broke Archives — Beating Broke

When my now husband and I first started dating, I was a graduate student, and he was an undergraduate. We were both broke, but we didn’t let that stop us. We spent nine months mostly going on free dates before we became engaged. If you’re short on cash, don’t let that interfere with your dating life. Instead, follow these creative dating tips when broke and go out and enjoy life. Who said dating has to be expensive?

Free Date Ideas

You may be under the misconception that dating is expensive, and it can be—if you let it. But there are still fabulous ways to spend time together that are free or cost very little and are fun.

Scenic Drive

Why not take a scenic drive and explore the area around you? This is my favorite activity when the leaves are changing in the fall, and the scenery is gorgeous. But a scenic drive can be fun no matter the season.

Free Performances

If you live near a college town, see if they have any free performances. Colleges frequently have free music concerts. Some towns also have free plays in the summer or free movie viewings outdoors in the park.

One of our regular summer dates was a music concert the college held every Wednesday night. We got to spend time together, listen to good music, and, best of all, not spend any money!

Trip to the Beach

You can hit the beach for some daytime relaxation and fun. Or for a more romantic date, try going to the beach an hour before sunset. There’s nothing better on a summer night than walking the beach, feeling the cool breeze, and watching the sunset.

Hike

Hiking can give you a chance to see how adventurous the other person is and to see how he or she handles difficult situations, if you take a more challenging trail. Or, you can opt to take an easier trail and just have fun seeing the scenery and spending time together in nature.

Geocaching

Take your sweetie on an adventure. Using GPS, find the nearby coordinates and the treasure that someone else has hidden. Geocaching is a free treasure hunt that some people are almost cultish about. This is a fun way to spend an afternoon.

Cook Together

Creative Dating Tips When Broke — Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

You both have to eat, so why not cook together? This activity gives you a chance to see how you work together as a team and delegate responsibility, plus you get to eat something that’s (hopefully) tasty after all of your hard work.

If you do have a bit of money to spend, you can make cooking together more of an adventure by buying a meal kit like HelloFresh. If you can’t afford that, Blue Apron has all of their recipes online for free. Just buy the ingredients you need.

Eat2Explore has boxes that include recipes for three meals from another country. The box includes directions, the sauces and spices you need, and a little bit of information about the country. You supply the ingredient. We’ve used several of these boxes and really enjoyed trying foods from other countries.

My husband and I cooked together at least two or three times a week when we were dating. We both still like to cook, but now we take shifts—one cooks, one does the dishes. We figure when the kids are grown, we’ll have more time to cook together like we did when we were dating.

Star Gaze

If you live in the country, there’s something so romantic about putting down a blanket, lying together on your backs, and watching the stars. Of course, it’s fun to find constellations, but many times, if you stay there long enough, you can even see a shooting star or two. Plus, the stillness and the beauty of the night sky make for a very memorable date.

Go to a Museum

Many museums have one or two days a month when admission is free. Just be prepared that if you go during this time, the museum will likely be packed.

Some libraries also offer culture passes. These can be checked out and used for free admission to museums in your area. If you use these, you can go for free without dealing with the overcrowding that the one free day a month usually brings.

Low-Cost Dates

While the free dating tips when broke can supply you with many great dating ideas, there may be times when you want to go out and spend a little money. These fun date ideas don’t cost much money.

Go Out for Dessert

While getting an entire meal together at a restaurant might be a bit pricey if you’re broke, you can share a dessert for a fraction of the cost. For example, a Caramel Apple Blondie from Applebee’s is only $6.99. Or, their Brownie Bite is just $1.99. Plus, many of these desserts are so large, they’re like a meal in themselves.

Coffee Shop

Going to a coffee shop can be the perfect, intimate date. You can chat and focus on one another while sipping a beverage.

If you’re bookworms, you could get your drink at a bookstore coffee shop and spend an hour or two perusing good books and discussing them. My husband and I loved this type of date. We frequently went to coffee shops from the start of our relationship until after our first child was born.

Paint Together

Though you’ll have to pay for the supplies, that will likely be the only expense when painting together. If you’re both artistic, you could try to paint on your own with no direction. However, if one or both of you are artistically challenged, there’s no shortage of YouTube tutorials to watch. For instance, you can now find many of the PBS Bob Ross tutorials on YouTube.

Final Thoughts

There’s no reason why being short on cash has to kill your love life. If you use some of these creative dating tips when broke, you can continue to enjoy spending time with your romantic interest in a way that doesn’t leave you with even less money. The most important aspect is being together. Doing that doesn’t have to be expensive or boring.

Not All Deals are Actually A Good Deal

When I saw an applesauce pouch deal, I printed out all of the coupons to go forward with the deal. Yes, I was getting the pouches at about 50% off their shelf price, but the truth was, I was still overpaying for applesauce. It didn’t help that my 20-month old would suck down 3-4 pouches in minutes. I could just see the dollars being sucked away in her adorable chubby cheeks. After all was said and done, I had spent about $20 on applesauce that lasted about three weeks. The truth was I could have made a whole crockpot full of applesauce* for less than $10, and it would have lasted me longer since it would have been more sauce. I would have even saved time since for the pouch deal; I spent time researching and finding all of the right coupons.

Ask yourself, is this deal worth it? Is it worth my time to drive to the store and clip coupons?

Do I Even Need This?

What good is it to save money on purchases if you are buying things that you don’t really need? The expense of clutter is much greater than you think. Once I purged my house, I really didn’t want to spend money on building more clutter. I had five sets of plates. Some sets were bought very inexpensively, but in the end, they just took up more cabinet space and made me feel like I would never get caught up with dishes.

Wait on deals for a few hours – a whole day if possible. Allow the initial excitement to die down. If you have to be impulsive about your decision, then it will most likely be an impulse buy that you didn’t need. Another great idea is to talk it over with your spouse or partner, since they may help you think logically before buying. Finally, it is easy to have a list of things you need to buy. This way, when a deal pops up, you can easily decide if you need the deal or not based on your list.

You Aren’t Saving Money if You Are Spending It

It always makes me laugh when I buy a few things from Kohls and they tell me I saved a ridiculous amount. For example, buying a sweater, toddler shoes, and a nice gift all on clearance and with coupons has made the receipt tell me that I saved over $200. That sounds good, but the truth is that I would have never spent over $200, especially for the items I bought.

If you are on a tight budget, then saving $25 on a $50 on a restaurant gift certificate or saving 75% off of processed groceries you wouldn’t have bought usually is not actually saving you money. It can be hard to be on a budget with little wiggle room, but if you adapt a “Just Say No” policy, you will benefit. Just say no to spending any money, even if it looks like a great deal, just say no to spending an hour printing out coupons and looking up deal match ups, and just say no to driving out of your way to a store for one deal. Just say no, and enjoy staying on budget.

Like I said, I don’t have anything against deal sites and money saving blogs. However, if you find your being compelled to spend instead of save after visiting these sites, it is wise to take a step back until you can learn some discipline. It has been a hard lesson for me to learn, but my wallet is much fuller!