2.6.17 84

10 Valentine’s Dates On A Budget

Oh Valentine’s Day. You either love it or hate it. Some people find it too commercial, and others look at it as a day to spend with someone they love, be it a significant other, friend, or family member. I personally love it, but I don’t like the “obligation” to spend a lot of money. So today I am sharing 10 Valentine’s Dates on a budget so that no matter what you do you have ideas!

valentines dates on a budget

10 Valentine’s Dates On A Budget

  1. Cook together at home and shop for the meal together. This is such a fun activity because I love cooking with Andrew. We always have the best time chatting. Bonus if you can have wine during! I wish I could haha.
  2. Plan a picnic. If you live somewhere with nice weather go on a Valentine’s picnic! You could each be responsible for part of the meal. If it’s too cold, picnic inside!
  3. See a double feature at the $1 theater! Surely you missed a movie or two here and there. Go see them on the cheap and each of you pick one!
  4. Go ice skating! Always a fun time.
  5. Go somewhere like Target and take a $25 budget and find something fun for each other!
  6. Have any gift cards laying around? Use them and have a date for free somewhere.
  7. Instead of dinner, go out for breakfast. Usually a lot less expensive but still fun.
  8. Take a workout class together. Bonus if you try a new one.
  9. Go for a hike, walk, or bike ride. Still spending time together but also staying healthy.
  10. Cuddle up on the couch with popcorn and wine and watch a movie!

There are so many ways to have a fun Valentine’s Day date on a budget. You don’t have to spend a ton of money to show someone you love them. That’s not what it’s about.

What Valentine’s dates on a budget would you suggest? Leave them below!

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84 Comments

  1. I’m already planning to do one and two. And both my boyfriend and I want to try hiking/biking/doing some outdoors stuff… but we’re so lazy haha!

    Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
    http://charmainenyw.com

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  2. I wish we had movies for a $1, they’d be great for me and my son. Hubby and I don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day any more but I do get my kids a little something.

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    • rachel wrote:

      There’s always Redbox for $1.50 — or we let them pick one from the library!

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  3. Yulissa wrote:

    Love your ideas! Speacially the breakfast. We usually go to dinner but breakfast could be more fun and different

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  4. These are all great budget friendly ideas to celebrate Valentine’s Day. My husband and I are fine with staying home, doing movie marathons with popcorn or wine and cheese. We enjoy the simple pleasures in life and of course, being thankful for the blissful years of togetherness. I’m sharing this post with my daughter. It is her 2nd Valentine’s day as a mom and I know she’ll love to celebrate it with her husband and son.

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  5. I love to cook at home! It is my favorite thing besides going for hikes!
    -Jenn
    joyfuliowan.com

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  6. Rojielyn wrote:

    these are cool tips! thanks for the idea 🙂

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  7. I’m not a big believer in spending a ton of money on Valentine’s Day. I like to just spend a quiet evening in and binge watch something on Netflix or Hulu.

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  8. Jackie wrote:

    We have so many gift cards laying around that we need to use. They’d be perfect for a date night!

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  9. Yes!! These are all great ideas 🙂 We try to do a lot of these frequently – my husband is big on treating each other ‘special’ all the time…but I would definitely love to go out to the movies more haha. Target would have been #1 on my list…but it left Canada 🙁 …still in mourning. Thanks for sharing!!

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  10. We go out for Valentine’s day every other year and this year it is our time to stay in and cook! I love doing this with my husband, we will get appetizers, dinner and a dessert!

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  11. We’ve decided not to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Just always seemed too forced. Especially since our anniversary is in late January.

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  12. Chrissy wrote:

    These are all really fun ideas! We never really celebrate Valentine’s Day because it’s also my dad’s birthday, so it’s kind of his day, but we always do something special the following weekend to make up for it. This year we are taking a 2 day trip to Berlin bc it’s also my birthday weekend! So looking forward to that!

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  13. Francesca wrote:

    So many great ideaz! I love cooking with my husband, I’ll definitely be using some of these other ideas!

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  14. These are all great date night ideas! My husband and I often cook together at home for Valentine’s Day.

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  15. My husband and I have a bunch of gift cards for Christmas we’re thinking of using for Vday instead of spending a ton of money.

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  16. Brittany wrote:

    A picnic and a cheap movie sound like a really great idea!

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  17. Tammy wrote:

    I LOVE the $1 theater. Hubby and I go a few times a year. A time to hold hands and enjoy each others company. We have Day Dates at least once a month where we will get in the car and go some where we haven’t been before. Great list.

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  18. Chelsea wrote:

    Going out for dinner vs. breakfast…what an amazing idea! We are all about going out for breakfast. We have a cafe that we always go to 🙂

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  19. Ashley wrote:

    These are awesome ideas! They create TONS of quality time!

    Ashley @ A Cute Angle // acutelifestyle.blogspot.com

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  20. Lisa wrote:

    What great ideas!! My hubby and I used to rent an entire rink out for ourselves and skate on Valentine’s day!! So much fun!

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  21. I just did a blog post on Valentine’s Day dates under $20…I’m SO into budget dating. It’s creative AND fun!!

    Coming Up Roses

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  22. Love these ideas! My husband and I never want to spend too much for Valentine’s Day, but I still like celebrating it 🙂 Will have to try the breakfast date this year!

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  23. Carrie wrote:

    These are great! Love the idea of going out to breakfast instead of dinner because it is less expensive. Also the cooking together, especially since both my husband and I love to cook. Thanks for the ideas!

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  24. These are great ideas! At home date nights are my jam!

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  25. Alicia wrote:

    I enjoy Valentine’s Day with our kids and husband every year. We tend to pick a meal and I cook it and kids help do a cake or something fun for dessert 🙂

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  26. Kim wrote:

    Love these! Is it bad that Valentine’s Day is almost my favorite holiday? It is just a tad under Thanksgiving lol!

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  27. Kate wrote:

    This is full of such sweet and fun ideas, I often find people try to impress but often its is the simpler date nights which work best. Unfortunately for me I married a chap born on Valentines which means none for me! I was mad. Enjoy yours.

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  28. Courtney wrote:

    Your blog is SO beautiful and I absolutely love this post! On a little bit of a budget right now, so I appreciate this list! Just love your entire blog!

    xoxo
    Courtney
    http://www.sproutedfresh.co

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  29. CourtneyLynne wrote:

    Omg so many cute ideas!!!!! I would of never thought about a Valentine’s Day breakfast! That sounds like a great idea

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  30. Oooh ice skating sounds so fun! I wish we had a place to do that, here!

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  31. These are all great ideas. My hubby & I always spend Valentine’s Day snuggled in at home with our son so I think some of these low key ideas are perfect for family time. I love the idea of going out for breakfast instead, I truly think that one is my favorite and going to Target together with a $25 budget to buy something for each other. I love it!!!

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  32. I love that Target idea, it’s so creative and I bet really fun!

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  33. loren wrote:

    Thank you for sharing such a great Ideas!!!!

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  34. Annie wrote:

    My husband and I never go too crazy for Valentine’s Day. This year I’m planning a really nice charcuterie board and good wine!

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  35. We don´t really do Valentine´s, but love these idea for a nice date on any day! Thanks for tips!

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  36. These are some great ideas! I am a huge fan of movies and wine. Our first date was a double feature at the dollar movies. haha. 🙂

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  37. Lindsay wrote:

    Such great ideas! I love a good at home date; this year I think we’ll be trying our new fondue set for Valentines Day.

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  38. LOVE!!! Awesome ideas! Going to implement some of these this week!

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  39. Krysten wrote:

    I love the Target idea! I might have to do that with the hubby this year, it seems like something really fun to do!

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  40. really great ideas!!

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  41. Meghan wrote:

    While I don’t have any $1 theatres around, I go prefer matinees! All of these are great ideas. Me and my boyfriend don’t celebrate but we are planning on coming together for the day.

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  42. Nellwyn wrote:

    These are all great date ideas! Cooking together is always fun and I love picnics! It’s a little too cold for them right now here in Toronto but I’ll have to remember to plan one in the spring.

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  43. These are such cute ideas!! My favorite is the picnic we try to go on these pretty regularly. Last year we took our picnic out on the lake with our kayaks. It was beautiful although it wasn’t on Valentines day it was still fun.

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  44. Divya wrote:

    I think we’re spending V-Day in this year! We have a gala on the 11th for his medical school so that’ll be our big hurrah and then we’ll have a nice and quiet night in. (Yes, with wine! Don’t worry. I’ll drink enough for the both of us!)

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  45. I love all of these! Sometimes the smallest ideas end up being the most memorable. In fact, some of the best dates that I can remember began as some of the least “exciting” ones lol.

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  46. Leila wrote:

    Great list. Most likely we are going for option 1 or 10 🙂 but love breakfast idea.

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  47. All of these are fab ideas! My husband & I will most likely cook together at home & watch a movie! Oh & bowling was another idea that came to mind! ?Thanks for sharing!

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  48. Cute ideas. I hope you enjoy your Valentine’s Day together.

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  49. These are all perfect ideas! But $1 theatre?!?! If only that was a thing in Australia 😛 Instead it’s like $15+ per ticket for a movie, haha!

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  50. Jenny wrote:

    Such great ideas, Neely. We’re going to a typical dinner but I’m excited for it haha.

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  51. Emily wrote:

    I love the Target idea! So fun to pick out something small and thoughtful for each other…although we usually end up getting each other candy!

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  52. we did picnic once and it was a lot of fun!

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  53. Rachel wrote:

    These are all great ideas! Movie nights in are always the best in my book!

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  54. Cait wrote:

    Such great date ideas! I always love getting outside for a good hike together.

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  55. Kate wrote:

    Great ideas! I’m always looking for date ideas within our budget!

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  56. Silvia wrote:

    Ice Skating is such a good idea! I have to bring it up to my bf!

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  57. Christina wrote:

    Such great ideas! I can’t wait for Valentine’s Day

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  58. some of my favorite date nights are the ones we spend at home snugling on the couch eating popcorn and watching a movie.

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  59. Love the idea of the picnic. This is so romantic and fairly easy to put together. The idea of the breakfast is also lovely. My husband and I we enjoy breakfast a lot.

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  60. Abby wrote:

    I love the idea of staying at home and cooking your own meal. That would be the perfect Valentine’s Day for me over having an expensive dinner date in a restaurant!

    Abby of Life in the Fash Lane

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  61. Mamaguru wrote:

    I like the breakfast idea! Also, lunch is less expensive! I used to love having a 4 hour lunch with my husband!

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  62. Alicia wrote:

    I love the idea of going out to breakfast/brunch instead of dinner! Dinner gets so expensive, and quite honestly, I prefer brunch foods anyway!!

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  63. Brittany wrote:

    These are really cute ideas!

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  64. Kate A wrote:

    I love the suggestion of going out to breakfast! So much fun, super yummy, and not nearly as expensive as dinner out!

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  65. I’m definitely going for number 1 or 7 🙂 A date doesn’t always have to be expensive to feel the love <3

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  66. Ruthie wrote:

    Love this list!! Going out for breakfast is a great idea!!

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  67. Jen wrote:

    Great date ideas! I love Valentine’s day but hate spending a lot of money on it … I think I’m making my husband a card and maybe we’ll go out for breakfast – love that idea!

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  68. Lanae Bond wrote:

    Excellent ideas for Valentine’s Day! These ideas are budget friendly and cute to do!

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  69. Alexis wrote:

    I love your ideas! I have my date ideas post scheduled for Friday and we have a couple of the same ideas. I love mixing things up for Valentine’s Day!

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  70. Rachel wrote:

    I love these ideas! We aren’t big on Valentine’s Day but some of these would be great.

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  71. Eryn Lynum wrote:

    Great ideas! We actually prefer breakfast (or brunch) dates over dinner dates not only for saving money, but because we’re not dead tired after a day of work and baby raising 😉

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  72. I love all of these dates! We almost never celebrate (whoops)!

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  73. Fun date ideas! We have the kids and no sitter this year so we’ll have to plan something fun for the whole family.

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  74. I like no. 7! And maybe I’ll do just that… since I’m supposed to think of our V-Day plans but I have not! 😛

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  75. Natasha wrote:

    Love all of these ideas. I’d love to go ice skating with the Hubs, we haven’t done that together. The idea about going to somewhere like Target with a $25 spending limit is genius…I can really require imagination. Great list.

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  76. Number 10 is probably most likely to happen. 🙂 The hubs thinks Valentine’s Day is silly so we never do much. Maaybe dinner on the weekend before or after to miss the crowd.

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  77. I love the idea of the picnic and going out for breakfast! Those are GREAT ideas! I’ll have to show this to my husband!

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  78. Southern & Style wrote:

    On actual Valentine’s Day we’re doing the cooking at home thing. We have steaks in the freezer (luckily we have a beef farm, so we’re set 😉 ) and I’m going to go all out cooking a traditional steakhouse dinner, since the hubs will be working late. But then, the following weekend he’s treating me to a surprise date. It all balances out 🙂

    xoxo, SS

    Southern And Style

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  79. Love your Valentines date ideas! They’re all great ideas and so much fun! ❤️

    Published 12.13.21
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  80. Stephanie wrote:

    You basically made a list of our favorite kinds of date nights – for Valentine’s or any other time! Great suggestions 🙂 We usually do a combo of 2 and 10!

    Published 12.14.21
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  81. Deborah wrote:

    I love this! Valentine’s Day is actually when I met my husband so it’s an extra special day for us! I think this year I’ll suggest we do a hike!

    Published 12.14.21
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  82. Amanda wrote:

    The picnic idea is so cute! I’m still trying to get through the holidays but will def keep these in mind for when Valentine’s Day rolls around

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  83. These are excellent ideas! We turn V-Day into a family affair with a big dinner at home and dessert. Then my husband and I usually watch a movie or play a board game.

    Published 12.21.21
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