Library Movies—More Cheap Entertainment

We use Netflix—the $8/month plan with unlimited one-at-a-time DVDs—and it seems to work well for us. It’s certainly cheaper than the days of $4 movie rentals every weekend, but there are definitely even cheaper options for those of us who enjoy movies. For those willing to sacrifice a bit of convenience and selection, the library is a great option. I’ve been impressed at how many movies you can get at both the law school library and the local public library. Both have a fairly current selection as well as a lot of good children’s films.

Eating In

Going out to eat is a real luxury when living on a student budget. It mostly happens when we receive gift cards for birthdays or Christmas. I’ve had fun making special dinners for my wife that include a lot more food at a much lower cost than what we'd pay in a restaurant. I try to replicate the fine dining experience by emailing her a formal invitation and menu several days ahead of time with several choices for appetizers, entrees (a degree or two fancier than our normal dishes), desserts, and drinks. She’ll respond with her choices, I’ll buy the ingredients, cook the dinner, and we enjoy a great three-course meal at much less cost than in a restaurant.

College Sports => cheap family fun

There are a number of financial perks to studenthood and one of them is that magical ID card that gets you into college sporting venues. I regret not going to more BYU football, basketball, and volleyball games as an undergrad. I went to a few, but it didn’t occur to me that when I left it would cost me a lot of money to see quality sporting events (please, no wisecracks from Ute fans about the quality of BYU sports). At William & Mary, we’ve been to football games, basketball games, field hockey matches, and tennis matches at little or no charge. The really good deals for basketball come during Christmas break, when all the undergrads are out of town so they offer free tickets to fill the seats. For fellow W&M students, check http://tribeathletics.com/ for the calendar of upcoming athletic events.

Cheap Dates Aren't Just for Singles

I'm a big fan of marriage, and I'm a big fan of keeping marriage working well. This translates into frequent dating, especially when one spouse is studying full-time. We've found some awesome ways to make sure we get to go on regular dates.

1. Babysitting Exchanges

We're not in a position to pay for a babysitter right now, especially not as frequently as we want to go on dates. So we have worked out with other student couples to go on exchanges. There are probably countless ways to do this. The first year we were here, we had only one child, as did two of our friends. At that point, we did a three-way exchange, so that we got to go out two times for every one time we babysat. As all of our families have grown, we dropped down to exchanging with just one other family. (This means less dates, but more sanity.) Sometimes we do it in the evenings before kids go to bed, which still feels like a nice time watching kids together. A lot of the time now, though, we split up for babysitting after kids are in bed since bedtimes have tended to get earlier. I suspect at most universities you could find other families who would love to make this situation work.

2. Complex Opportunities

One of my very favorite dates was when we dropped our kids off at the home of our friends (who live in our complex) and then my husband blindfolded me and drove me around to disorient me . . . and we found ourselves back at the complex's tennis courts. We don't play tennis there very often, but it's right beside our apartment and we already have the equipment, so it was awesome.

Our complex also has a pool, which could make for a nice date in the summer time. We're not usually here in the summer, so we haven't tried it, but I think it could be awesome for those who have the chance.

3. University Opportunities

I know some people despise spending social time at school with their spouse, but we have gone on some lovely dates up to the law school. The law library has a small student room in the basement where we have played ping-pong and pool. Upstairs in the law school there's a nice chess set where we played chess one day. It's more important to me to get out of the house for a date than it is to keep away from the school!

The university also sends out an email with notices about university-sponsored events. Early in the year the university sponsors the Virginia Symphony in an outdoor concert. It is well-attended and lovely. We went out first year as a family (before we'd arranged our babysitting exchange), but those sorts of events make awesome date opportunities too.

4. A Little Of This and a Little of That

Tonight we're headed out on a date to a sweet local restaurant with a great atmosphere to get pie and then take a walk. We are also happy to go to Chick-Fil-A and get an awesome cookies-and-cream milkshake to share. We've found a treat isn't too expensive and we can enjoy it together (without kids begging to mooch) while having a great conversation without any significant expense.

When we were at the end of the month and trying to stick to our budget in the winter, we made do taking a walk at the tiny little mall. We browsed a bit, but mostly we talked and enjoyed being in the warmth holding hands inside together. Actually, it turned out to be one of my husband's favorite dates and he would have been pretty happy to do it for every date that winter. (It was perfect, too, when we were trying to keep our dates fairly short because we had a nursing newborn.)

Obviously there are countless ideas depending on what's available to you in your area and what your interests are. It would be awesome to hear other successful dates, in fact. Our experience has been that you don't have to have a lot of money to enjoy getting out of the house together and have a great time.