Create a Romantic Date Night at Home on a Budget

Planning a Romantic Date Night? Here are some ideas to make a beautiful and romantic date night at home on a budget!

Even before it was considered dangerous to leave our homes, we celebrated anniversaries, birthdays, and date nights at home. Having an at-home date night is not a new experience for someone on a tight budget. We’ve been doing it for years.

There is much to be said about having an intimate date night at home. There is something nice and intimate about celebrating at home together.

Even if you are not on a very tight budget, doing a date at home helps you get significantly more bang for your buck, so to speak. You can have many more “extras” when you reduce your spending on restaurants, transportation, and entertainment.

Creating an Intimate Date Night at Home

Creating a beautiful and intimate date night at home takes a little ingenuity and planning but is well worth it. You can’t just hop in a cab, go to a romantic restaurant, and get that perfect date ambiance. You have to create it. The atmosphere and excitement are up to you. You have to make a concerted effort to make it nice and romantic.

There are a lot of fun things couples can do on a romantic night in. The perfect date night doesn’t need to be a bucket list of adventures, and a date night at home doesn’t need to mean a chilled night playing video games. You can have a romantic evening filled with love and intimacy in your own home.

This is my idea for a romantic date night at home, but if you are looking for Fun Date Ideas, check this post out!

Clean Up Your House

This is the not-fun and distinctly unromantic part of an at-home date night. But there is nothing romantic about having a candle-lit dinner surrounded by toys on the floor and laundry hanging on the rack. The best thing to do would be to clean up your house, but if you are strapped for time or energy, take everything that doesn’t belong and move it somewhere else. Stuff it into a closet, and dump it into a basket. Move it away so it doesn’t take your mind off the evening. There is nothing romantic about folding laundry!

Put Away Your Phone

One of the major drawbacks of staying in is all the distractions that your house presents. All of your daily tasks are nearby, and it’s hard to get in the proper mood. One thing you can do to help is: PUT AWAY YOUR PHONE. Move it out of the room. Shut it. Make sure it is not near you. this will help set the atmosphere for your beautiful at-home date.

Set up a Beautiful Table

There are so many cheap and frugal ways to set up your table to look beautiful on a budget! It’s important to make your home decor nice and romantic for your date night. Of course, if you have a nice outdoor area, you can set that up nicely and beautifully. Whether you are having an outdoor or indoor date night- you need to make the area look nice and cute for your romantic night in.

Use a Tablecloth

Put a nice tablecloth on the table. Dark colors often look really lovely and classy and don’t look bad when they get dirty. If you want a more outdoorsy feel for a fake “under the sky” approach, you can spread a picnic blanket on the floor and have a cozy indoor picnic.

Get Nice Candles

You can get cheap tapers or other candles at the dollar store, Target, Walmart, or any home goods type place (Think TJMaxx, Home Goods, Marshalls, IKEA, etc.). If that is more than your budget allows, even simple tea lights artfully arranged can give a nice glow to your table. Nothing says romance like candles!

Decorate With Flowers

You can buy cheap flowers at the grocery store or Trader Joe’s. If you are supremely tight on money, you can buy fake flowers for cheap at any store (even the Dollar Store). You can place petals on the table or use the fake flowers as napkin rings (twist the stems around napkins). Cheesy can be nice if you are both on board.

Dinner for Two

Keep it nice and simple with a homemade meal. If you are willing to splurge, then a steak, homemade fries, and a nice salad is a really classy and romantic meal.

If you are tight on budget but have time, then a pasta dish is usually cheaper than meat and can be classy and delicious! A mushroom pasta or pasta with cream sauce are both excellent ideas for this tasteful home meal.

Don’t forget to break out the real plates (you can always wash them the next day!) for a superior experience. If you drink alcohol, pair your meal with a bottle of excellent wine or a bottle of champagne. The best part about eating at home is finishing the bottle without worrying about the price!

Dessert

Any dessert is good, but if you want to splurge a little bit, consider making a cheese plate. Some things you can include:
Cheese (of course!)
Plain Olives
Marinated Olives (see recipe below)
Grapes
Raisins or Craisins
Candied nuts (you can make your own by baking nuts with some sugar and oil, and black pepper)
Crackers
Sun-dried tomatoes

You can use any or all of these and place them artfully on any platter (it does not need to be on a specific cheese board).

 

5 Ways To Make a Date Night at Home on a Budget

Having an at-home date night can be extremely fun and romantic with a little creativity. If you are on a tight budget, you can do so many things if you plan and are not afraid of a little hard work.

• Pick one or two things to splurge on (whether it’s food, wine, or flowers), and then do everything else exceptionally cheaply.
• Set a strict budget if you need to, and then stick to it.
• Shop clearance aisles for candles and other décor items.
• Wait a day or two after a big holiday to celebrate, and then buy all the half-priced clearance items to use.
• Don’t be scared to be cheesy.

Have fun!