It’s almost Valentine’s Day! Is everyone excited? Have you gotten started on sending chocolates and flowers and jewelry to your “special someone”? Have you perfected your poem and written out your card? Made reservations at a special restaurant?
No? Well, neither have I. Go figure.
It’s not as though Matt and I are “over” V-Day, but actually we kind of just ran out of ideas when it came to surprising each other. Honestly, he’s not going to buy me jewelry anymore because all I ever do is lose it, and me buying him flowers? Yeah, I’ve experienced enough ridicule from when I did that the last time.
Not only that, but saving up money for the wedding does put a damper on what you as a couple can do. It’s hard to justify going out for a $100 meal at “The Melting pot” or “Twisted Fork” when you are staring at the estimated cost of a wedding bar bill for $1,800 (boy, what a shock when you’re used to Riverwest bar prices!).
Anyway, I guess the point of this blog is that, just because you both are on a budget doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate special holidays during the year. Below you can find a plethora of ideas on dating with a budget.
- Join the club: I don’t think that many people are aware of the great deals movie theaters offer patrons. Marcus Theatre has “The Spotlight Club” where every Wednesday and Thursday they choose four movies for people to see for just $5. The best thing about it is that most of the time they are relatively new releases. Score!
- Utilize Web sites! Ever heard of Restaurant.Com? It’s a Web site that allows you to buy local restaurant gift certificates at a discounted price. Most of the time they have promotional deals that allow you to buy a $25 gift card for only $2! The only draw back is that there are a LOT of restrictions on when you can use the certificate (such as dinner only, no take outs), as well as how much you have to spend (must spend $30 to use the $25 certificate). Just be sure to read all the fine print, but for the most part it’s awesome!
- Student rush tickets: Are in you school, or still have your old student ID card? Use that to your advantage! Many musical theaters offer student rush tickets at nearly 50% off the cost an hour before show time. Each time I’ve done this, I’ve gotten a really good seat and enjoyed a great concert, ballet and/or theater show. The only thing I don’t like about it is that it’s only one ticket per student (hopefully your significant other still has their ID too).
And boyfriends/fiancés/husbands? Ah hem. Have you seen the flower selection at Pick ‘N Save? Beautiful and cheap and easy to acquire! See, I guess we figured out that one out quite easily, huh?
What are your plans for Valentine’s Day? Drop me a line below!
-Amy
Music playing while writing this: “Tweedle Dee” by LaVern Baker
