10 Creative (and Affordable) Valentine’s Date Ideas

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner! If that sentence stresses you out because you have no idea what you and your spouse should do to celebrate this special holiday, don’t worry, because I’ve (hopefully) got you covered with ten fun date night ideas!

If you’ve spent several years with your special someone, it can get difficult to think of something out-of-the-ordinary to do for a date night--especially if you're on a tight budget like I am. Therefore, I tried to put together ideas that are not only fun and creative, but also easy on your bank account and great for Valentine's Day (or any day of the year).

Check out list the below--you might just find your new favorite way to spend time with your love!

Candlelight Living Room Picnic

This is a fun and romantic way to make a night at home much more interesting! Just spread out a blanket in your living room, create a cozy atmosphere with candles and maybe a fireplace (if you have one), and eat the dinner of your choice with your best friend!

Game Night

If you and your spouse like to play card or board games, pick out a few of your favorites and go head-to-head in a game tournament! You can even come up with a prize for the winner of the most games to receive at the end.

Cook a Fancy Dinner Together

I don’t know about you, but most nights I like dinner to be quick, easy, and low on mess. But sometimes it’s fun to go all out and make something extra special! For our first married Valentine’s Day, my husband and I couldn’t afford to go eat at an expensive restaurant, so I made us garlic rosemary steaks, roasted potato stacks, sauteed zucchini and carrots, and homemade cinnamon roll apple pie, and a created a cozy, romantic atmosphere for us right at home. I’ve discovered since then that it’s even more fun to make special meals with your spouse. So skip the expensive restaurant and choose something to cook together! You can go with the steak dinner option, or even try your hand at something like made-from-scratch pizza or homemade pasta. Be adventurous! It may be a lot of work and make a huge mess, but you’ll have fun with the one you love in the process.

Dessert-Making Contest

If you’d rather go simple with dinner but all-out for dessert, you can have a dessert-making contest! Either each pick out a recipe to make for the other, OR, if you want to make things more challenging, pick out ingredients for the other person to create a dessert with.

Fondue Night

I’ve always wanted to try out a fondue restaurant--it just sounds so fun! These places tend to be pretty pricey though, so a money-saving option is to create your own fondue spread at home. Find a delicious cheese fondue recipe online, pick out your ingredients for dipping, and enjoy! For dessert, you can do a chocolate fondue with melted chocolate, strawberries, marshmallows, pretzels, etc.!

Heads-or-Tails Drive and Picnic

When I heard of this idea, it sounded so fun, and I decided my husband and I need to try this sometime soon! What you do is pack a picnic (or get food to-go, if you’d rather) and then go on an adventure to find your eating spot by tossing a coin at each intersection and turning right for heads or left for tails. This sounds like it could make for lots of laughs!

Recreate Your First Date

Now, this can be expensive depending on how fancy your first date was, but this is such a sweet and romantic idea! My husband and I actually had two first dates and both would be easy to recreate. Our first real date after he asked me to be his girlfriend was at the mall--we walked around holding hands and ate Chinese food in the food court. But neither of us had driver's licenses when we started dating LOL, so when Austin got his license two months later and could drive us somewhere by ourselves, we ate dinner at Red Lobster and then sat in the car in the parking lot forever, listening to music and talking.

Go Thrift Shopping

One of my favorite things to do is go to thrift and antique shops. There’s no telling what sort of treasures you will find, all for great deals! If your husband is like mine and doesn’t mind, or even enjoys, tagging along on shopping trips, why not visit your local thrift and antique stores together--you can even give each a certain amount of spending money that you have to use to find a gift for each other.

Go See a Play at Your Local Theater

One of our favorite things to do together is to go see a play, both at the performing arts center in Downtown Houston near where we live, and our local amateur theater. Tickets to our local theater average at $15 a person, which makes this is a really fun but affordable option for date night!

Ice Skating (or Roller Skating)

Something my husband and I have recently discovered we enjoy doing together is ice skating. He actually played hockey for years as a kid, so he’s an excellent skater--me… not so much, but it sure is fun! Check to see if your area has an ice rink (or roller rink, if you’d rather) and odds are you can get admission pretty cheaply. This is such a fun activity, plus it’s really great exercise!

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash