A Monthly Date Challenge

As Alex and I near our one year wedding anniversary (crazy that it's already been almost a year!) We've started reflecting on some things that have marked our first year. One of the themes for our year that {unfortunately} stood out, was the fact that we budgeted for entertainment every month... and hardly used all (if any) of that budget.

Now, we still had fun, and we know that fun doesn't always have to cost money, but we realize a year later that maybe we should have actually spent some of what we budgeted.

I'm a crazy frugal person- I like math, calculators, and budgets... and most of all I like saving money. When I got married, I never in a million years thought that I would marry someone more frugal than myself.

But I did. 

And although we are frugal in different ways, our frugality means that we stay home a lot. Maybe a little too much. Maybe so much that our families and even some close friends have to remind us that it's okay to spend money on fun things. And remind us that it's okay to spend money on a vacation.

Our habit over the past year has become staying at home and watching Netflix. Microwave popcorn and the couch have been our near constant companions. And while this makes an absolutely lovely date, we realize now that maybe we should have added a little variety. We'll occasionally go out to Chik-Fil-A on a Friday night (we're high class, people), and we've done a handful of dinner dates at various other elegant restaurants like Red Robin.

As we talked one night about this habit we've formed, we remembered that we "dated" a lot more before we were married. I think it had a lot to do with the fact that we weren't living together and we intentionally had to make time to do something fun. A year into the married life, and we still have fun, but it doesn't feel as intentional as it used to.

And so we decided that something needed to change... Enter...

THE MONTHLY DATE CHALLENGE 

For the month of August {and hopefully subsequent months}, we decided that we are going to do two planned dates.

Alex plans one.

I plan the other.

We're each going to plan one because:

#1 We both like to be surprised

#2 We each have different ideas about what to do for date night (Alex has way better ideas than me!)

#3 If I plan one, that takes the expectation off of him to come up with all {or most} of our date ideas. Which is a win-win for both of us.

We haven't set a budget yet but I think it will probably look like where one of us plans a "stay-in" date, and the other plans a "go out" date.

I'll be reporting back in September with a "report" of each of the dates {pictures included}!

 

Will you join me in intentionally dating your spouse/significant other? 

 

Have you ever had to make dating your spouse/significant other a habit?