9 LDR & Cost Friendly Ideas for Common Date Nights

Dating doesn’t always mean spending a lot of money, or doing really exhausting and extravagant things. There are free dates, expensive dates, and those dates in between that merge with daily life and getting to know your love interest. JB and I already fell in love long distance, but these are easy, and inexpensive dates to do in person or far apart that you might already do, but need to some new ideas on.

Binge Watching

JB & D recommendations:

• Black Mirror, Altered Carbon, Real Estate Shows. There are so many streaming options now. Get lost in long conversations about technology and the future, or dream about your future perfect home. The all-telling Netflix reveals your inner interests and imaginings in an easy, entertaining video form. 

Price:

Netflix: $7.99/month

Amazon Prime Video: $12.99/month

Hulu: $7.99/month

LOTR DVD set: One time $25 fee.

Obviously optional if not a fantasy nerd like ourselves, but this is the best $25 can buy for a nostalgic 557 minutes of hobbits, magic, and over the phone cuddles… that JB is just now finding out that I am planning to purchase for an upcoming trip when he reads this.

Ideas:

1. Create and send a movie care package! Popcorn, a cozy blanket, and your favorite snacks. This is a great opportunity to show off how you care about how much they love cinnamon flavored gummy treats. And then you get to steal them anyway. 
2. Not the creating type? Amazon has you covered with Sweet Treat Set ($22.95).
3. While the LDR was a joke, do not underestimate the power of purchasing your date’s favorite series they don’t own, and hunkering down for a day to partake in their world.
4. Avoid the countdown, and use a one of these streaming apps to make sure you’re watching the same thing at the same time.

3...2...1… dangit. Back to 0. For the third time.

Eating Together

JB & D recommendations:

• Cook together!

What great fun it is to get the frying pan sizzling to create an edible masterpiece alongside your date. If you don’t already know how to, you learn, or don’t. Either way, you come out with food, laughs, and memories.

• If cooking isn’t your thing, get takeout from the same place. 

Panda Express, Wendy’s, Jimmy John’s, Chinese

Price:

Take Out Average: $4.60-$12.50/meal

Cooking at Home: $5.15/meal (USDA)

Ideas:

1. Sign up for a preassembled food delivery service like Blue Apron ($10.99/meal), who made our dreams come true and teamed up with Whole30 to provide approved meals, or Hello Fresh ($9.99/meal). These are stellar together or apart, because they take out the extra added time finding the perfect recipe, keeps your ingredients always fresh, healthy, and perfectly proportioned, and eliminates time consuming shopping for the same ingredients (although this can be very fun all on it’s own - I know where things are in JB’s grocery store more than he does sometimes).
2. Make it cozy and add some atmosphere. Add some candles, a glass of wine, like a real date night. You betcha you can do this over skype too!
3. Combine with binge watching, and grab a TV table. Food and movies! 
4. Start a clean eating challenge. Pick up our favorite Whole30 cookbook ($18) and prepare to have your life and taste buds forever changed. Whole30: $5.88/meal - Rebecca Lehmann has a REALLY awesome breakdown and explanation of the costs associated with eating fast and eating clean.  
5. Meal Prep together, including using those recipes from #4. Like we talked about before in 3 Surprising Ways Long Distance Relationships Indulge Your Inner Foodie, you want to look good for your date, and doing that cost effectively, and calorie conscious, is a great start. Set up skype, and start planning and chopping!

Let the clean chopping begin!