Creative Budget Date Nights/Budget Family Nights

[verleniahall]

What are some creative ideas your family has come up with for a date night/family night?

DH LOVES Baseball, but we are over 3 hours away from Kansas City, to see the Royals, plus they moved their "buck night" to thursdays, so it makes it harder to make the trip up there. SO we came up with our own "buck night" idea where we actually will pay a $1 per hot dog every other thursday while watching a game on TV (doesn't matter who is playing) - we got 32 oz tumblers at Walmart and they had a package of 2 lids with straws for a decent price, so those are our 'refillable cups' that we plan to do $1 per fill.

All of the money will go towards spending money on vacation, and it just makes it a little more fun over all

 

[happily single]

What a cute idea. Right now I am at a loss for ideas. Having 2 teens and a tween nothing is cheap!

 

[5kidsmommy]

We do movie night at home. We go to redox and get a newer movie, then go to the dollar store and get a few boxes of candy.

Our art museum is free everyday but closes at 5pm. On Wednesday nights it stays open until 9. My husband and I will go there for a date night and then do a cheap dinner out, something like chipotle.

We have board game and sundaes night. We will go and get a big bucket of ice cream and a few different tops and make tasty sundaes.

During the summer we have BBQs and sit around the fire pit in the yard. We also have some larger outside came. We made a big jenga set for outside and have corn hole. There is also a baseball league here that isn't MLB and isn't the minors, I can't remember but it's a different league. They have a really nice stadium and it's about 15 minutes away. You can get tickets super cheap and they have packs than include a hit dog, a bag of chips and a drink along with a ticket to the game for about $10.

 

[verleniahall]

I LOVE the Board Game and Sundaes idea! for just the two of us, a bucket of ice cream would last about a month!

We have a fire pit i won at work - we can't use it right now beucase we are in the midwest in all of those firebans (we are about 2 hours from that HUGE fire that was in Oklahoma/Kansas)

I like the redbox idea too - we don't have one in town though - but we can rent for free from the library

 

[barkley]

one of the neighbors occasionally does outdoor movie nights during the summer-and it's great fun. they set up a screen and dvd projector (employees and students at the local colleges can check these out free of charge/some of the local public libraries also rent them for a fee), everyone brings their own chairs/snacks-and we enjoy.

fire pits, outdoor games and such are popular and inexpensive as well.

some of the bowling alleys have good family deals, and for a stay at home movie/pizza night I don't think papa murphy's Tuesday deal can be beaten-$10 for ANY large pizza. heck-we just got back from a vacation, and on the Tuesday we were gone we opted to get 2 different papa murphy's pizzas so beyond what we consumed while watching a dvd we had leftovers for a couple of days.

 

[scrhsa]

If you like baseball(or really any sport) go to the local highschool games. Or even the local jr college if they have teams. My husband hits ALL the HS footlball games...even away games. He'll take one dd to the football games and one to the basketball games. I'll go every once in a while...not a real big fan of sports.
We would do Friday Fun Night and each of us would have a turn at picking something to do. Mostly it was games or movies at home. Maybe sit out by the firepit And the kicker was no one could complain about what game/movie it was and HAD to sit through it. The most fun was trying to play pictionary.

 

[hmwinter85]

For a nicer at home date night we will have fondue and watch a movie. I usually do a pot of oil with chicken, shrimp and steak (most of time I already have it in the freezer) and a pot with cheese and bread. I have had all the equipment for years so that help makes it budget for us, if you had to buy pots and stuff that might be something to consider. Anyway we set it up in the living room and put on a movie and cook and chat. It a great fun meal.

 

[barkley]

If you like baseball(or really any sport) go to the local highschool games. Or even the local jr college if they have teams. My husband hits ALL the HS footlball games...even away games. He'll take one dd to the football games and one to the basketball games. I'll go every once in a while...not a real big fan of sports.
We would do Friday Fun Night and each of us would have a turn at picking something to do. Mostly it was games or movies at home. Maybe sit out by the firepit And the kicker was no one could complain about what game/movie it was and HAD to sit through it. The most fun was trying to play pictionary.

local colleges and universities can also be a great resource for VERY inexpensive family fun.

our local university has a student rec center that's PHENOMINAL-ice skating rink, indoor pool, rock-climbing walls (as nice a set up as the private businesses that charge a hefty entry fee)-all supervised by well trained staff. the cost for an all day access pass is $8 BUT a family full month unlimited all access pass is only $60 so in addition to many multiple family/couple's nites utilizing it, a parent can save even more using it for kid's outings vs. all the individual costs associated with those.

most schools have a means on their website to get email announcements about upcoming activities and events open to the community-we receive them regularly and often find out about other free/inexpensive tied in off campus events we are unaware of (ds is big into Japanese culture b/c of all the anime stuff-he had a blast last summer going to several free events targeted to tweens/teens during a big community wide event that was taking place b/c of an event held at one of the local colleges).

 

[Soulsearching]

What are some creative ideas your family has come up with for a date night/family night?

DH LOVES Baseball, but we are over 3 hours away from Kansas City, to see the Royals, plus they moved their "buck night" to thursdays, so it makes it harder to make the trip up there. SO we came up with our own "buck night" idea where we actually will pay a $1 per hot dog every other thursday while watching a game on TV (doesn't matter who is playing) - we got 32 oz tumblers at Walmart and they had a package of 2 lids with straws for a decent price, so those are our 'refillable cups' that we plan to do $1 per fill.

All of the money will go towards spending money on vacation, and it just makes it a little more fun over all

Here are some budget ideas for when the weather cooperates.

1. Pack a picnic dinner at the park any night of the week or pick up a pizza and enjoy the outdoors.
2. Take advantage of the bicycle paths at the parks and get some family exercise
3. Hiking good for all ages
4. Some of your older towns near by may have apps on your phone that take you through the historical town on a walking tour that informs you about the homes and churches and people who settled in the town. Can be an hour long walk and oh so interesting. Free apps.
5. Family roller skating at the park
6. Parks and recreations have a movie night at the park with a small fee
7. Invite the neighbors or family over for a potluck dinner. Every one brings a tray and what their family will drink to share. Play some backyard bocci, croquet, horeshoes.
8. Trivia night.

 

[Narnia_girl]

A few fun games for family night:
Family Feud--I did this one year for Christmas and it's since become a tradition. It takes a little set up but you can find answers (survey says) online.
The Bowl Game--Divide into two teams (boy vs. girl or ones vs. twos, etc...)
Give everyone scraps of paper and have them write several names each (anyone living or dead and at least semi-well known to the group). Put all the names in the bowl. Pass the bowl to the first person. They pull out a scrap of paper and have 60 seconds to describe as many names as they can. Only people on their team should try to guess the answer. When time is up count how many they completed and keep score. Pass the bowl to the other team for their turn. Keep alternating until all the paper is gone.
**A fun alternative to this is DISNEY Bowl Game. So all the scraps of paper should have names of Disney characters, movies, WDW rides/attractions, favorite foods, etc...

If you have a bunch of people with Smartphones and an Xbox or Playstation, consider buying Jackbox TV. We have a blast playing Drawful. Each person logs in on their phone and then must draw something specific. Those drawings are put on your TV screen and players have to try to correctly guess what the drawing is. But the things you have to draw are weird/funny like "Batman's neighbor" or "mouse explosion".