try to do funny yoga poses
Do a lingerie fashion show (or even make it a photo shoot!)
Have an Easter egg hunt where the eggs are filled with different sexy ideas
Paint a portrait of each other with watercolors or finger paints
Rent movies that have the lowest ratings on Rotten Tomato
Make a scrapbook, either a physical one or a digital one on Shutterfly
Use Play-doh to make sculptures
Play sexy Deal or No Deal
Create envelopes for each month of the year and write love notes to each
Tell each other childhood memories and type them up for your children to read one day
Play truth or dare
Give each other pedicures
Listen to an audiobook while putting together a puzzle
Plan your dream vacation
“Heart attack” the doors to your kids’ bedrooms while they are sleeping. Cut out hearts, write things you love about the child, and tape them all over their door.
Put glow sticks in water bottles and go bowling in the dark
Teach each other something: if you can play guitar or do ballroom dance, show them how to do it.
Learn a foreign language together with a free program, like Duolingo
Take the 5 Love Languages Test and read the chapters on your love language
Scavenger hunt at the mall. True story: Tiffany hates scavenger hunts, and Phillip did one for their first Valentine’s day, ending up at a jewelry store to look at engagement rings. She broke up with him two days later.
Play carnival-type games from home (fish with magnets, ring toss, bean bag toss, etc.). You could even learn how to make a bean bag for a child or adult as part of it.
Attend local high school sports event
Look through your wedding album or watch your wedding video
Recreate your first date
Rearrange the furniture in your bedroom or another room in your home
Develop an at-home workout routine you can do together
Come up with a bucket list and a timeline of when you want to do them
Take $5-$10 to the dollar store and buy things to make a craft together
Plant a garden or house plants
“Rescue” plants on clearance at a local store and nurse them back to health
Watch Downton Abbey, Dr. Who, or another British show while having a tea party (or lemonade party)
Watch Bollywood movies while eating Indian food (either purchased or homemade)
Play “Two Truths and a Lie.” If you guess wrong, you have to put on an article of clothing. If you guess right, the other person has to take off an article of clothing
Write poetry or a rap together (or separately, and then perform for each other)
Read also: 5 Keys to Living Happily Ever After With Your Spouse
An earlier version of this post on frugal date ideas was written by Tiffany on The Crazy Shopping Cart
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I really love the idea of playing Top Chef! I’ve always thought it’d be fun to do that or recreate an episode of Chopped with my spouse. Also, the Goodwill tip – brilliant 🙂
These are so fun, not only are they frugal, but they also give you something unique to remember. Thanks for sharing.
Love these ideas! We try to have date night once a wee. We’re going to put some of your frugal date night ideas to work! Thanks for the ideas!
very good ideas. I’m definitely gonna try the Wal-Mart scavenger hunt.
Great suggestions. My wife and I have had many dates to Goodwill…LOL
Impressive list of suggestions!
When I lived in small town Tennessee, Walmart dates were the standard 1st date. We called it “Hitting Wally World”
This is such a great idea. My wife is always saying let’s do date night on the cheap and I never knew what that meant, dinner at White Castle?!
She said I was clueless…. so thanks!
Love the entry! So many great ideas! Thank you for that.
I love these ideas! My husband has been on 3rd shift for two years so finding time for a date night has been hard. We are constantly on the go with two teen boys and find ourselves passing by. We try to take advantage of the time we do get together and now we have some fun new ideas. Thank you!