Date night doesn't need to break the bank

I hear tell the powers that be "They" say that a date  night is a must for a successful marriage.  Problem is "They" also say that financial issues are the number one cause of divorce.  So does this mean that only the rich have a chance for a successful marriage?  I mean seriously, who can afford to pay a sitter plus pay for dinner and a movie or something. It's an impossible task right?  I say NO!!!

Here's why!

Date nights do not have to entail an actual date.  I know I thought that was crazy too.  Rather this is time.  Time together, just the two of you.  Doesn't matter where or when, just take the time to be together and reconnect.

Dh and my weekdays are not good times for us. By the time he gets home from work, we have dinner, other commitments, etc, there isn't much more time for anything else, and our kids are grown!  Saturdays are our days.  Mainly Saturday mornings.  I will get up and make a pot of coffee.  Our bedroom windows face the back yard where we have a few bird feeders.  Granted the view isn't much in the winter, but come spring and summer it is wonderful.  Saturday mornings we lay around in bed drinking coffee and enjoy the view out our windows.  As the sun rises we have conversations about the kids, work, things we want to do around the house, and most of all memories.  We have a lot of those in the almost 24 years we've been married.  Today was no different.  We finally got our day actually started around 10:45.  I had some take and bake made up biscuits that I baked with some turkeu bacon zapped in the microwave.  Add some cheese and we had some awesome bacon cheddar biscuits in bed with our coffee.  Once we got started with our day it was off to drop off a mower to be repaired, and onto my  parents house to collect some cinder block she was giving us.  While there, and after we loaded the blocks,  we enjoyed a glass of tea on the back deck and talked more while watching her dog, Rusty,play.  She and her sister were out on the town.  We knew this going in.  Once home we shared lunch on the back porch and proceeded to unload the blocks from the truck.  Both of us agreed this was a great day.  We had fun, reconnected, but also accomplished a lot!   Now I know our kids are grown and if you have kids that are small this can be hard.  Hey, We've been there.  You find the time.  You may go to bed later or wake up early.  You may need to get a sitter, but go somewhere you can actually carry on a conversation.  Preferably free.

Our date night is always Saturday mornings for us.  Work comes later.  We're together.  Doesn't matter where, doesn't matter what we're doing. Just make that time with each other a priority.

Interesting Point

First and foremost, I have to say, yesterday marked the second pay period where my entire check went to other things.  In other words, we lived off of just Dh paycheck.  The last paycheck was used to pay off the car. WooHOO!  This paycheck is socked away in savings to go toward the repair of Dh truck or the purchase of a second car.  Plan "A" is to repair the truck.

Being in "Debt Free" mode, Dh and I were pleased to be able to see a Dave Ramsey video at church the other day.  Our Pastor was discussing stewardship; using our Time, Talent and Treasure for God.  Interesting series I must say.  Anyway, the treasure part of the series was last Sunday.  One would think this would be a sermon on tithing.  It wasn't.  Instead it was a biblical look at how to properly manage money. I bring all of this up to talk about an important point Dave Ramsey made in this video.   He said when you use cash, as opposed to a credit or debit card, you feel the "pain" of the expense.  In other words you have an immediate concept of how much you're spending.  As a result you will spend less when using cash.

Now I do budget.  I will set aside things like grocery and gas money in the checking account, but I never withdraw the money to just use cash for these expenses.  That is until recently. Now I'm rethinking that.  Well at least the grocery money part.  Gas is easier to get with a debit card, I just make sure to deduct it from the account and the budget once used.  Grocery money is trickier.

We had an extra paycheck in January and while that's great, it throws off my day to get groceries.  As a result instead of grocery money this check, I needed to get grocery money on the 10th.  So last (as in 2 weeks ago)paycheck I budgeted $100 to carry us over.  $50 of this $100 was in cash.  This last 50.  It makes for a good comparison. As a need arose we used that $100 to get us to the 10th.   The last 50 was the most careful though because it was cash.  I have to say Dave was right.  Each time I purchased items I needed with the cash money, I was extremely cognizant of how much I was spending and how much I had left over.  It made me rethink purchases, and prioritize others.  It also made me buckle down and make at home what I could.   So far so good.  I have $6 left over. (smile).   BUT!  We really have no immediate needs.  Today is baking day again.  Bread, Granola, Ranch Dressing, and even doggie treats are on my list.  A wonderful side advantage of this would be to see if this discipline pays off with an even lower grocery bill.  Would that not be awesome?!  So on the 10th, my first stop is to withdraw that cash and use that alone for groceries.

Many hours later......

So here are the fruits of my labor: From top to bottom we have potato chips (to go with lunch), Ranch dressing and bread, and doggie treats.  I also made two batches of Granola,  but forgot to get a pic.  My bad.

This is what the girls looked like while I worked on their treats:

Needless to say the treats are a big hit.  Jesse's pic is a bit blurry because she kept moving back and forth, but you get the jest.  So all in all a good day.    A penny saved is a penny earned!