How to Plan a Date Night
Probably the first and most important thing to do while planning a date is to figure out your budget. Then, you need to decide what to do as a couple. Do you want to go out to eat or see a movie? Or would you like to do both? If you need a babysitter, you will need to figure out your budget for the sitter also. That will probably help you figure out your time frame for the date. Will you be able to do both dinner and a movie timewise? Or is your time more limited? My husband and I have signed up for Groupon offers online and Madison Perks so we get offers constantly on "buy one get one free" deals that are local to our area. It is really easy to sign up and only takes a few minutes to do. Then, all you have to do is sit back and wait for the deals to come to your email. Another great way to get deals on movies is to sign up with your local theater for their movie "deals of the week". We've seen a couple of movies for half price on the special deal nights at the theater.
We also have two wonderful coupon books with deals that last an entire year. One is the Bucky Book, which is local to Madison, WI. My husband received this as a gift when he started his new job in January. The Entertainment Guide book we bought from our son's school. These are used as fundraisers all over the country for various groups and are a great deal for either $25 or $30. Most of the deals in the books are buy one get one free. There are deals for all sorts of things inside each book ranging from services (like haircuts and home cleaning) to movies and restaurants. Many local attractions are included as well, such as; golfing, waterparks or even laser tag!
These books are a great way to start planning a date night. My husband and I sit down and each page through a book, finding coupons for places we'd like to try. Then we check out the coupons each of us found and see what we would like to plan for the evening - or day, depending on the activity. We find a deal that we want to try and then map the location with Mapquest if we don't know where the place is. We usually decide to go out to eat at a new restaurant or see a movie when we get a babysitter. These tend to be the most affordable "buy one get one" deals for us, because we always must figure in the cost of a babysitter. We have found some really great local places by using the Entertainment books. My new favorite fish fry, a Wisconsin Friday night tradition, is at a small bar about 20 minutes from my house. I probably would not have ever eaten there if it hadn't been for the coupon we found in the Bucky Book.
Get online and find out where you can get an Entertainment Guide book. Sign up for some great deals at Groupon.com or many other sites like it. You will find that planning a date night out with your spouse can be fun in and of itself! Sometimes, we just stay in and look at places we want to travel to in the future or have been to in the past. Just hanging out can be a date, too. So get out there and date your spouse!
