Published on the Utah Statesman website on March 30, 2010.
Every few weeks I get a call from my older brother that goes something like this: "My roommates and I got dates for this weekend, but we just don't know what to do. We were thinking dinner and a movie and maybe get ice cream ..." and that's when I stop listening. Dinner and a movie? A show and ice cream? Those things are all fine and dandy, but that must get expensive, and old. Now I'm not saying I wouldn't enjoy dinner and a movie every once and a while, but girls understand that just because guys are a different gender doesn't mean they aren't poor college students, too. Plus (as I'm sure you've heard from your mom and grandma and who knows who else), how much can you really learn about another person at a dinner and a movie?
So, with some Internet searching, ideas from friends and a little creative juice of my own, here are some fun and cheap date ideas. Also, if you're single, bitter or both, most of these ideas can easily be converted to roommate or friend activities, so don't you fret.
- Make homemade ice cream
- Buy puzzles from the dollar store (or the DI, if you're brave) and assemble
- Have a "Jr. High Dance" in a parking lot complete with Backstreet Boys, N'sync, Hansen and other early adolescent favorites
- Go for a walk or a hike (add a headlamp for an romantic evening hike)
- Eat cereal and watch a favorite childhood cartoon or movie
- Night games or swings at a park
- Pick a game at the DI and play it
- Face or finger painting
- Make cookies and doorbell ditch them at friends' houses
- Share and listen to favorite music
- Tie-dye an old shirt
- Make and decorate cupcakes or cakes
- Bonfires with hot dogs, smores or tin foil dinners
- With a large group, have an "All Seasons" date. Go house to house and include pumpkin carving, Thanksgiving food, Christmas carols, a chick flick (for Valentine's) and other holiday-related activities.
- Play croquet, frisbee, badminton, four square, wally ball, sidewalk chalking or fly a kite
- Go to a book or music store and read, look at or play your favorites
- Have a read-a-thon and cozy up with your date and a favorite book
- Attend university music or drama productions, cheap and often free for students
- Visit the university art museum, free for students
- Have a picnic (or a car picnic for a chilly or wet day)
- Play Charades or Pictionary
- Food parties: fondue with cheese or chocolate, waffle party, pizza party, dutch oven
- Borrow bikes from Aggie Blue Bikes for an afternoon and take a ride
- Make it an international night with food and a movie to match
- Go to garage or yard sales and the summer Farmer's Market
- Take a factory tour at Charlie's Ice Cream or Pepperidge Farm
- Take a stroll through downtown Logan and pick up a complementary piece of bread at Great Harvest
- Create a time capsule and bury it
- Drive up to Idaho, buy a lottery ticket and hot chocolate
- Go to one of the less attended athletic events on campus: softball, gymnastics, track, volleyball, etc.
- Look through old photos and yearbooks
- Drive through a neighborhood and create awards for the best lawn, best decoration, best Christmas lights, etc., and deliver them to the homeowners
- Visit a greenhouse
- Pick out an inexpensive outfit at the DI for your date and then go to a public event
- Have an ice date with ice blocking, ice cream and watch "Ice Age"
No comments:
Post a Comment