Cheap Date Ideas
Free afternoons, few-dollar treats and homemade plans, one idea at a time.
- Time
- An hour to an afternoon
- Players
- Two people
- Best for
- Weeknights and weekends, any time of year
- Deck
- 100 ideas in 5 categories
How to use these cheap date ideas
- Pick a category from the menu under the card, or keep “All categories”.
- Read the idea on the top card. If you both like it, put it on the calendar.
- Swipe the card away, or tap “Next idea”, for another. Ideas do not repeat until you have seen the whole category.
- Tap the heart to save an idea on this device, or tap “Make a 10-idea list” for a list you can copy.
When to plan a cheap date
A cheap date is not a smaller date. It is often the one you remember, because the plan was yours and not a ticket you bought. These ideas hand you the plan.
The end of the month
Free outside and Free at home, for weeks when the budget is already spoken for.
A spontaneous Saturday
Around town and Under $10, when you want to be out the door within the hour.
A long drive
Read a few cards aloud in the car and choose a stop for the way back.
Ways to use these date ideas
A date a week
Draw one card every Sunday for the week ahead. Most ideas cost nothing, so the only thing to agree on is the evening.
Free plus one treat
Pair a free idea with one small thing from Under $10, like a long walk that ends at a bakery.
A saved list for slow weeks
Keep a few cards from Free at home and Make it yourself saved for when the weather or the week gets in the way.
Tips for a good cheap date
- Look at library and museum calendars at the start of the month. Free days and events are posted early.
- Agree on the budget before you leave the house, so money does not come up once the date starts.
- Treat it like a night out: pick a time, put the phones away and dress for it if you feel like it.
All 100 cheap date ideas by category
The complete list, grouped by category. The cards above draw from the same list, so you can read ahead here and pick there.
Free outside
Parks, paths and open sky, with nothing to pay but an afternoon.
- Walk to the highest point in your neighborhood and watch the lights come on below.
- Download a free geocaching app and go find the hidden box closest to your front door.
- Bring any frisbee you own to a public disc golf course and play the whole loop for free.
- Follow a river or creek path as far as it goes, and turn back when one of you gets hungry.
- Lie on a blanket in the park and name the shapes the clouds make until you run out of ideas.
- Walk your own street and the next five over, rating every dog you meet from good to very good.
- Take turns leading a walk for ten minutes each while the other follows without asking where.
- Find a free public court and shoot hoops for an hour without keeping count of anything.
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- Skip stones at the nearest lake or river until each of you lands one that bounces five times.
- Pick the neighborhood with the most interesting houses and each choose the one you would live in.
- Bring a bag and pick up litter along a stretch of park path, then rest on the cleanest bench.
- Sit by the water with a thermos from home and watch it go by for one full, unhurried hour.
- Read on a blanket in the park, each with a book from your own shelf, and swap books halfway.
- Follow a free workout video on the grass, with one of you picking the moves and the other the music.
- Lie on the grass after dark and count how many night sounds you can each name.
- Visit an empty playground at dusk and take one turn each on the slide, however silly it feels.
- Walk the loop of a nearby lake or reservoir and tell a story you have never shared at the halfway point.
- Sit side by side on the park swings and talk until the streetlights come on.
- Hike a free trail at golden hour and stop at every bench along the way, even the wobbly ones.
- Watch trains or boats pass from a bridge and guess where each one is headed.
Free at home
Nights in made from what is already on your shelves and in your fridge.
- Drop a pin anywhere on a map app and learn ten facts about that place over a pot of tea.
- Host a pretend cooking show: one of you makes dinner while the other narrates every step like a TV host.
- Make the bed with fresh sheets, open the windows and take an afternoon nap like it’s a holiday.
- Open a board game you own but never play, and read the rules aloud together from page one.
- Record a ten-minute podcast about your week on one phone, taking turns as host and guest.
- Make up a secret handshake and practice it until neither of you has to think.
- Have a karaoke night with free lyric videos and a hairbrush for a microphone.
- Set up a home photo shoot with a lamp for light and a bedsheet as the backdrop.
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- Push the furniture to the walls and hold a dance party that lasts exactly three songs.
- Retell how you met, each from your own side, and enjoy the parts only one of you remembers.
- Plan a whole day out on paper that costs nothing at all, then put it on the calendar.
- Make a list of fifty things you both like, taking turns, until the page is full.
- Turn off the lights and tell each other the plot of a favorite childhood movie from memory.
- Teach each other one thing you are good at, like a card trick or a perfect omelet, in twenty minutes each.
- Hold an awards night for your year together, with made-up categories and a spoon for a trophy.
- Learn a short poem by heart together and recite it to each other over dinner.
- Scroll back to the first messages you ever sent each other and read them aloud.
- Hold a screen-free card night with one deck and a notebook of house rules you invent as you go.
- Eat breakfast on the steps or balcony at sunrise with whatever is already in the kitchen.
- Show each other the dance moves you were proudest of at fifteen, then learn each other’s.
Under $10
A few dollars between you and a plan that still feels like a real date.
- Pick one pastry each at a bakery you have never tried and eat them on the nearest bench.
- Buy a box of sidewalk chalk and draw a giant mural together on the driveway or a quiet path.
- Get two ice cream cones and walk wherever the street takes you until they are gone.
- Buy a cheap kite and fly it in the windiest open field you can find.
- Buy a pack of postcards, write one to your future selves and mail it to your own address.
- Hunt the bargain bin of a used bookstore for the strangest title and read its first page aloud.
- Share one dish from a food truck, choosing the thing neither of you would order alone.
- Buy one good chocolate bar and taste it square by square, describing each bite like an expert.
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- Pick one snack each from the international aisle of a grocery store and try them on the walk home.
- Buy a pack of glow sticks and take a night walk lit only by them.
- Blow bubbles from a cheap bottle on a balcony or porch and watch where the wind takes them.
- Order one milkshake with two straws at a diner and stay for a long talk.
- Swim laps side by side at a public pool on a day pass, then split a snack on the way home.
- Bring a handful of coins to an arcade and spend them all on one two-player game.
- Catch the cheapest showing of the week at a movie theater and share one small popcorn.
- Ride the bus to the end of the line, explore for an hour, then ride back for the price of two fares.
- Buy a small houseplant together, give it a name and agree who waters it which week.
- Shop for a picnic with $10 between you and eat it wherever your walk ends.
- Share a bucket of balls at a driving range and cheer every shot, especially the wild ones.
- Get a slice of pizza each from a by-the-slice counter and eat it on a long walk home.
Around town
Free days, libraries and open doors your town already offers.
- Borrow a board game or a stack of comics from the library and spend the evening with them.
- Check your library’s event calendar and go to whatever free workshop is on this week.
- Find out which day your nearest museum is free and spend that whole visit in one room.
- Sit in on an open rehearsal of a local orchestra, choir or theater group.
- Wander a weekend market and ask one stall holder how they got started.
- Walk a college campus, find its oldest building and sit in its library for an hour.
- Bring a blanket to a free outdoor movie screening in a park when one is on.
- Go to an open mic night as the audience and clap loudest for the most nervous act.
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- Read the community board at a café or library and go to the first free event you find.
- Browse an antique shop and invent the history of the strangest object in it.
- Visit your local history museum and look for the oldest photo of your own street.
- Join a free art walk on a gallery night and each pick one piece you would hang at home.
- Walk through a big furniture store and design your dream living room without buying a thing.
- Sit in a train station or airport arrivals hall for half an hour and watch the reunions.
- Join a free guided walk run by the visitor center or a local volunteer group.
- Sit in on a free public lecture at a college on a subject neither of you knows.
- Try a free first class at a dance or yoga studio, and stay at the back together.
- Bring a few books you have finished to a book swap and come home with one for each other.
- Watch the boats come and go at a harbor or marina and pick the one you would sail away on.
- Play a duet on a public piano if your town has one, even if it’s only chopsticks.
Make it yourself
Homemade snacks, gifts and projects from things you mostly own already.
- Build a marble run across the living room from paper towel tubes and tape.
- Blend fruit that is going soft into ice pops and eat them together the next afternoon.
- Make a coupon book for each other with favors like a foot rub or breakfast in bed.
- Plant a tiny garden in a glass jar with soil, pebbles and moss from your own yard.
- Fold paper flowers from old magazines and give each other a bouquet.
- Mix your own trail mix from what is in the cupboard and take it on a long walk.
- Cut up an old T-shirt and turn it into a tote bag without sewing a single stitch.
- Shoot a one-minute silent movie in your kitchen, with title cards written on paper.
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- Make playdough from flour, salt and water and sculpt your favorite animals with it.
- Press both your handprints into salt dough, bake it, and paint the date on the back.
- Fold a paper fortune teller with questions about each other inside and play it at dinner.
- Twist homemade soft pretzels into the first letters of each other’s names.
- Stir up a sugar scrub in a jar and give it a made-up brand name and label.
- Fold a fleet of paper boats and float them down a creek or across the bathtub.
- Bake a simple cake from pantry staples and draw your favorite day together on it in icing.
- Root cuttings from a houseplant in jars of water and give one to a friend.
- Make granola from oats and honey and fill one jar each for the week.
- Blend a can of chickpeas into hummus and eat it with whatever crackers you have.
- Draw a treasure map of your neighborhood and hide a small note at the X for the other.
- Make a wind chime from old keys, spoons and string and hang it by the door.
Frequently asked questions
How many cheap date ideas are there?
There are 100 ideas, 20 in each of five categories: free outside, free at home, under $10, around town, and make it yourself. The cards and the list on this page use the same set.
What is a good free date idea?
A walk with no destination, with a coin flip at each corner choosing the way, costs nothing and turns a familiar street into a small adventure. Free outside and Free at home are full of others like it.
Are there cheap date ideas for long distance couples?
Many of these work in two places at once, like a free museum day or a bakery treat compared on a video call. For dates built for two cities, see long distance date ideas.
Do these ideas depend on the season?
No, they are written for any time of year. For plans that use the weather, see fall date ideas and winter date ideas.