Free Family Fun: Photo Challenge

Dani and I decided to make our Fourth of July a little more fun this year by incorporating a "photo challenge." I made up a list of 15 things for the wife to photograph; the wife made up a list of 15 things for me to photograph, and we kept score based on the number of things we were able to capture with more points awarded if either of us captured combinations.

For example: someone smiling was one point. A clown was one point, but a smiling clown? Three points!

This was one of the free dates Danielle came up with as part of a birthday gift she gave me last October. (To read all about it, click here.)

So who won this photo challenge you may ask?

Here's the lowdown.

JAKE'S LIST 1. A slushy 2. Oxen 3. A heart 4. Fireworks 5. NH flag 6. A drum 7. A corvette 8. #24 9. Sheep 10. Twizzler 11. Animal poop 12. Matching kids 13. Horse cart 14. Lama 15. Cotton candy

DANIELLE'S LIST 1. A painted face 2. A bug 3. Someone's pet 4. Green shoes 5. A child eating 6. A musical instrument 7. Erica's tongue 8. A police officer 9. A smile 10. An American Flag 11. Candy flying through the air 12. A clown 13. A yellow car 14. A horse 15. A jump rope

Here are some of the highlights.

Fireworks = 1 point #24 = 1 point Someone throwing candy = 1 point A musical instrument = 1 point Someone's pet = 1 point

A police officer = 1 point An American Flag = 1 point A drum + NH Flag  = 3 points Matching kids = 1 point A child eating = 1 point

A clown + Someone smiling + An American Flag = 4 points Erica's tongue = 1 point A slushy = 1 point A heart = 1 point The NH Flag = 1 point

SCORE:

Jake: 10 points
Danielle: 11 points

I suppose that's logical. She is the better half after all!

For your own family fun photo challenge, consider creating age appropriate lists for each member of the family so all can join in. You can make this for an event like a parade or a festival, or when touring a fort or on vacation. Have fun, make your own rules, and get snapping some photos!

:-)

Softball, Fireworks, the Hospital... Ahhh, Life!

I am cheap, so I LOVE finding things to do for free!

This past week the hubby and I have been super busy remodeling the upstairs, taking care of the yard and garden, and finishing up some work. So at the end of such a long busy week I needed something fun to look forward to.

My youngest sister had her first softball playoff game. They are the #1 seeded team and played the #8, however the two teams had not played each other in season. It was a pretty exciting game, which ended up going into an 8th inning. My sister's team won by a suicide squeeze... or at least I think that's what they called it.

Immediately after the game my sister was rushed to the hospital for some symptoms unrelated to softball—chest pains, rapid heartbeat. We were all supposed to go see some fireworks together, but with the unexpected ER trip neither Jake or I were sure what we were going to do. We went to my parents' house to wait.

While there we barbecued some chicken and made dinner for everyone in the hopes that they would return soon, and they did—just as the chicken was coming off the grill in fact. My sister was ok. The doctors didn't know why she was experiencing such symptoms, but they had run her through a battery of tests and found nothing seriously wrong. According to my dad she's back to being "semi-normal."

After dinner we drove to Warren, NH—minus my sister who decided to chill—and watched one of the most awesome fireworks displays I've ever seen. Apparently this happens every June in Warren; four different companies come to practice setting off their fireworks and try out new ones. It was a great show! What we usually see during a five minute grand finale at a typical fireworks show they did for thirty minutes! It was so bright at times I almost wished I had sunglasses.

I guess the point is: there's almost always something fun and free to enjoy if you look around. And you never know what you'll find—could be the most amazing fireworks display ever! Could be a trip to the ER. Preferably the former.

Are there any great free activities in your area that you have recently participated in or are planning to soon? Tell us all about it in the comments below!

Keep pinchin' :-)

Date Night: Is 2 Chefs 2 Much?

This last weekend the hubby and I decided it was finally time to have another date night. We have been super busy lately and haven't done anything in a while.

One of the date night ideas for May—see my list of Free Dates for a Year if you don't know what I'm talking about—was to make a meal together, but it had to be something we've never made before. Jake thought it would be a great idea to make stuffed-crust pizza because we both love pizza and neither of us had ever made it before. I didn't have time to make my super yummy pizza crust because it requires two hours of rising time and it was already after 6pm, so we tried this recipe:

No-Yeast, Quick Stuffed Crust Pizza

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 tablespoon cornmeal or flour
5 cheese sticks
garlic powder

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Add 3/4 cup water and 3 tablespoons of oil. Stir until dough forms a ball, adding more water or flour if necessary.

2. Sprinkle cornmeal or flour over a greased 14-inch pizza pan or a large round stone. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a 15-inch circle or you can do it right on the stone. Transfer to the pan, letting the dough drape over the edge. Cut string cheese in half lengthwise; place on the dough around the edge of the pan.



3. Fold dough over cheese, pinching to seal. Prick dough thoroughly with a fork to prevent bubbles. Brush with the remaining tablespoon oil and sprinkle with garlic powder for added flavor. Bake 5 minutes.

4. Remove crust from oven. Top with your choice of sauce and favorite toppings. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until cheese is melted and crust is golden brown.

5. Enjoy!

For your own at-home date night you can follow our delicious pizza recipe above or choose your own great recipe. Consider making a multiple course meal including dessert!

Keep pinchin' ;-)

A Sneak Preview of Our Upcoming Rap Video

So the hubster and I have been busy the past few weeks trying to record our newest rap video, "Drowning in the Basement." Initially when we did "The Penny Pinching Rap" we decided we would only do one a year because it is a very time consuming process to write lyrics, record vocals, record the video, and then put it all together. Ultimately we just had too much fun making it, so we are back for round two.

Hopefully we will have it all ready for its debut later this week, but until then enjoy this little slow-mo sneak peak, and try to figure out what I'm saying. Any guesses can be left in the comments.

Keep pinchin' ... or in this case Keep rappin'! :-)

Dinner in Reverse!

Time for another free date night idea! If you aren't familiar with these you can check it out here. This past Saturday night I decided it was time to do a date night of sorts again, as it had been a while since the last one. The suggestion we had for the month of March was to have dinner in reverse, because who doesn't want to eat desert before dinner at least once in their life?

To start it off I made a yummy Chocolate Pudding Cake, and when I say yummy I mean absolutely, melt-in-your mouth, make-you-weak-in-the-knees delicious!

Chocolate Pudding Cake

Ingredients:
First layer:
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 salt
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Second Layer:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
4 tablespoons cocoa

Third Layer:
1 & 1/2 cups hot water

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

First layer stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Stir in milk, butter, and vanilla, mixing until smooth. Pour into an un-greased 8-inch square glass baking pan.

In a small bowl, mix second layer ingredients sugar, brown sugar, and 4 tablespoons cocoa. Sprinkle evenly over batter. Third layer pour hot water over the top. DO NOT STIR.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until center is almost set. Let stand for 15 minutes, then serve. Use the chocolate sauce in the bottom of the pan to spoon over servings. Garnish, if desired, with ice cream or whipped cream.

For the second course we had Mama's Healthy BBQ Chicken, which was one of my freezer meals that can be found here. Doing a main course that needs to be baked or can sit in the crock pot will enable you to transition from each course with little to no prep but at the same time keep the food hot.

Finally for an appetizer we had chips and salsa.

I will admit it was sort of weird to eat desert first, but also fun to shake things up a bit. If you have the money in your budget you could choose to do this at a restaurant! Pay first. Pray last. Shake things up and have a blast!

Keep pinchin' :-)

Man Speech: Giving Your Wife the Royal Spa Treatment

Treating your woman like the princess she is doesn't have to cost a lot of money, so give her an at-home pedicure to help make her feel special and appreciated. Think of it like staining and sealing a hardwood floor.

A COUPLE DISCLAIMERS

1. Some women really don't like having their feet touched, so this could be a major turn-off for your woman. If that's the case, a word of caution: don't go there. Her floor doesn't need to be waxed. 


2. Don't think you can't do it. Really, you've got hands, you know how to rub your muscles when they get sore, you know where your feet hurt when you've been standing on them all day. Giving your wife a pedicure is no different. And when it comes to painting her toenails, honestly, if you've ever held a paint brush you can hold nail polish. Just think of her toes as very tiny boards.

THE PROCEDURE

Begin by soaking her feet in some warm water. Use some bubble bath soap, something with a relaxing scent like vanilla or lavender. Let her feet soak for about 10 minutes.

Next dry her feet and apply some lotion. This is like wax for your finished cabinets. You really want to spend some time working the wax into the wood, the rough spots, the dry spots. You want the wood to feel silky smooth to the touch. So take this time to do some massaging of your wife's feet.

Next clip her toenails. Women's toenails are not slabs of granite like those of most men. They are delicate, so you don't need a big honkin' pair of clippers. Those little dainty clippers that she probably has in her makeup kit will work just fine. It's likely that you won't have to use nail clippers at all. You could probably get away with using a nail file.

A NOTE ABOUT NAIL FILES
A nail file is not sandpaper. And your wife's toes are not pine. Don't rub away at them with a nail file like your doing finishing work on a new baseboard. Use the nail file in single-stroke, left-to-right motions. No back and fourth sanding because that does damage to the nail.

Next take a cotton ball with some nail polish remover and clean the surface of the toenails. This isn't just to remove any old nail polish, but also any oils, dirt, and lotion that may be on the nail.

Next, paint the little piggies a color of your wife's choice. It will probably take two coats, so do one set of toes and let them dry as you paint the others. Usually about 10 or 15 minutes between coats is good. When painting, be quick about it. Nail polish is a pain in the asphalt. It dries and clumps quickly. It should take you no more than 10 seconds to cover each toenail.

Finally, you can cover each toenail with a nail hardener. This is like polyurethane finish for your wife's feet and will protect the nail polish and make it last longer.

And lastly, try to enjoy yourself. Giving your wife a pedicure isn't the manliest of manly things to do, but if you do it right it will be something she'll love. Put on some music, help her relax, give her some hot tea or cocoa, conversation, and laughter.

Keep pinchin' :-)

A Valentine's Day Suprise

Two years ago the hubby and I were engaged when we celebrated our first Valentine's Day together. Not only was it a special day because we were engaged, it was also the very first Valentine's Day that I had ever celebrated in a relationship with a guy. So Jake knew it had to be good.

He told me he was going to plan everything, and talked it up for weeks. He would drop lines like, "I know the chef at the exclusive restaurant we are going to, and he's really great." All along I kept telling friends that I wished we could just make dinner and stay in because we were getting ready to have a wedding and were considering buying a house, but I was prepared to accept whatever special thing he did for me.

When the night arrived, I got all dressed up and drove over to his grandparents house where he was living at the time. I walked in, talked to his Grandma who was making Chicken Parmesan, and then Jake came downstairs and we set off. We hopped in the car and then prepared to drive to this "exclusive restaurant," so exclusive, he said, that you needed to know the owners to get in. I was a little bummed that we would be spending all this money on a dinner for one night, but I wasn't about to say anything because I didn't want to spoil it for us.

About halfway down the driveway, Jake stopped the car right next to his grandparent's front porch. He pretended like he had forgotten something and jumped out to go back inside. Instead he walked around to my side of the car and opened the door. "I didn't know they had valet service here," he said in a surprised tone.

He took me inside and upstairs to the apartment area where he was living, a space he had transformed into a dining area for two. "See," he said, "I told you: a restaurant so exclusive you need to know the owners to get in."

The room was filled with candles, a table for two, a dozen roses, and romantic music. His grandmother wasn't the one making Chicken Parmesan. It was him. He had cooked for all four of us, and though his grandparents enjoyed their Valentine's Day meal downstairs, Jake and I enjoyed our "exclusive restaurant" treatment upstairs.

After dinner we enjoyed attempting to learn how to dance for our wedding to an instructional DVD that Jake had bought, and then we spent lots of time cuddling. It was the perfect first Valentine's Day. I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Happy Valentine's Day from the Penny Pinchers!

Keep pinchin' :-)

Free Dates For A Year - Drive-In Movie At Home

For those of you just tuning in, one of the things I've been blogging about is the "Year of Free Dates" that I gave my husband for his birthday back in October. Since then we've been enjoying some great times together every month. It's been a blast to see how creative we can be, how silly we can be, and just how much fun we can have when we put our heads together to come up with something entertaining.

Our very first Free Date Night turned out to be super fun, and I thought I'd share it in case anyone else likes the idea. The idea is to have a "theme night"—outer space, Alice in Wonderland, celebrities—and center all of your activities for the night around that theme.

Jake chose the 1950s, so I made diner-style cheeseburgers, fries, and chocolate milkshakes, which we ate with 50's rock tunes playing in the background.

After dinner it was time for a movie!

Someone had given us a DVD copy of that wonderful 50's classic, "An Affair to Remember," with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. We decided to watch it "drive-in style." Jake set up a projector and movie screen in our backyard, along with some comfortable seating where we watched the movie accompanied by an appropriate amount of necking. Cause, come on, who ever went to the drive-in just to watch a movie?

Free Family Fun Date - Winter Olympics

The other day a Mom, who is going through Financial Peace University with us, made a comment about how hard it is to cut back on spending when it influences your kids so much. When it comes to things like going to the movies, theme parks, sporting events, restaurants, it can be quite hard to convince your children that it's worthwhile to let go of these things—even if just for a period of time.

Not having kids of our own I don't know what it's like to be in this position, but as I was doing the dishes today I was thinking about the "Free Date Nights" I've been doing for my husband and wondered, "Why not come up with a bunch of 'Free Family Dates?'" So, I'm going to try to post at least one idea for a family fun night every month for all those parents out there who need some affordable entertainment alternatives to enjoy with their kids.

Since we're in the middle of winter at the moment, I thought it would be fun to kick things off with some Winter Olympics. This family fun date can be just for your family, or you can invite a few other families to join you, or even host it at your church. The idea is to create easy games to compete in, with possible prizes or medals, with the ultimate aim of simply having tons of fun.

Game Ideas:

• Sled Race - Time each member of the family coming down the same sledding hill.


• Obstacle Course - Create some sort of course that would involve jumping over things, crawling under things, and winding your way through things. Again, time each participant to see who can do it the fastest. This could also be done as a relay pairing older children with younger ones to even out skill levels.


• Long Jump - Mark a spot in the snow for each participant to jump from to see how far they can leap. Measure each jump to see who is the longest.


• Speed Skating - If you have access to an outdoor free rink or a body of water you can have skating races, all members could skate at the same time so you wouldn't have to time it.


• Target Practice - Line up cans or bottles and give each member the same amount of snowballs to knock them down. You can change the distance based on the age or ability of each member.


• Snow Sculpture Competition - So long as the snow is conducive to sculpture making, divide your family up however you see fit and see who can make the most impressive snow sculpture. Set a time limit to keep things exciting. Have grandparents or neighbors be the judges. Or you could simply give each sculpture an award based on the funniest, most original, scariest, etc. 

Those are just some ideas to get the creative juices flower. You can always take to Google to find activities that are more suited to your family.

If you decide to have a Winter Olympics with other families some additional ideas could be:

• Cardboard Sled Race - Have each family build their own cardboard sled using only duct-tape and cardboard. They could either construct their sled at the event or do it at home as a family project. Time them down the same hill and see whose design is the fastest.


• Family Flag - Have each participating family bring a "family flag," which they can create to represent their family at the games.


• Have an Awards Ceremony - Acknowledge each athlete or the winners of each game, and present them with a medal, which can be as simple as string with a round piece of construction paper with 1st, 2nd, 3rd place on it, or as elaborate as you want it to be.

To end your games consider serving hot cocoa and cookies or have a bonfire and make s'mores. If you decide to host a Family Winter Olympics tell us all about the fun you had doing them!

Keep pinchin' :-)

Winter Date Night

As promised here is an idea for a free winter date night.

Last Saturday Jake and I finally had a day that we didn't have to be anywhere, so it meant it was the perfect day for a date. First we went to the Rocks Estate to walk on their trails—or get lost—and enjoy a beautiful sunny winter day.

When we got home we had some hot cocoa to warm up and then took naps. Ahhh :-) Then it was time for a "Living Room Campout." (In case you're just tuning in, this was part of my birthday present to Jake back in October. I gave him a year of "free dates." Click here to read all about it.)

I prepared potatoes, kielbasa, and butter with some Tony's seasoning in tinfoil baked in the oven on 350 for about an hour. Normally you'd bury the foil-wrapped dinners in your campfire, but when it's minus 10 degrees outside the oven works just as well.

Then I created our  campsite. We don't have a tent so I made one out of a sheet and hung it up over Christmas lights I had strung up. I had Jake bring in a couple of camping chairs and grabbed a side table to eat dinner on. We ate our tinfoil dinners next to our wood stove (campfire) and then played cards in our tent.

To finish it off we made S'mores in our woodstove, and they were delicious!

During it all we just sort of laughed at ourselves and wondered what someone would think if they showed up at our house and saw the camp site. "No," we would tell them, "children do not live here. Just us. Yes, we're adults. Thank you." Even though some people might think it's juvenile we had a ton of fun!

Have you been on any free, fun date nights lately? Leave us a comment to let us know what you've done!

Keep pinchin' :-)

Ten Ways to Save

People are always asking me what are some ways that we save, so I thought I would share a few things that have come to mind.

1. We turn down the heat, especially when we are going to be gone or at night. They say you can save 3% on your heating bill for every degree you go down.

2. We hang all of our laundry up to dry. In the summer we use a line outside, and my husband set one up in our upstairs porch if it's raining. In the winter we hang the clothes on a drying rack next to our wood stove, which dries pretty fast. Then we toss it in the dryer for about 10 minutes to help remove lint and soften the fabric.

3. We wash and reuse plastic Ziploc bags—well, until they get a hole in them or become so greasy that we can't get them clean.

4. We try to use rags over paper towels whenever possible. Someday I would like to make these awesome reusable cloth towels, but until then I just have rags.

5. I make my own laundry detergent—which I plan to write a "how to" blog the next time I make it, with pictures of course!

6. I don't buy many pre-made meals or food, but instead basic groceries that I know I can make many different things from. I would love to be really organized someday and have a meal plan or do freezer meals, but until then this has worked for us.

7. I try to do all of my trips to town at once. I don't like making a bunch of 20 mile round trips, so when I am out I do it all. Sometimes, when it's convenient, we carpool with friends.

8. Both Jake and I have trouble sleeping without some kind of white noise in the background, like a fan, but we traded running our fan all night for a sound machine that makes various white noises. We noticed a significant difference on our electric bill when we did this.

9. I try to buy decorations after the holidays when they are on sale. This week I scored some Christmas wreath mesh and a candle for 90% off, taking the cost from $44 to $4!

10. Instead of going out on expensive date nights we do free at-home or local dates, part of my year of dates for my husband that I gave him for his birthday. Stay tuned for some pictures of some of the ones we have done these past couple months.

So, there you go! Ten ways we have saved during our journey to debt free living.

Keep pinchin' :-)

Confessions of a Penny Pincher

We don't always Penny Pinch—I know, shocking!

Early on in our debt-slaying adventure we realized that if we held too tightly onto a strict budget and left no wiggle room, we would most likely throw in the towel if we didn't go insane first. So we—me more than Jake—have had to learn that splurging on entertainment every now and then is an almost necessary step in this journey, but at the same time we—Jake more than me—are learning to be more considerate about how we spend money on ourselves. As the old adage says: all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Today, we don't really budget for entertainment, although we did at first. Now we've decided that our financial goal to become debt free is worth sacrificing a few years of movies and mini-golf. However, we occasionally treat ourselves to the latest, greatest new movie, and we don't feel guilty at all.

I've said before that I want to look back on this journey to debt-free living and have fond memories, not regrets. If we never went out and did anything fun or special I would probably go crazy, and Jake would have to deal with it :-)

Just recently we were invited by friends to go see Frozen—have you seen it? See it! It's great!—and we decided it was worth it to splurge a little bit. I'm glad we did, because we had a great time with our friends, enjoyed some good laughs, and made a great memory. The movie was funny, romantic, heart-warming, magical; a wonderful movie for the whole family.

We also try to find ways to entertain ourselves that don't involve spending money, which takes some creative thinking, but is lots of fun to execute. Jake opened his December envelope a couple weeks ago to reveal the next two date night suggestions: 1) a day trip out to see all the pretty Christmas lights with hot cocoa from home, and 2) a cookie-baking/Christmas movie-watching marathon, because Jake's two favorite things are cookies and movies so he was totally game for this! (And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out this previous blog post: Free Dates For A Year.)

So if you are just starting the Penny Pinching lifestyle, or if you're contemplating getting started, remember that there is no perfect way to do it. Sometimes you might have to bend the rules a little and treat yourself to something special, but if it helps you stay committed over the long haul then it's worth it!

Keep pinchin :-)

The Christmas Tree Dilemma

On our quest to be debt free we have found ourselves tip-toeing closer and closer to that question that every sane person secretly ponders on Christmas: "Can we really justify spending *insert insane amount of money here* on a tree that's just going to sit in our living room for a few weeks only to be tossed out?"

Last year we went with friends to Bethlehem's Rocks Estate tree farm and bought a beautiful tree for a rather pretty penny, even with a local resident discount. This year I couldn't justify the expense, but at the same time I couldn't go without having a tree.

So I came up with the brilliant plan to walk around our four tiny acres and find a tree absolutely free. A romantic walk through the snowy woods with my husband sounded like fun. And a free Christmas tree? Even better! Four minutes into our walk we were assaulted by the incessant barking of our neighbor's dog. It came bounding toward us through the woods, stopped about twenty feet away and barked. And barked. And barked. And barked. It followed us, and barked some more. Sigh. After a few minutes of "See any good trees?" "Bark!" "What?" "Bark!" "I said..." "Bark!" "...any..." "Bark!" "...trees?" we realized we weren't going to find any nicely shaped, full-looking Christmas trees that weren't 50-feet tall. So we... "Bark!" ...to... "Bark!" ...home. Happily, the previous owners of our property had begun to plant about four or five Christmas trees along the fence. Unfortunately no one had given the trees any lovin' over the past few years; they were surrounded by brambly bushes and were quite sparse and misshapen. They were better than the infamous Charlie Brown Christmas tree, but not by much. Jake took out the saw and cut one down. As we set up our tree in the living room and started decorating it, I expected the full majesty of the tree to come into being. I figured we'd just fill in the gaps with ornaments, shape the branches with clippers, and pile enough garland and lights on to make it look outstanding. After about ten minutes I realized this was not going to happen. I wanted to say, "Forget it! Let's just go buy one. What are our friends going to think when they see this tree?" But the more I thought about it, the more I fought the urge to give up and give in. It wasn't just because I didn't want to spend the money, but because I didn't want to be part of the rat race we call the "American Dream," always concerned with what the Jones' think of our house, or with what the Smith's have and we don't. I want to be more concerned with enjoying life with my fabulous husband, making memories that we will fondly look back on as we pave the way for a fun future with kiddos (who are currently just imaginary). It took a couple of days, but now I look at our crazy cylinder-shaped Christmas tree with its sparse boughs and uneven branches, and I love it! I love it because Jake and I hunted it down together, and we had fun laughing at ourselves as we put it up. I love it because we did what we thought was best for us at this time in our lives. I have every intention of purchasing a beautiful tree again some day, but for this year I'm not going to concern myself with what anyone else thinks of me. I'm just going to love what I have and I'm going to love our crazy tree! Keep pinchin' :-)

Free Dates for a Year

When you decide to jump into paying off debt with both feet you may find yourself in the predicament that my husband and I did: tight budget and no entertainment or restaurant included. One of two things will probably happen when you do, either you will go insane and be miserable for the duration of the trip and quite possibly throw in the towel, or you can make the best of it, be creative, and look back on this period of life with lots of great memories.

I prefer the latter.

So to help accomplish this I went on a mission to create a year of "date nights" that were practically free. (I got the initial idea from Shannon Brown at Find Joy in the Journey. The idea here is that you would purchase tickets, gift cards, etc., for a year of pre-paid dates. The problem with that plan for me was that there was no money to purchase those date nights.)

So I got to scouring the web and searching for free, at-home ideas. The Dating Divas helped out a lot with their list of at home date ideas here. Between looking through their ideas and Googling for others, I was able to come up with about 24 date night ideas, which would give us roughly two date nights per month.

With my free date nights in hand I set out to give my hubby a birthday present that would keep on giving. I created 12 envelopes, one for each month of the year, and put a couple date nights in each envelope. At the beginning of each month he opens up an envelope to find out what's in store for him, and together we work out a time to do it.

Here are some ideas to get you started. Bear in mind that you can be as creative and wild as you want to be, or adjust the suggestions to suit your resources, location, personal tastes, and what-have-you.

Theme Night

My husband and I chose a 50’s theme. I made cheeseburgers, French fries, and milk shakes on our red checkered table cloth while we listened to some great 50’s rock'n roll. My husband rigged up a DVD projector outside for us to watch "An Affair to Remember," drive-in style!

Wanna Be Famous?

Create a YouTube video, fake commercial, or whacky video and then post it on the web for all your friends to see. My hubby and I chose to write a rap song about our experience of going through Financial Peace University and we had a blast. A week after we posted it we ended up on the Katie Couric Show! Click here to view our "Penny Pinching" Financial Peace University Rap video here!

Top Chef

Work together to make a dinner using a secret ingredient in each entrée. Go outside your comfort zone and try something new!

Out of Character

Choose a character for each other to dress and act like throughout dinner. Maybe it’s their favorite character of all time or maybe it’s just something you want to see them dress up as. Try to stay in character throughout dinner, or go the extra mile and do it all day!

Stargazing

If you live in a place where you can see the stars, spread out some blankets in the yard and spend time snuggling and seeing what constellations you can pick out. There are phone apps that can help you with this.

There are plenty more ideas out there to be had! Let me know if you find any.

Keep pinchin' :-)