Date Night on the Cheap

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

Hi all, Sorry for the delayed posting.  I was in  a car accident last week (fortunately everyone was okay) and so my schedule was a bit perturbed.  Back on track now!

If you married and are like us, you enjoy having a date night maybe once in a while, or maybe more regularly.  It is a time when you and your spouse can be adults together and have some time away from everything, at least for a couple of hours.  But in this economy, it’s often hard to do.  We start to think, dinner at a decent restaurant in our area = $100 and then babysitting = $30 and boom, it is $130 for a couple of hours for dinner around the corner!

Instead, if your kids are younger, perhaps what we do will work for you as well:

Instead of going out and getting a sitter, we simply put our son to bed at his regular bed time and then we “eat out at home” afterwards.  We get dressed up, we open a good bottle of wine, and make a easy, but tasty dinner that we wouldn’t usually do unless it was a special occasion and we were having guests.

 We buy filet mignon, for example, and do a simple side dish or two and have simple but tasty desserts that we normally wouldn’t purchase.   (Sometimes, when we reallydon’t want to cook, we get take out from one of the better restaurants in town, so at least we are saving the upcharge on the wine and the tip!)

We set the table with our “good” silverware, use the “good” glasses, and relax in our own dining room or out on the deck.  By making a simple dinner, there is minimal clean-up.  And by staying home, there’s not the worry of driving after a glass or two of wine.  No worrying about checking the clock, rushing out the door, getting home in time for the sitter…because we are already there.  And all at a great savings, which is even more relaxing!

Copyright 2008-2009 Kristin Delfau, author of Turbo-Mom's Guide to Saving Money Without Wasting Time a womens' personal finance book, and Aji Publishing.

Tags: date night, dining out, saving money
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