Cheap Date Night #CouchCritics

We need a (cheap) date night! 

Do you ever feel like you really need time with your spouse - but with jobs and kids and activities, it is just so hard to find?  Randy and I have taken to a lot of after bed time dates - things like sitting on the front porch and drinking coffee, or an occasional board game.  Truthfully though, one of our favorite activities is renting a movie from the Redbox and snacking on cheese sticks, or popcorn, or jalapeno poppers (not foods on my diet plan).  

Last night we decided to have a family date night.  As we were putting the boys to bed I discovered that we had an opportunity to have a movie and snacks, sponsored by Collective Bias.  We were chosen to rent Tropic Thunder, a 4 year old movie directed by Ben Stiller.  

Our first task:

Get the boys to bed! 

As soon as we had the first 2 boys asleep, Randy took over on Cassius.  He's our wild card when it comes to sleeping.  I checked Redbox online to reserve the video.  Then I quickly threw my shoes on and headed to Walmart for videos and a snack!

I don't know about you, but I can NEVER seem to make Walmart a "quick" trip.  It took me 45 minutes to decide on exactly what I was going to buy.  Seriously... I had to look at a variety of foods, some baby clothes, nighties, and so much more.  This is what I finally ended up with.  Check out my shopping experience on Google +.

Okay, so it wasn't ALL for date night - we did not use the bag/tissue paper or card for our date.  Total date night package (including the extras for the birthday party) was less than $20!  That is my kind of date.  Cheap, simple, and at home with my love.

We snuggled up with our poppers and Tropic Thunder.  It was not my favorite movie (read more about the movie and my thoughts on the movie in my Couch Critics review).  I did love having time with Randy though.  

Make sure to check out Redbox for your next date night movie or video game!  They are even offering games to download for the whole family!

Redbox is on Facebook and Twitter as well!

• I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™. #CBias #SocialFabric

Date Night

Life with my boys is amazing.  We live and breathe adventure.  We play together, eat together, sleep together.  It is great being a family.

Sometimes, however, mom and dad need a break.  Sometimes we need to get away and go on a date.  It is SO hard to get away, even for a few hours.  As we're heading into the new year, I am working on some plans - maybe resolutions - I want to date Mr. Crum.

We don't have much money to pay babysitters or to spend on incredibly amazing dates.  I've decided that over the next year I want to try to date my husband once a week.  I'm not sure yet how that will work out - we will have to be better about seeking child care.  As we work on sharing "alone" time together (it will be a while before we're out without Baby), I plan to share some of our date night adventures.  I enjoy looking at other people's ideas for dates, so why not share ours, right?

I hope that some of our dates will be an inspiration to others, give great ideas for a cheap night out or a fun couples activity.  So here is our first date night post.

This week we went geocaching.  It was cold out and we only looked for one cache.  We didn't find it, but enjoyed a walk in a nice local park that we had never explored.  This giant Christmas tree was just inside the park entrance.

We followed this up by a trip to the thrift store.  I love this store, 2 floors of stuff.  I love looking at all the gadgets and appliances and books... lots of books.  We don't go often because you can't take a shopping cart upstairs and that is where the breakable things are.. and we have a 1 year old and a 3 year old... 

Loverboy (aka Mr. Crum) and I explored the shop, found some things that were on our mental want lists (still not a used Scrabble game).  

Loverboy and I debated about where to go for dinner.  We wanted to go somewhere that we can't take the kids.  Eventually we settled on Flat Top Grill.  WOW!  It's a little more expensive than I had planned for the night, but it was AMAZING.  We hope to go back there again.  One of the best things - it fits into our new dietary lifestyle!

After dinner we checked in with Grandma - who was babysitting.  We were running late and she was tired.  She confessed that she tried to take a nap on Monkey's bed while the boys were playing.  Unfortunately for her, Monkey told her she had to wake up because mommy said she had to play with him.

Great date!