Cozy, Economical Date Night Ideas for When You’re Both Tired

Ladies, let me know if this has ever happened with your date night plans.

You’re craving some alone time with your man, so you hint to him that you want a date night. After about the tenth time of hinting, he finally suggests that the two of you go out on a date. You praise him for his amazing thinking and agree to the idea.

When the night comes, you head out expecting some good quality time, but it doesn’t happen. Instead, he spends the entire time making sure everything works out. All talks revolve around the effort he put into planning the evening.

I’m sure most of us have been there, so how do we stop our night from being taken over by big spending and planning? The answer is to go on dates that require little, if any, of either one.

Here are some ideas that require hardly any, and can result in some great quality time.

Idea 1: Download and Try Apps

Phones can be a source of frustration when I have to compete with them for someone’s attention, especially my husband’s. While there are times that a frontal assault on these rectangular attention robbers is necessary, they can also be used for a fun time with someone you love.

I don’t know how long it’s been since you’ve looked at the app store, but there are literally hundreds of apps for anything you can imagine. There are apps that listen to a bird’s call and tell you what kind of bird it is. Another will let you look at a night sky and see the real-time location of constellations, planets, comets, and stars. Apps like these, and others, can be used to improve a date night.

All you have to do is tell your husband that you’ve downloaded a new app, and need him to spend some time helping you figure out how to use it. Depending on how many times you distract him by talking about other things, or asking him to show you how it works just one more time, these date nights can be quick or take hours. You decide.

Idea 2: Win Free Tickets

If I want to go to an event, but don’t want a whole lot of planning and expense to get in the way, a possible shortcut through the hassle is getting free tickets to an event. It seems like every time I turn on the radio or get on the internet, there’s always someone talking about free ticket giveaways for concerts or festivals.

While I would caution someone to make sure the event and manner of winning the tickets is legit, it can be fun getting tickets this way—everyone likes to win things. And yes, while there’s always a fair chance you won’t win, you can’t let setbacks and frustration stop you.

Instead, research different techniques people use and try to come up with your own. Once the tickets are yours, you have a guaranteed date night. No need to figure out what you’re going to do, when you’re going to do it, or for how long—that’s all taken care of. You only need to decide what you’re going to wear.

Idea 3: Stream the Planning Away

While we’ve had streaming services for some time, the other day I recently noticed a new feature: shuffle play. Based on shows I’ve watched in the past, my streaming service will pick one that I haven’t seen but would enjoy. While I find the notion ridiculous, it did give me an idea. Rather than my husband and I debating on what to watch, why not let the streaming service take a stab at it?

Doing this allows a few things to happen. As I just mentioned, there’s no time wasted on deciding what to watch, and no frustrations to vent when a decision can’t be reached. There is also no blame to go around if a show ends up being a dud.

We can just blame the feature and skip to the next show. This idea also allows us to find and watch shows that we otherwise may never have found. Not only that, but we’re both seeing the show for the first time, so there are no spoilers.

It can also start discussions about what we’ve previously watched and want to see in the future. This, in turn, can lead to more talks about why we like a certain show, genre, or actor. By the end of the night, it’s possible that we’ve spent more time talking than we have watching, which isn’t a bad thing.

While money and planning are usually a part of any date, they should never be the focus of the night. Sometimes it’s nice to take a step away from the bigger and flashier celebrations to focus on each other.

After all, dating should be about making memories and reinforcing the love and interests that brought you together. Using low-cost and minimal planning ideas are great for putting those important elements at the forefront of your next date night!

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