Jen Russum

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My Ode to Date Night

Date night. Love it. During our first year of marriage, Micah and I weren’t very intentional about date night. We had just moved to a new place and were hanging out with each other 24-7 {mainly because we had NO friends here at first!}. But now that we are settled in, busy with work and school, and have friends galore, a plan for date night became necessary.

On our first wedding anniversary back in July, we made a plan for how wanted to do date nights. We decided two a month is enough for now, since we don’t have kids yet to distract us from each other. Micah plans a date for the first half of the month {1st-15th} and I plan a date for the second half {16th-end}. Right now we are trying to stick to a tight budget so our goal is not to spend more than $20 per date. That means we get to be creative! I wrote about our very first date night back in August when we implemented this plan, but it’s only gotten better since then!

Taco dinner//sunset walk around the park//milkshakes at the ice cream parlor {$20}
Grilled chicken and Mexican orange soda from the neighborhood mercado//Putt-Putt with Groupon {$17}
Homemade Elephant Ears for my birthday {$2.00?}
In case you don’t know… Elephant Ears are fried dough dipped in cinnamon and sugar. Total fair food!
Mellow Mushroom Pizza with Groupon//Almost-free Yogurtland with coupons {$16.50}

My encouragement to you… DO DATE NIGHT. It doesn’t have to be big and fancy but take turns planning it for one another. Spontaneously going out to dinner after a long day at work because neither of you feel like cooking doesn’t count! 🙂 Micah and I have found that we love Sunday evening date nights after a relaxing weekend, but it doesn’t matter what day you choose. Just make date night happen! You won’t be disappointed!

Comments

  1. You are making me hungry! Maybe not a good idea at such late hours of the night 🙂 Glad you got your time out with hubby. Much needed time for the love to grow.

  6. Always a good idea to keep going on dates when your married! I look forward to doing more things together with my fiance once we're married and can see each other more often.

    xo L.

  7. 1. That pizza looks A.maze.ing!
    2. Date nights are fabulous. So glad you guys have been able to keep up with it. Ben and I used to go on date night every Friday, to the same restaurant (ya, we're those people.. they knew us, they knew our orders 🙂 But then the baby came and we haven't been able to do it as often as I'd like.
    3. Great idea to have a date night budget 🙂

  9. This is an amazing post! Just about two weeks ago after a fight between my man and I, we decided we had been distant with work, life, etc and needed that quality time together and had a date week ourselves! It is so nice to be able to sit down and remember what you love so much about that other pesron. SO great that you posted this!! 🙂 xoxo new follower!

  11. We were doing date night before my husband deployed and it was great. We are on a tight budget too, so I love the idea of having a $20 limit. We were doing one week a date going out, the next week a date night at home (yay for free! lol). I can't wait to start up again.

  12. I love love love this idea!!!!!! My hubby and I go to dinner about 1-2 times a week but we recently decided we wanted to do surprise dates once a month. They can be nice or free, whoever plans gets to choose and it has been so fun! Oh and girl, we use groupons all the time!!!!!! And did you mention Yogurtland!??!?! We are obsessed with YL…infact we have a little date there tonight! It has been 2 weeks!

  13. Ahh, date nights are the best, even if it's just hanging out at home.

    And homemade elephant ears?! I can't believe I haven't made these yet!

    Thanks for linking up!

  14. Date nights are awesom, and even more important when there are kids, but still necessary when there arn't. I am in awe that you have pictures of them!