12 Date Nights For A Year!

So I may have mentioned a million times once or twice on here that I'm pretty frugal. What I might NOT have said yet is that I like being that way! When I'm clipping coupons, I'm kind of in my happy place. For those of you that are a fellow "clipper" you know what I mean. Finding a major discount on something I already needed with a coupon code I hunted for for about 20 minutes brings me no greater thrill. When my sister decided to clean out her closet for the first time in eight years and I came home with four huge bags of new (to me) clothes, I was over the moon excited.

So when I told Hub all I wanted for Valentine's Day was a leg rub (I'm a fitness instructor so it is much needed) and dinner just the two of us, and he agreed, I was thrilled. See Hub is not like me in the fact that he feels the need to go overboard any chance he gets since it's just us two right now. We're actually going to start having kids soon and he just wants to spoil me while he can. He knows once the kiddos get here all we'll want to do is spoil them, so he wants to take advantage of it just being us right now. I'm telling you, he's the best one out there.

Although we didn't do actual gifts, we did come up with an idea that was like a gift and that would last all year long. 12 Date Nights for the next year!

Going out to eat once a month isn't going to break our budget, so I was totally ok with this idea. As you can see there are three pink, three blue and six yellow pieces of paper. That means we each picked three of our favorite places to eat that the other one didn't have a say in and six places we both like to go. There are only a couple places I really really like that Hub can't stand and vice versa. This gives us each a chance to go out to places we usually never get to go to. Make sense? :)

The "rules" are simple. The last day of the month Hub gets paid, so that night we'll draw from the jar and head out. Seeing as the jar is see-through, we'll just cover our eyes and reach in there. No peeking!!

This is great for both of us because A: we NEVER go out to eat, B: we can never decide where we're going to eat once we do decide to go out, and C: it's just fun!

I'm sure many of you are thinking "Why just going out to eat? Why not change up the date nights?". Honestly we already do so many fun and new things that don't cost money like car shows, picnics at reservoirs, art museums, fairs, dancing to local bands, and movies in the park. And if we are going to spend $50 we'd rather spend it on awesome food and service than anything else. We're foodies! Plus Hub thinks we won't go out to eat a lot soon after we have a baby and wants us to enjoy it while we can. Always thinking of his family! I'm too lucky.

All I needed was construction paper, markers, scissors and a jar I wasn't using anymore. I cut up the paper into squares and put the names of the restaurants and little doodles about each place on them just for fun. Remember we don't have kids so if I would've coated these with glitter and stickers that would've been a lot and my Hub wouldn't have been anymore impressed than he is with my artwork doodles. :)

Some of the places we picked were chains, while others are just found locally and one will actually require a trip back to my Alma Mater...go IU!

This was so simple and it was a lot of fun talking with Hub about where we wanted to go. Most suggestions we gave were followed by a story about a time we went to that restaurant. Like the time we went to Olive Garden and waited for over an hour for our food and had three servers take our order and two managers come up and apologize. That was an interesting night. Or when we went to Bravo and I met my now mother-in-law for the first time and I was so nervous I could barely eat. It was nice reminiscing with Hub.

Supplies:
Different colored construction paper (or all the same color if that's all you have :)
Scissors
Markers
Empty jar

Directions:
First is the fun part...decide where you want to go.

Fold the construction paper in half vertically then horizontally. Cut along the folds and use these to write down the restaurants (or any fun place) you want to visit.

Add your artwork and flare, fold up the paper and put it in the jar.

Done! 12 Date Nights waiting patiently for you to choose one!

Did you have an amazing Valentine's weekend? Are you a clipper like me? If you know any coupon sites I should know about I'd love if you'd share!

Thanks for stopping by!

**I linked up to nifty thrifty tuesday, metamorphosis monday, the diy'ers, give me the goods, a frugal crafty hop, much ado about monday, amaze me mondays, busy mondays, think pink sundays the best of the weekend, weekend potluck, tickled pink, thursday style, friday flash, kitchen fun and crafty friday, wicked awesome wednesday, inspire me wednesday, whats cookin wednesday, wake up wednesday, SoMe2, creative muster, tutorial tuesday, link party tuesday, tuesday talent show, share your stuff tuesdays, titus 2 tuesday, the scoop