Date Night Ideas

My husband and I love to spend time together as a family but we also love and NEED, to spend time as a couple. The traditional date night of dinner out followed by a movie or other entertainment is something that is just not in the budget these days. (Well, it really hasn't been in the budget for a few years but who's counting.) An evening out like that happens once/year for us, because once you add the babysitting cost, what was already expensive becomes even more so. Brett and I have had to find creative ways to have couple time on a budget. We sometimes have the grandparents watch the kids or we have arranged babysitting swaps with other parents we know. This means one night we watch both our kids and theirs and the following week, they return the favor giving us a night out.

In terms of fun things to do together, we do enjoy going to restaurants but usually bring an Entertainment book coupon to help defray the cost. Additionally some restaurants have fixed price menus during certain time periods of the day or the year. Sometimes we head to our favorite restaurant and we buy only ONE entree, this saves money and perhaps more importantly, calories. The other night we had the grandparents on board to babysit and were looking at our restaurant options with coupons in mind. Nothing was striking us as a "must-do" and dinner out would have still cost us at least $30. This is when I suggested that my husband and I cook a nice meal at home. At first he wasn't thrilled with the idea but then became supportive. He went to the grocery store prior to our date and bought some small steaks and a few fresh vegies. I already had a bottle of wine and dessert at home. Once we had the house to ourselves the act of cooking together was fun and we enjoyed a lovely meal by candlelight, in the comfort of our own home. I am certain the meal was much healthier than the restaurant version and cost us just $10 (and I am rounding up here) for everything including a glass of wine.

Other ideas for ways to spend time together include (but not limited to):
- Walking and/or window shopping in a new neighborhood
- Going for coffee and/or dessert instead of dinner
- Breakfast or lunch out instead of dinner
- Bringing a picnic to a favorite park
- Costco Cafe $1.50 as we like to call it, followed by sample city
- Happy Hour at many places can be more affordable
- Run errands together
- A nice long car ride to a special vista, giving lots of time to talk
- Movie night at home with a "free" movie from the library

I would love to hear your ideas for budget-minded date nights or days. I know I am just scratching the surface here. Have fun with it in the name of "research"!

Gift Giving Ideas

I love Christmas and celebrating with family and friends. However, I do not love the craziness and the stuff-mania that is so exaggerated this time of year. Given the current economy I can see that more people are cutting back and really thinking about how they spend their money which is a good thing. However, on the other side of the equation are the merchants who want you to buy all sorts of stuff that most don't need. It is a true battle of marketing vs. your will power.

I wanted to share some ideas for gifts that are low or no cost or gifts that do not take up more room on the planet. Over the years (even before the economic stresses) my siblings and I decided on a rule to minimize the cash outlay. Gifts needed to fall into one of three categories: homemade, an act of service, or cost $10 or less. Since $10 doesn't buy too much we typically use our creativity to make gifts for one another such as homemade cards or photo gifts or we make a paper gift certificate promising either help around the house or something similar. The possibilities are truly endless depending upon the skillset of the giver and the need of the recipient.

Here are some service ideas, but remember this is just the tip of the iceberg:
- An afternoon of gardening help
- Four hours of cleaning indoors or out(can set your own time frame)
- Bringing over a meal a few times during the year
- An evening or day of babysitting
- Baked goodies once/quarter, delivered to the recipient's house
- Help organizing around the house (kids clothing or kitchen etc)
Other certificate ideas are:
- Taking the person out for coffee or a meal so that you have time together. After all, isn't that what we all really want instead of more stuff?
- Purchasing tickets for a special performance or show. This is the gift of time along with a fun memory.

I would love to hear your ideas for Christmas gift giving, that save both money and resources. 'Tis the season to be creative!

Your Freezer, Your Friend

Hopefully you took full advantage of the great prices available on turkeys with Thanksgiving, you simply cannot beat 27 cents/lb. Any meat under $1/lb is a good deal but the turkey is great because you end up with so much food and a wide variety of ways to use the meat. Given that the holiday season is upon us and you may be cooking turkey again (or some other large chunk of meat) in the near future I thought I would remind you of the beauty of your freezer. Whether you have the stand alone kind or simply one portion of a fridge/freezer combo, it is a great ally in the quest for living large with less.

For you to become acquainted with your freezer it might mean that a thorough cleaning is in order. Take an hour and see what is hanging out in your freezer that should be tossed or perhaps there are large containers only partially full that could be condensed into smaller, more space efficient ones. When you have a little (or a lot) of space available you can start brainstorming all of the ways to use it. Here is a shortlist, by no means comprehensive of things I love to keep in my freezer:
- Turkey leftovers, of course!
- Turkey fixings, if you have side dish leftovers you can make another great meal in minutes down the road.
- Bread from the bakery outlets (Oroweat in my area), at 99cents/loaf I load up on bread and english muffins once/month. Keep frozen and take out only what you need.
- Costco size shredded cheese which I have downloaded into small ziplock baggies. One baggie is approx 2 cups of cheese. Simply remove a few hours before you need it.
- I am a huge fan of the Costco size tomatoes from S&W, equivalent to about (7) 14oz cans. Usually I am making several lasagnes at a time when I open a can so I don't need to worry about storing the rest. However, if I have tomatoes that I cannot use immediately after opening the large can I simply ladle them into ziplock baggies (approx 2 cups) and freeze them laying flat. Very space efficient way to go.
- I am a huge fan of dinner leftovers as my lunch, but often I want to wait a few days before seeing the same meal again. I use Tupperware soup cups for just about every kind of meal leftover storage, be it lasagne, chili or soup. I fill the container and freeze it, then remove the night before I want to eat it. This saves lunch money too, always a plus.

What do you love to keep in your freezer? Let us know if you have any great storage tips or bulk items that keep well in the freezer...or don't, we would want to know that too. The possibilities are endless and with a little planning your freezer can be a huge asset in the war on food prices and meal planning.