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Things to Do for a Date Night That Don’t Require Money

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As Valentine’s Day has long been prized as a consumer holiday in the United States, it can put pressure on couples to spend money – even if it’s money they don’t have. But Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be about expensive dinners, flowers and chocolates. Photo Credit: Rebecca D. Dillon, author of Soap Deli News Blog It seems like so many things have changed now that technology has replaced books and libraries, land line phone conservations, and play time has become indoor video game time – even television has replaced family time. Additionally, as a society, many of us have become so focused on consumerism we have lost sight of the important things – those little things we had and did together before technology made everything immediate and easy. Lots of people don’t seem to appreciate the simple everyday, mundane things the way our parents and grandparents did. We have forgotten how to appreciate life for the gift it is and don’t feel fulfilled unless we own more than we can actually afford. This lifestyle of easy credit, technological advances and living beyond our means has become the norm. And now that we are in a recession people are feeling their pockets pinched or have lost their jobs and are struggling to continue living beyond their means. Knowing so many people are still out of work despite continuing look, the families that are working or on a fixed income but still struggling, and even those of us who have all we need and even the things we want, but want to remember what’s really important in life and get back to basics – to the way things were before the noise of telephones, computers, video games, and television. I wanted to find ideas for couple date nights that really truly didn’t require any money at all and at the same time didn’t leave anyone feeling slighted because they don’t own a tv, a computer, or even a car. So I posed the following question to friends and family through my social networks. “What date night ideas do you have for couples who have only the basics and no room for a budget budge? I want to hear your date night ideas for a couple that does not own a working television or computer, cannot do outdoor activities due to bad winter weather, cannot drive anywhere as either gas is too expensive or they don’t own a car, do not own board games and have no money to buy them – not even a deck of cards. Money is also out for grocery trips and alcohol. What are your ideas?” Some of the responses I got were as follows: Photo credit: Lime Lane Photography Read a book to one another – either one on hand or borrowed from the library. Assuming you own a deck of cards, play strip poker.  Listen to music – like the “golden oldies” of your childhood and dancing. A dinner of beans and rice, Hollywood music, dancing under the moonlight and a candlelit massage. From my sixteen year old son – writing or drawing your feelings for one another or – and this shows you how awesomely geeky my son is – write a computer program that does the same. Sex. (You had to know that one was coming.) Asking one another more intimate questions about their lives. Make your own board games or a deck of cards with paper, pen and everyday objects. Play charades or Pictionary with pen and paper. The person who loses makes the winner and him or herself dessert. Painting. (No paints? Is there something in the house – like paprika – that can be added to water to create a pigment? Plan a dream vacation together – even if it’s not an option in the near future. Camp out in the living room with a tent – either real or one made from furniture and sheets. Light candles, make smore’s or whatever is on hand, and tell ghost stories. If musically gifted, craft a song together. Have an indoor picnic with sandwiches and cocoa and discuss creative ideas. Invite over other couples and have a mystery murder night where you organize a cluesque play. These are fun and you can do them in any time period for little or no more as they are more about imagination and intrigue with your closest friends. A reader would hold hers in the Victorian period. Work on a diy project together. Give a spaghetti dinner an Italian theme and play Sinatra or Dean Martin and cook a spaghetti dinner together. Decorate the kitchen or dining room like an Italian Bistro. Think bath tubs and massages and let your imagination run wild. Take a bunch of old photos out of storage – whether digital or hard copy – and make a memory scrapbook of your time together. Remembering better times and even leaner times can help acknowledge strong bonds and overcoming challenges together. And of course I have been brainstorming for ideas of my own. When I was trying to come up with ideas I went back to the things I did as a child for ideas. I could take nothing and turn it into a happy world of fantasy and play. I remember digging up dirt and mud in the yard and mixing it together with grass to make pinch pots that I dried in the sun. Then I’d serve dinner with large leaf weeds as salad and the seed tops of plants as beans. I also made grass dolls. I would draw out foods on paper along with dishes and silverware. Then I’d create menus that I gave to my family and would serve them dinner in the hallway on the floor where I’d created my restaurant.  I took newspaper and masking tape and aluminum foil and made a mermaid’s fin to fit myself – it was the 80s and Splash was huge! – and then wore my bikini with my […]

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