Date night for parents costs $172
Relationship experts recommend that couples with children should make time for regular date nights. According to data obtained from nearly 10,000 couples who participated in the Millennium Cohort Study, married couples who went out monthly were 14% less likely to divorce.
However, the study also found that when married couples increased the frequency of their dates to once a week, they were as likely to split up as couples who never went out at all.
Maybe that’s because they got into too many fights about money. Online childcare service Care.com reported the average cost of babysitters in 2016 was almost $14 an hour. If a couple wanted to go out for drinks, dinner and a movie, that would require five hours of babysitting. That’s an average of $70 just for babysitting alone.
Add that to recent research from financial news service 24/7 Wall St., which found the average date – drinks, dinner and a movie for two – cost $101.81 last year. In Hawaii, the average date cost $139.12. When you add the cost of a sitter, that’s more than $200!
So much for love don’t cost a thing.
Care.com recommends the following romantic, yet cost effective date night ideas for cash-strapped parents.
- Cheer on the local high school sports team.
- Get in a round or two of mini golf.
- Ride bicycles.
- Volunteer together.
- Watch planes take off and land at the airport.
- Attend a free concert in the park.
- Check out free- or low-cost museums. Small-town museums often have low admission rates while large, city institutions often have free or pay-what-you-wish hours. Some museums even have “free nights” that just ask for donations!
- Go to a local record/music store and browse the shelves for new music or groups you used to see in concert … before the kids came along.
- Test your smarts at a trivia night. It can be a fun and inexpensive way to bond over teamwork.
- Browse the farmer’s market — and don’t be shy about trying the samples they put out!
- Conduct a taste test. Drive to three or four local bakeries, picking up one chocolate chip cookie from each, then taste and rate them to decide which the best is.
- Head out to happy hour for discount drinks and appetizers.
