Hey guys! Our names are Lena and Bassam and we blog over at Happily Ever Adventures. We absolutely love following Katherine and Brandon and are honored to be guest posting for them today. Like K + B, our blog also focuses heavily on travel and relationships. We started our blog after a rough first year of marriage, as a way to inspire ourselves and others to find adventure in everyday life. That adventure can take different forms, sometimes it’s as simple as trying a new recipe for dinner and other times it’s as grand as a romantic trip to France. This past year, we tried to prioritize our health by tackling a wellness challenge together each month. Always ones to overshare, we don’t hesitate to show life’s real moments on our Instagram Stories and our blog. We know life can be tough, but we still believe every single day can be a beautiful adventure.
Today we’re excited to share with you 10 romantic date ideas under $20. We hope you’ll find some fun ideas here! Once you’re done reading ours, check out K + B’s 10 ideas they shared over on our blog!
10 Romantic Date Ideas Under $20
1. Wine And Paint Night
Wine and Paint nights are a really fun and romantic date idea, but it’s often expensive! Make this budget friendly by recreating the date at home. Buy some inexpensive canvases, paints, and a bottle of wine. Look up painting tutorials on YouTube and voila, budget friendly Wine and Paint Night!
2. Quarter Ride
Grab a quarter and let it dictate where you’ll end up. Get in the car (or walk or bike) and at every possible turn, flip the quarter. Heads you turn left, tails you turn right. Do this for 30 minutes. At the end of the 30 minute mark, see where you end up and figure out something to do in that location for $20. This might mean you need to get creative! For example, if you end up in a residential neighborhood, maybe your date ends up being something like going to the nearest drug store, buying a ball, and playing made up ball games. Getting creative like this can force you to have some really novel, fun, and goofy dates!
3. Farm To Table For Two
Every Saturday morning we visit our local farmers market to buy our groceries for the week. We come home after and make poached eggs on avocado toast with our farm fresh ingredients. It’s absolutely delicious and costs us under $3 a plate to make a gourmet breakfast that would be at least $12 out at a restaurant. It’s a date we look forward to every week that’s also healthy and light on our wallets. You can recreate this date by coming up with your own meal to make a weekly tradition OR buy something new that you’ve never seen before and figure out something to do with it. {Further Reading: Tips For Shopping The Farmers Market}
4. Beach Picnic
Pack up a picnic basket full of goodies and take it to your local beach for a romantic budget friendly date. We love this date idea even in the winter, actually maybe even more in the winter. It’s won’t be very crowded, so you’ll have the beach to yourself. Take some warm blankets to snuggle under and enjoy a few hours hanging out and watching the waves. Bonus points if your beach allows bonfires!
5. At Home Hotel
Staying at a hotel is such a luxe romantic date idea, but you can recreate it on budget. Instead of going out to a fancy hotel, bring the fancy hotel home to you! Turn your own bedroom into a “luxury hotel room” by setting up a basket of sample size toiletries (most department and beauty stores will offer these complimentary), lighting some candles and playing soft music, and placing chocolate covered strawberries (homemade are very cost effective!) and an inexpensive bottle of sparkling wine by the bed (Trader Joe’s has great options!) Spend the night watching “pay per view” (cough, Netflix, cough) and eating room service (ahem takeout) in bed. {Further Reading: 25 At Home Date Night Ideas}
6. Arcade Marathon
One of our favorite budget friendly dates is to exchange $5 into quarters and spend hours having a Pacman marathon! It reminds us of our college days and the friendly competition is always fun. Hit up your local arcade and play all your favorite old games. Skeeball and air hockey are fantastic games for an arcade date! You’ll have money left over to go share an ice cream sundae afterwards.
7. Exercise Your Green Thumbs
Visit your local nursery and select a plant together. Maybe you’ll pick a fruit tree or maybe a rose bush. Ask the nursery for tips on planting and then come home and plant it. It’s so much fun to take on projects together and this is the date that will keep on giving. You’ll be so excited to watch your plant grow and eventually be able to eat from it or pick the flowers.
8. $10 Challenge
How far can you go with $10? Challenge yourselves to find out! Each person gets $10 and a prompt. See who can make that money stretch the farthest and get the most creative. For example, you could go to a thrift store and challenge each other to see who can come up with the best gift idea for the other person with the money. You could also have the prompt be who can come up with the best $10 date idea.
9. Pay It Forward
Why not turn your date night into an opportunity to do something good? Hit up your local coffee house, purchase a few of your favorite coffee drinks, and walk around town passing them out to people. Seeing a big smile on people’s faces will make you feel great and give you nice warm and fuzzy feelings. You could also go volunteer for a cause that means something to both of you.
10. Give To Your Piggy Bank
Instead of spending the $20, consider saving it. If you save $20 each week, you’ll have $1040 at the end of the year to do something amazing with- maybe even take a trip! Stay home or go to your local library and spend some time planning what kind of trip you’ll take with the money you’ve saved. It’ll feel great to work towards a goal together and you’ll get to share a great trip together next year! {Further Reading: How We Plan Our Travels}
Thanks for reading! Want more date ideas? Check out K + B’s 10 romantic date ideas under $10 they shared on our blog. We also have: rainy day date ideas, at home date ideas, fall date ideas, and more!