Thursday, April 11, 2013

Cheap Dates and We've Got Cows!

 OK......so do you see what we got to see next?  INCOMING!!!!
 As in RUNNING COWS!!  It was hilarious.....we got to call the animals so Callie would tell us how to call them and sure enough here they would come.  FUN STUFF!!!  So today's pictures are brought to you by Parker's Porkers!!  And these pictures are of us feeding some cows.  It was fun to see their long tongues, and their manners and arguments about feeding time ;).......
 As promised though.......here are loads of ideas for cheap dates (or possibly some of them just cheap gatherings for friends or family). 

1)  Watch the sunset or sunrise.  Preferably from your front or back porch, or you can venture out and find a great park like area, or if you live in town drive out a ways :).  If you are really fortunate find a beach or a mountain view!!!

2)  Free museum- there are plenty of museums that have "free days" or "cheap days".  So go online and check it out! 

3)  Parks are awesome places to go hang out for a little while- less noisy and long walks are awesome!

4)  Scavenger hunt- so if you are able to set up something really fun this is awesome.  You can be creative and have it be the items to a picnic, or even leading to what you will do for the rest of your date. 

5)  Water fight.  Never underestimate the fun of a water fight with water guns, water ballons, water ballon toss, or hey get out the hose.  I remember clearly when I was a little girl looking out my bedroom window with my brother to see my parents having a water fight- and we were cheering them on.  One had just gotten the other with the hose- then they went to the house and the other had a bucket waiting to throw out at them.  FUN memories. 


6)  Geocashing!  We just started this last week and it was fun!  You can go online to find some near you- or get a free app for your phone.  What is it- depends on if they are micro or bigger.  If they are micro they are the size of a 35 mm film canister- you open them up once found you open it up get a pen and write your name or "code name" on the paper and put it back where you found it.  If they are bigger you leave a small "treasure" worth the same value as the one you found.  :)  It's free and kind of like hide and seek for adults or families! 

7)  Beach/lake/mountains/river- I think anywhere you can see water or mountains is AMAZING!!!! 

8)  Bike ride, walk, swim, or participate in a sport together.  Go to the local YMCA, local tennis courts, etc.  Whatever you enjoy together.  Throw around a frisbee, shoot some hoops, hacky sack.  (Of course checking out your local minor league baseball can be fun and usually not too expensive.)

9)  Plan time to write a love letter- you can plan to go somewhere casual to hang out......write your letters.  Go home and read them to each other by candlelight. 

10)  Go on a picnic- to a state park, beach, open area, or on your living room floor!
11)  House hunt for fun!  Look up some houses on Zillow, Remax, etc. and just go look, dream, or talk about things you would love to do with your own home.  (when you have the money of course ;). 

12)  Pass it forward- get some awesome ideas of how you can give to others creatively!!!   Find a place you can both serve together!!  Women's shelter, homeless shelter, pregnancy crisis center, feeding children everywhere (one of our favorites as a family), or any other place that needs volunteers. 

13)  Go work out together.  If you like to encourage each other this works great!

14)  Read a book together.....on marriage, on parenting, on faith, THE BIBLE!  :)  Talk about what you read and share your hearts.

15)  Go look at RV's together!  We have done this and it is fun to pretend to have enough money for the big houses on wheels.  :)
16)  Go to a local art show or festival. 

17)  Hiking!  We love hiking trails at a local state park, and getting to do it alone is nice too.

18)  Go back to some of your firsts in your community.  Like your first rental, your first home, where you went on a date, where you met, old places you worked, etc. 

19)  Go to the zoo or aquarium or a theme park.  There are days usually for zoo and aquarium that are usually either free or reduced prices as well.  If you can get year round theme park tickets and you happen to live close by- you are set!  Yes, we love living in Florida for this reason :). 

20)  Go window shopping.  We love sometimes to go to a cooking store, or a fancy knick knack store, or just walking around a mall. 


21)  Sledding- obviously this is not for us southerners, but we could go swimming - in a nearby lake or ocean :). 

22)  Do a fun photoshoot of each other.  Take some outfits out and have some fun thinking of different places that have some fun backgrounds.  Oh and don't forget fun props- chairs, favorite books, etc. 

23)  Cloud watching.

24)  Fly a kite! 

25)  With friends:  Charades, or progressive potluck! 

26)  Look up some new recipes and cook them up together. 

27)  Get out your kids' paints and do a painting. 

28)  Sketch a blueprint of your dream home!  Fun times and great ideas too......

29)  Plan a vacation together.  Look up things to do online and share some fun ideas.

30)  Teach each other a skill.  Cooking, fixing things, planting, a sport, etc. 
31)  Get out that unused video camera or take out your phone or regular camera and make a video.  Do a fun tour of your home, a fun skill, do a commercial for your life, or interview other people who have been married a long time.

32)  Make your bucket list.

33)  Go bowling, do a round of mini golf, see a movie, or eat out- now these all take money, but plan ahead and budget :).

34)  Make a time capsule and put it in the back of your closet or dig a hole and put in in your yard.

35)  Make a list of things you love about each other and read them to each other giving affirmations.

36)  Go to a thrift store or garage sale!  You can find fun stuff, or at least have fun finding unique items other people are selling.

37)  Look up your town or an area close by to see if you can find a "historic walk" that tells you about the buildings and landmarks.

38)  Make a 5 years from now, 10 years from now, 15 years from now plan of your future together!

39)  Make a gift together for someone else.  Make a dish to provide for a local family, craft a special card to write and send to someone you haven't seen in a while.

40)  Go for a walk....in the rain......   


 These are all things you can do at home- so put your kids to bed if you have them or send them off to grandma and grandpa's, or out to friends' homes for the evening!!  :)

41)  Look through old photos of when you first started dating, got married, had your first child, vacations, your childhoods....etc. 

42)  Build a fire (if you don't have a fireplace dig a small fire pit in your yard or go to a park with grills or fire pits) and roast some smores.  For people like us who used to be camp directors- make some pizzas, pb goo, pizza pies, chicken stew, or your other favorite camping recipes :).  Yummy.

43)  Take turns cooking for each other- either each others favorite foods, or desserts only, or new recipes- blindfold your spouse and see if they can guess what is in the food they are eating.

44)  Dace in your living room.....push aside furniture, turn down the lights, and put on some music from when you first met.

45)  Pop some popcorn, dim the lights, and get out the candy stash, light some candles, set up the living room for just the two of you right in front of your big screen tv and watch a rented movie, netflix, or find some really funny You tub videos.  Or watch a movie you know turn off the sound and either quote it by heart to each other or make up funny lines to go with it.

46)  Play that expensive Wii or playstation you gave to the kiddos for Christmas.  Just make sure your kids aren't watching - he he he he.....it's fun!!!

47)  Steal Borrow your kids toys and play- come on you know you love the nerf guns, or lego sets, or jam out to their Ipods.  
 So there you have it......a pretty extensive list of free or cheap fun!!!  Best of all when you are on a budget you can still feel like you can still have some fun!  Take turns coming up with something to do- and it's easy if you have a cheat sheet right here!

Please - if you have other great ideas- feel free to leave a comment and add to our list :)  Clean, fun, and great memory builders.

Hope your week is going great.....do you have a date night  this week planned yet?  ;)

2 comments:

  1. you've reminded me of some great-cheap ideas.....gonna get on that! our home school is about to close it up for the year so i was needing some ideas! thanks! ;)

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  2. I have to write some of these down! Thanks!

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