Cheap dates that won't make you look cheap

Chicago Tribune ^ | 8/29/09 | Erin Burt

[Krankor]

Dating when money's tight can be a challenge. You want to make a big impression and not look like a cheapskate.

With a bit of creativity, you can keep things interesting without overspending.

Here are 10 ways to plan a cheap date, plus dozens of ideas to get you started. Many are free, and none should cost more than $20 total:

[Falconspeed]

Ten good ideas.

Cook together.
Movies are the old dating standby.
Mother Nature offers a bevy of free or inexpensive activities.
Your local library is a trove of free entertainment.
Baby-sit for a friend or relative.
Volunteer or choose a project of your own, such as doing yardwork for an elderly neighbor.
Ride bikes, hike, ice skate, row, fly fish, sled, shoot hoops or play tennis.
Many theaters, museums, galleries and zoos offer discount days.
Take a date to the local college or high school game.
Go out for dessert at a cozy cafe or bakery.

[keepitreal]

Cheap date: Taking your wife to a New York show on Air Force 1 - out of pocket price $0.

[keepitreal]

Okay, this one is not even a cheap date. This is conning your girlfriend into giving your relatives or friends a cheap date:

5 Get in touch with your inner child: Volunteering the two of you to baby-sit for a friend or relative can be a great way to impress a date. Plus, it gives you an excuse to act like a 5-year-old. Play catch, dig in the sandbox, lounge in the kiddie pool and make finger paintings with your charges. Or take them to the playground, story time at the library or some other free activity.

[RandallFlagg]

Thanks, Krankor.

[Niteflyr]

I never date a lib without buying her a can of deodorant first.

I don't date Libs period...

[DainBramage]

"Son thats cocktail waitress in a Dolly Parton Wig!"

"I know it dad aint she COOL!"

[Niteflyr]

If you plan a cheap date, that’s what you get - a cheap date.

Yeah if you hiring a hooker for the date. For you gold-diggers out there...never found an expensive date to be any better than a frugal one ..."you get what you pay for" should apply to prostitution but not relationships....(and people wonder why the divorce rate is so hi)

[trisham]

Wonderful ideas!

[Niteflyr]

"Son thats cocktail waitress in a Dolly Parton Wig!" "I know it dad aint she COOL!"

I love that song!

[Tijeras_Slim]

If a chick will go cow tipping with you on a first date you’re set for life.

[Billthedrill]

You can try my favorite ploy - take her to a nice Italian restaurants, you know, one of the ones with the checked tablecloths and the breadsticks? Order a nice pasta dinner, bottle of chianti. Excuse yourself three-quarters of the way through, go to the men's room, and make your escape out the window into the alley behind.

Tell her later that you were the victim of a Mob kidnapping and that you can't see her again because you're on the Witness Protection Program.

Yes, I'm still single. Why do you ask?

[Niteflyr]

Cheap date: Taking your wife to a New York show on Air Force 1 - out of pocket price $0.

Yes there should be two classifications: Those sucking on the gub-mint teat and those who actually pay their way through life....

[Niteflyr]

go to the men's room, and make your escape out the window into the alley behind.

I call that ingenuity...:o)

[bannie]

(Back in my dating days...) I thought I was dating a pretty decent guy until I woke up and realized that all of our “dates” had devolved into ME cooking for him at my house. (I enjoyed the comfort of watching movies at home, but my food bill had gone up, considerably.) The next date consisted of me ordering pizza at my house. I paid for it, and it was our last date. (The guy’s job was as good as mine.)

[Niteflyr]

If a chick will go cow tipping with you on a first date you’re set for life.

Especially if she is dressed as a waitress in a Dolly Parton wig...

[bannie]

It's hard to have one conversation with a lib, why-oh-why would any sensible person enter into a relationship with one???

[Niteflyr]

The next date consisted of me ordering pizza at my house. I paid for it, and it was our last date. (The guy’s job was as good as mine.)

Feel lucky...90 percent of the time it is the other way around...

[Reeses]

A fundamental rule of any date is that the male must provide the female a morsel of food at entirely his expense. This rule applies throughout the animal kingdom. No morsel, no nookie.

[bannie]

sigh! Are you single? I think I’d even lose weight for you.

;-)

[bannie]

Lucky? Yea, I hit the jackpot, alright.

NOT!