DH & I have a weekly date night. Nope, it's not an extravagance - I think of it as an investment. And sooo much cheaper than couples counseling...but I digress. We've been kickin' around different ideas for date nights, with Chicago's Botanical Gardens, St. Charles Park District (paddle-wheel boat, peddle boats, and minigolf), and summer berry pickin' coming to mind for fresh new ideas. Since I was still somewhat miffed over the sunburn last weekend, we decided to keep it indoors and go with a safe route - dinner and a movie.
I used to think dinner and a movie was too expensive for a couple to do more than once every few months, but we've got it down to a science. Movie tickets - $5 each. No joke. Nice theater, movable armrests, stadium-style seating, good neighborhood, free refills on popcorn and soda, and they even have punch cards - every 8th ticket is free! What's not to love?! If you live in Chicagoland, check out Classic Cinemas - I swear it's love at first sight. And I'm not the biggest fan to going to the movies (DH is - it's a way of life to him) but I would recommend that theater to anyone. Totally worth it!
As for the dinner portion, T.G.I.Fridays has been tossing B1G1Free entree's at us every other month, and with my love of DragonFire Chicken, it's hard to say no. And being a member of their Stripes club (costs nothing to join - another savings!), we get points toward free appetizers. We splurged on a nice dinner out - with dessert and spent only $19.14. And that does include tip. It was a great Saturday night - lowkey and fun!
Sunday, after dinner, we picked up DaMama for an ice cream cone over at Colonial Cafe where - for the month of July, single scoop ice cream cones are $.50! Our total there was $1.62 for the three of us! Looks like fun in the summer sun just got tastier, and cheaper than ever before!
I used to think dinner and a movie was too expensive for a couple to do more than once every few months, but we've got it down to a science. Movie tickets - $5 each. No joke. Nice theater, movable armrests, stadium-style seating, good neighborhood, free refills on popcorn and soda, and they even have punch cards - every 8th ticket is free! What's not to love?! If you live in Chicagoland, check out Classic Cinemas - I swear it's love at first sight. And I'm not the biggest fan to going to the movies (DH is - it's a way of life to him) but I would recommend that theater to anyone. Totally worth it!
As for the dinner portion, T.G.I.Fridays has been tossing B1G1Free entree's at us every other month, and with my love of DragonFire Chicken, it's hard to say no. And being a member of their Stripes club (costs nothing to join - another savings!), we get points toward free appetizers. We splurged on a nice dinner out - with dessert and spent only $19.14. And that does include tip. It was a great Saturday night - lowkey and fun!
Sunday, after dinner, we picked up DaMama for an ice cream cone over at Colonial Cafe where - for the month of July, single scoop ice cream cones are $.50! Our total there was $1.62 for the three of us! Looks like fun in the summer sun just got tastier, and cheaper than ever before!
Posts
My best friend (for lack of a better term) but not husband, decided he could cook everything our favorite restaurant had that we spend $25 on incl tip. So yesterday he made steak tacos (we forgot lettuce and tomato but it was still good) with white corn tortillas (I don't like the yellow). Guacamole, and my favorite refried beans (not from a can). He cooks it all (I am allowed to check the water level on the beans). Since I love Popeye's red beans and rice this is so much better as I made rice and mixed it for later just for me. I look forward to our weekend meal more now than I did when we were going to the restaurants. He happily points out that he made the dinner for about $5 for everyone (my 2 grown sons if they are around too) including refried beans to keep me happy for a week.
Btw, the Chicago Botanic Garden is the best. Have you ever gone walking through the back forest area? Even has a little bench area to relax for a bit away from the crowd and completely in nature.
That sounds like a wonderful evening. I am glad you have a decent movie theater to go to. We have a super one here. It is about an hour away, but is the best theater and never packed. The sound system is kick ass too. It is totally worth the drive for us if we want to go out for a movie. And the ice cream sounds like a wonderful idea.
Helene - we're going to replace 1-2 date nights each month with a date-night in - where we try to make a favorite restaurant dish. This week will be me attempting chinese takeout - with fried rice. I'm looking for an easy recipe for chicken satay (peanut chicken).
Central - I love that movie theater - and the $.50 ice cream cones are a perfect fit for July!
I had to laugh at the "cheaper than couples counseling." you are funny! I agree we all need to change it up from time to time. And thanks for the tip about the theater but it might be a bit too far for us. We have been going to the drive in. It's $7 a person for 2 movies. And we make coffee ice cream drinks so we can stay up until 2am.
Thanks for the post.
Drive-in sounds like a lot of fun, too!