What to do on a date night: 52 Cheap Ideas and tips on date nights

One of the most effective ways to keep relationships thriving is by spending quality time together. Unfortunately, with all of today's technological advances, it has become increasingly difficult to carve out that necessary time for each other. With long work days, helping our kids with their homework issues, transporting them by car or bus around to their extra-curricular activities, making dinner, cleaning up, and getting ready for bed, how do we find the precious space needed to invest in nurturing our relationships?

Unless you and your partner take the time to invest in your relationship, you might feel like other things crowding in and taking up all of the time you do have. Perhaps designating one night as "date night" with your spouse or significant other could help make the most out of the precious little amount of time you do have. Another way to work on furthering your relationship with one another is by coming up with creative ways to make memories without spending too much money.

To help get you and your partner started, I've come up with some suggestions for how you can make more time for each other. What follows is a comprehensive list of 52 ways you can get creative together at no cost. Feel free to add or modify any items on the list to suit your particular relationship and circumstances.

During Winter

1. Take a drive to look at the Christmas decorations.

2. Play cards---perhaps strip poker.

3. Watch a movie together.

4. Go outside and have a snowball fight.

5. Get some finger paints and create your body art with each other as your canvass.

6. Go sleigh riding.

7. Go ice skating.

8. Work out or exercise together.

9. Stage your improvisation show.

10. Sing to each other.

11. Review or create a photo album or scrapbook of your memories together.

12. Play a board game---perhaps chess, Scrabble or Twister.

13. Go to a book store, get coffee and read for hours.

During Spring

14. Work on a remodeling project together.

15. Plan and complete a yard work project together.

16. Do the spring cleaning together---room by room. When done, reward yourself by making love in the room you've cleaned.

17. Put on old clothes, and mud wrestle after some drenching rain.

18. Give each other a massage.

19. Play catch---football, baseball, softball, or Frisbee.

20. Go to a car dealer, and test drive the car of your dreams.

21. Shoot basketball together.

22. Dance together.

23. Take a shower together and wash each other---everywhere.

24. Take a free adult education class together.

25. Go to a mall and have a contest to see which one of you can get the most free samples.

26. Go rollerblading or bike riding.

During Summer

27. Build a campfire and roast marshmallows.

28. Go swimming or skinny dipping.

29. Give each other a manicure or pedicure.

30. Go somewhere crowded to people watch.

31. Go to a free outdoor event, perhaps a concert.

32. Lie on a blanket outside and watch the clouds or stars.

33. Go on a picnic.

34. Watch a fireworks display.

35. Be creative and engage in sexual role-plays. Be anyone you'd like to be for the night who is also exciting for your partner.

36. Sit by the water somewhere.

37. Do a prolonged striptease for each other.

38. Have a water balloon fight.

39. Sit outside and read poetry to each other.

During Fall

40. Go for a drive together.

41. Go window shopping.

42. Incorporate food into your love-making ---chocolate syrup, whipped cream, fondue, strawberries---anything you and your partner enjoy.

43. Call or write to someone you haven't had contact with within a while.

44. Cook something together.

45. Spend an evening just talking with each other. Talk about the things you have done, plans you have for the future, important people in your lives, or current events.

46. Take a bubble bath together.

47. Go to a free movie or museum.

48. Take a drive and find the potential in old houses and their properties.

49. Create an imaginary story together---either orally or in written form.

50. Take turns being each other's genie in a bottle by fulfilling your partner's every wish and fantasy.

51. Play in the fallen leaves.

52. Create an exciting scavenger hunt that ends in your bed.

As someone who has been married for close to 40 years, I know that finding new ways to interact with your partner is crucial to a successful and long-lasting marriage. So, this list is just an example, and there's no way I can think of everything! Whether you're coming up with 52 different ideas or just repeating your favorites, we hope this list helps keep the romance alive and the fire burning brightly in your relationship.

When it comes to keeping your relationship with your partner exciting, one crucial thing is to make time with each other a priority. If you've become secretive and prefer to spend most of your free time only together instead of with others, or if you're rarely seen around in public together, then it might not be a good idea to ignore the issue. No one wants their relationship with their partner to feel like a chore, so make sure you find things that you both truly enjoy doing together. Sometimes, couples think they have incompatible interests, but with some effort and open-mindedness, they can make sure to rekindle the flames from the days when their love was brand new!

As long as you become good at recognizing what you can do to better your relationship and form new habits by putting your love first now and again, then you'll be just fine. If something happens that has the capability of making you fall out of love with each other, which is always possible, make sure to come back together if partnering up with this person is what you both still want. Don't let life get in the way of your relationship, or else it could eventually cause it to falter one day.

You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. What's stopping you? Start today.