We all know the economy isn’t doing great right now – you don’t need me to remind you of that. So, some of us might be looking to do Valentine’s Day on a budget this year. Which isn’t a bad thing because to me, Valentine’s Day isn’t about showering one another in expensive gifts. It’s about spending time with a loved one. These date ideas are also perfect if you and your significant other don’t see one another often and want some alone time (if your S/O works out of town, trust me, I feel your pain), or if you just prefer a quiet, intimate date night instead of going out and being surrounded by other people on one of the busiest romantic days of the year!
Decorating Cookies
This was a really fun activity for my boyfriend and I to do – we shared a lot of laughs while decorating our cookies, and enjoyed showing off our designs to one another.
Decorating these sugar cookies makes for a great afternoon date, and leaves you with a good dessert after your Valentine’s Dinner!
These are just your basic sugar cookies, and I used a heart-shaped cookie cutter when making them to make it more Valentine-themed. If you want to use the same recipe I used, you can find it here. Just a tip – this recipe requires you to chill the dough in the fridge for at least six hours, so I recommend preparing the dough at least a day in advance so you can chill it, and then bake it the next day, and still leave your cookies with plenty of time to cool. If you prepare the dough in the morning, and then bake the cookies in the afternoon, they might be too warm when you go to decorate them and the icing may just melt right off.
You can obviously use icing, sprinkles, candies, whatever your heart desires to decorate these cookies! We just used black and red icing to keep it simple – I was more concerned about waste since I don’t do very much decorative baking, so I didn’t want to load up on a bunch of supplies and then never use them again.
You could also write cute messages to one another on the cookies, or write things you love about one another. This would be a great idea as well if you were making these cookies to give to someone as a gift! We just used a smaller tube of black icing for our designs, but if you wanted to write messages you could use little icing pens like these to write your messages directly onto the plain cookie, and then decorate around it.
Romantic Dinner at Home
You don’t need to go out to a restaurant to have a romantic dinner. In fact, I think I personally prefer to do a nice date-night dinner at home, especially on a night like Valentine’s Day when you know the restaurants are all going to be packed and noisy! If you stay home, you can enjoy your time together without any distractions, and you can easily have a conversation without competing with the restaurant noise or being interrupted by a waiter coming to check on you (I always feel the need to halt my conversation when the waiter comes to the table, and it can make for some awkward pauses while they clear the plates away!)
Cooking is also honestly such a great way to bond. When you’re cooking a meal together – even one as simple as spaghetti and meatballs – it requires teamwork and communication, which are key in a relationship! Michael and I split up the meal responsibilities, with him taking care of the meatballs and sauce, and I took care of the pasta and garlic bread (yes I had the easier part, but Michael is a much better cook than I am, so it was the wisest choice to leave me with the simpler tasks).
It also allows you to practice leaning on one another for support when you need it during the cooking process, or to impress one another with your knowledge and skills. I was meant to be in charge of the pasta, but I all I really did was boil the water, and then Michael wanted to show me his technique of twisting the spaghetti before putting it in the water – it was a cool trick to learn!
The best part of the whole experience, of course, comes at the end when you get to sit down together and enjoy the meal you worked hard as a team to put together! Plus, it feels good to compliment one another on their skills in regards to what each of you contributed to the meal.
I don’t have the recipe for the meatballs as Michael tends to just know what to do in the kitchen and is able to make things up as he goes along without following a recipe. But I have the recipe for the garlic bread – it’s one that I found in one of my grandma’s recipe books, and if you love garlic then you’ll love this garlic bread!
Movie Night
Movie nights are one of my absolute favourite date night activities! I do enjoy going to the cinema to watch movies as well, but honestly, I think having a movie night at home is way better.
You can get cozy in your PJs and blankets, and cuddle up together on the couch – and even fall asleep during the movie if you want to! And it can be nice to make comments to one another during the movie, or, if you’re like me, ask questions if you’re struggling to follow what’s happening at certain points in the plot!
And the best part, in my opinion, is the fact that you can have a variety of your favourite snacks to munch on during the movie without breaking the bank (WTF @ the outrageous prices of cinema snacks).
Here are some of my favourite romantic films that I’d recommend watching for your Valentine’s Day movie night…
- To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
- Say Anything
- The Vow
- The Holiday
Happy Valentine’s Day!
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