100 Date Ideas for Under $10

“May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.”
Proverbs 5:18

Any marriage expert you talk to will espouse the importance of dating once you are married.
Unfortunately, the busyness of life often interferes with this habit that helped you fall in love in
the first place. Add kids to the mix, with their own scheduling demands, and the time for dating
is minimized even further. Ironically, as the demands of life squeeze out your time to date, the
need for regular dating increases. All too often, the nail in the coffin of couples’ dating life is the
fact that it can be prohibitively expensive, especially when a babysitter is involved.

At FCF Church, the Marriage & Family Ministry is committed to offering periodic, affordable
Date Nights for couples, but a healthy marriage needs to have more a couple dates a year. In
hopes of making dating an affordable option, we have listed 100 date ideas below. Many of
them are free; all of them can be accomplished for less than $10. Choose from one of these, vary
one to your own tastes, or use this to brainstorm an affordable date of your own. Whatever you
do, take your spouse on a date!

1. Go on a date and begin collecting something together.

2. Theme date: dinner, clothing, and movie, all from the Greco-Roman era.
3. Invite a couple (or a couple of couples) to meet for a game night.
4. Have a friendly decathlon. Each of spouse brings five competitive events to the table.
5. Prepare a special meal for someone and deliver it to them.
6. Write a skit and act it out.
7. Play one-on-one basketball at a local court.
8. Is there are room or area of the house that needs a makeover? Let’s tackle it together!
9. Watch a classic movie musical together.
10. Get a fresh pack of crayons, a bunch of construction paper, and go have an art date!
11. Find a coffee shop with live music.
12. Write a timeline of your relationship together; each milestone will become a chapter for
your marriage story someday.
13. Shoot pool at a local pool hall.
14. Go people watching at a mall. Make up an ongoing story using characters of unrelated
people as they walk by.
15. Plan a dream vacation; if it never happens it will at least be fun to plan. If the
opportunity arises, a lot of the legwork will already be done!
16. Go to a sporting event at the local school or rec field.
17. Discover a part of Frederick County that you’ve never visited.
18. Go to a Lowes or Home Depot clinic and learn to build something together.
19. Go canoeing.
20. Go to Dollar General and find the best gift for each other for under $5. Then go for a
celebratory ice cream cone!
21. Pick wildflowers.
22. Have a picnic (carry out ok) and take a stroll at a nearby park.
23. Spend an evening looking through photo albums and reminiscing.
24. Go fly a kite.
25. Go to the park and push each other on the swings.
26. Have a water gun target-shooting contest.
27. Order a pizza and have it delivered to somewhere on the Appalachian Trail for a
“wilderness picnic.”
28. Find a nice hillside to lie on and watch the clouds.
29. Wash the cars together.
30. Find a trail and go mountain biking.
31. Decorate a sidewalk at a nearby park with sidewalk chalk.
32. Make a paper clip sculpture together.
33. Go for a creek walk.
34. Spend an evening making a “bucket lists” together.
35. Feed fish at a nearby creek.
36. Get an astronomy book from the library and learn as many constellations as you can.
37. Portable drive in: go somewhere and watch a movie on a laptop.
38. Break a record together: get the Guinness Book of World Records and break one; or
create a new category and set a record!
39. See how many fireflies each of you can catch in a glass jar.
40. Play a round of Frisbee golf.
41. Take a picnic dinner to Pen Mar Park and watch the sun set.
42. Have the kids go overnight somewhere and have a lock-in.
43. Go for a hike.
44. Take a roll of quarters and go to an arcade.
45. Go for a bike ride on the Gettysburg battlefield. See how many state monuments you can
find.
46. Take a bottle of wine and catch the sunset from Raven Rock cliffs.
47. Catch the sunset from High Rock.
48. Go produce picking; what’s in season?
49. Go to a playground and compete in obstacle course races.
50. Take a ball and mitt and go play catch somewhere unique.
51. Go tubing.
52. Visit Cunningham Falls.
53. Go make dinner over an open fire.
54. Begin writing your relationship story together. Take turns doing the typing to share each
other’s perspectives.
55. Play tennis.
56. Go rock scrambling at a nearby outcrop.
57. Sit under a bridge overpass and listen to the cars pass overhead.
58. Visit a Hallmark store and find the funniest or cheesiest cards you can; read them to each
other.
59. Go for a country drive. Get yourself lost and then find your way home again.
60. Play monopoly together…in the park.
61. Make a music video together: what was you “first dance” song?
62. Go for a jog together.
63. Go climb a tree! (Pack a meal for an aerial picnic!)
64. Find a free lecture or event to attend at a local college.
65. Having a hard time finding good movies? Bring the laptop to a Wi-Fi hotspot of view
trailers; begin a movie list.
66. Visit a graveyard.
67. Drive to a scenic overlook and park, listening only to am radio.
68. Bring a game of Scrabble to the park.
69. Have a mini-S’mores date: Golden Grahams, chocolate chips, mini marshmallows, and a
candle!
70. Read a children’s book or short story together, taking turns to impersonate the characters
in the story.
71. Find a used bookstore and spend $5 apiece.
72. Play Trivial Pursuit…subject, each other.
73. Discuss something you’d like to learn together, then go to the library and learn!
74. Fondue in the park!
75. Husband plans a date; wife picks the theme.
76. Wife plans a date; husband picks the theme.
77. Wife plans a surprise date.
78. Husband plans a surprise date.
79. Write your wills together. You can get inexpensive software at Staples for this.
80. Go to an antique store together, even if you don’t buy anything.
81. Sketch your dream-house floor plan and talk about the possibilities of each room.
82. Write the story of how you met. Get it printed and bound.
83. List your spouse’s best qualities in alphabetic order.
84. Take a stroll around the block – hold hands as you walk
85. Give your spouse a back rub
86. Rent a classic love story video, microwave some popcorn and watch the video while
cuddling.
87. Go to a swimming hole together.
88. Have a candlelight picnic in the back yard.
89. Plant a tree together in honor of your marriage.
90. Create your own special holiday.
91. Visit a local flea market and see who can pick out the cheapest, most fun, wacky and/or
useful treasure. Ask a vendor or a passing visitor to judge.
92. Go to a dollar movie.
93. Go to an outdoor concert or sporting event, but stay in the parking lot and tailgate!
94. In preparation for this date; think of a story about yourself from before your life together.
On the date share it with one another; be as animated and creative as possible
(embellishments encouraged!)
95. Create a fill in the blank Q&A sheet for the other to answer and explain. Questions could
include: "My favorite thing about you is _____." "I knew I loved you when ____." "It
makes me laugh when you _____."
96. Go fishing.
97. Go to a sporting event at a college in Adams, Franklin, Washington, or Frederick County.
98. Go to a store and play “The Price Is Right.” Take turns guessing what different items cost
and keep track of who guesses closest without going over the actual price.
99. Paint murals on the garage doors. (Watercolor paints recommended!)
100. Take a roll of pennies to a fountain; make wishes out loud as you throw them in.