10 Stay at Home Date Night Ideas

Date Night has become a household term in recent years and many couples strive to make this quality time together a priority in our increasingly fast paced lives. Throw some kids into the mix (or in our case a granddaughter), and it’s even harder to carve out quality couple time. Not to worry because finance guru Dave Ramsey has come to our rescue with not only a whole host of date night ideas, but most of them are budget friendly. We’d like to highlight 10 of Dave’s Stay at Home Date Night ideas!

Cook a special or fancy dinner together – This one involves several stages where you can plan a meal together, go shopping for your special ingredients, prepare the meal together, enjoy eating it, and work together on clean up. When it’s all for this “special occasion” it changes from being a chore to an adventure.

Eat takeout by candlelight – Don’t want to go through all of the work listed above but still want some quality time together? Pick up your favorite take out and enjoy it over candlelight. For added convenience we have even had our food delivered. Best part – no dishes!

Have a picnic on the floor or in your room – Changing locations from your kitchen table not only changes physical perspective, but mental and emotional perspective as well. Consider telling your children that you will be eating dinner and watching a movie in your room and they are not to bother you for the next two hours unless someone is bleeding or there is a fire! Depending on their ages, they can have their own pizza night making it fun for them too.

Make drinks and sip them on your patio – Not only are drinks super expensive at bars and lounges, you can’t always get them exactly the way you want them. This option ensures you get what you want and on a budget you can afford.

Stargaze from the backyard – Find the Big Dipper and other constellations, catch a falling star and put it in your pocket!

Play board games, do a crossword or jigsaw puzzle - Winner gets out of doing the dishes!

Get dessert to stay (or go) from your favorite restaurant – Save a bundle by skipping the expensive dinner and going straight to the best part right away!

Use Redbox, Netflix, Amazon Prime for a movie night at home – Looking through your choices together and settling on a title is good practice for resolving conflict at other times.

Take a trip down memory lane - Get out old photos or family home movies, and spend some time reminiscing. We’ve had a grand time doing this and retelling old stories that we sometimes remember differently! An alternative is to play some music you haven’t listened to in a while and maybe even do some dancing.

Make milkshakes, floats or fancy ice cream sundaes at home – Pick out the flavors together, make an assembly line, and have some fun creating your dessert masterpiece. Then sit and enjoy it over some quality conversation.

If you have some of your own stay at home date night ideas, we’d love for you to share them with us by leaving a comment below.

Comments

Great Sex!

Sex between a married couple is not only good, it’s very good. If you read the research and surveys, you will find that married couples experience better and more frequent sex than non-married couples. Married couples are healthier, happier, and live longer. When we went on a WorldWide Marriage Encounter weekend, we were more than a little surprised when a priest told us that our love-making is good, is important for us, and is important to the world. He encouraged us to “make mad passionate love!”
So, why has married sex become something else? Society and media portray sex for married couples as dull and lifeless, a tool used to manipulate, something to joke about, and something that - beyond the newlywed phase- gradually drifts away. We’ve been sold this bill of goods, and we often buy into it! What we really crave in our sex life is to give and receive something powerful- to experience the depths of our passion and love for each other, to be as intimate as possible. Our freq…

Advice From a Divorce Lawyer

Yes, this is a strange twist. We recently heard about James J Sexton's book, "If You're in My Office, It's Already Too Late." James is a divorce attorney from New York, who started noticing some patterns after 20 years of working with couples whose marriages were ending.

Marriage Manners Matter

"Fine!" and "Whatever!" These 2 powerful words have the incredible potential to bring nearly any discussion to a screeching halt. They send the insensitive message of "I don't care. Discussion over. Period. Full stop!" As married couples, we have probably used these or similar words. And, if we have raised children we have probably employed time out, taken the car keys or other forms of discipline.

Those 2 little words are not the focus of this blog.

Tone of Voice

Something that we’ve become increasingly aware of in our marriage is how our tone of voice so significantly affects our communication – for better or for worse! It is remarkable how something so seemingly small can make such a huge impact on whether our communication is healthy, productive, and enriching or debilitating, disheartening, and provocative. Believe it or not, tone of voice is huge. WE would go as far as to say tone of voice is at the root of most of the small hurts we experience in our relationship.
Perhaps it would be easier to make our case using an example. Recently, we were trying to get out of the house to go to church and be on time. I (Stephanie) have to admit I am typically the one who is running behind trying to get one last thing put away or rushing because I did not plan my time well. Paul will often playfully turn the hall light on and off letting me know he is by the door ready and waiting. Usually I will laugh it off and tell him I am coming. This particular…

Sex on Days Ending in 'Y'

Lovemaking is one of the most important aspects of a healthy marriage. Yet there are so many impediments and inhibitions to making love once those wonderful Honeymoon years are over.

The Couples Post

Search This Blog