When you are in a relationship it is very tempting to spend a lot of money on dates, gifts, days out and much more. But if your on a budget this can be hard to do.
My boyfriend and I used to spend a ridiculous amount of money on meals out, date nights it was insane. I remember one meal cost us nearly £100 and we were still hungry after!
Now we try our best to keep the cost of our dates down buy doing free days out, finding vouchers or just staying in. We do still treat ourselves for our birthdays or anniversaries but not very often.
In this blog post I will be sharing some of the dates, gift ideas and much more that we do to keep the romance and fun going and not ruining our bank balance.
Gifts:
I love giving gifts to my boyfriend, I absolutely love spoiling him with gifts. But, now that we are saving for a our first house we have decided to reduce our budget for each other. We used to spend £50-£100 on each other, I know for some people this isn’t a lot. But at the beginning of our relationship we were on low income and struggling.
We now usually spend less then £50 on each other and we have agreed no presents for our anniversary as we usually go away.
I have also changed the type of presents that I buy him, I used to buy a lot of expensive items, but now I do a cheaper gifts which have more meaning. It was my boyfriends birthday in June and I came up with the idea to create a hamper. I decided to create it myself as its more personal.
This hamper included:
- Mason jar of sweets (£6)
- Fluffy blanket (£10)
- Beer (£5)
- Pyjamas (£10)
- homemade ticket to “cinema” (£0)
Total: £30
When I looked online most hampers cost anywhere from £30 -£80 and this one was more personal with a homemade ticket to the “cinema” (I used pinterest to help me create it.)
My boyfriends favourite types of gifts I give him are the more personal ones and sometimes these are cheapest!
Can you bake? Or are you crafty? Create a homemade gift as its cheaper and they will love it even more.
Date nights:
Date nights can be a bit expensive, going out for meals, cinema dates, crazy golf, drinks whatever it is sometimes it can be expensive. My boyfriend and I used to go our for a fancy meal twice a week which adds up.
To reduce the cost of your meals find vouchers, discount codes and use gift cards. This may seem embarrassing but if you are anything like my boyfriend and I, we want to save money. We are both working hard for the same goal and if we can save £20 on a meal we are going to do it.
To make date night /date days cheaper think of different things you can do that are free or cost very little money. My favourite thing to do (weather permitting) is to have a picnic in the sun, I make the food bring our own drinks and it is so romantic. We both use our phones to play background music.
To me our most romantic dates are the simple ones, a nice walk along a beach, park or even where you live. Its great to catch up with your partner and spend some quality time together.
Free days /cheap days out:
I didn’t think that you could have a romantic date for free but you can! As I said above, a walk around your local area, a trip to the beach is great. Bring your own food which will reduce the cost, or don’t and then you will have a completely free day!
I live in Bristol, so I am very lucky there are a lot of beautiful walking paths near me a river down the round so we are always going out and exploring Bristol and getting some exercise as well.
The best tip I have to find free days out is type into google where you live for example “free things to do in Bristol” and this always comes up with a list of suggestions.
Holidays:
There is nothing like going on holiday with the one you love, but it can be pricey. We mainly holiday in the UK and we have had some amazing cheap holidays. I use booking.com which finds the best deals on hotels and bed and breakfast. I have also created an account with them and if you use them a few times you get sent discount codes which has helped us so much. Another great feature of using booking.com is that a lot of the hotels allow you to pay on the day, and free cancellations, this allows you time to book in advance and safe up before your trip.
Holidaying in the UK has allowed us to explore the country we live in, and save money.
I hope some of these tips will help keep the romance alive in your relationship without you breaking up with your bank balance.
How do you keep the romance alive whilst on a budget?
Let me know in the comments below ☺️
Budgetwithme1 
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