Cheap (and fun!) Date Night Ideas

Being young, adventurous, and broke isn’t always easy, but with some creativity you can have a huge amount of fun on a small budget. In all honesty, I think most people need to get more creative when it comes to spending time with their significant other. Even if you do have hundreds of dollars to go out for dinner, why not take that money and put it aside for a rainy day? Don’t get me wrong, splurging every once in a while is great, but getting more creative with what you do on “date night” can make things more fun and help you save money.

Making a fun dinner together – One of my favorite date nights is when Noah and I get to stay in and make a fun dinner together. We love trying out different pasta dishes (plus, pasta is super cheap to make). Try some of our favorites such as dragon noodles, aglio et olio, or pasta al limone! Not only is this less expensive than going out, but you also get to spend quality time creating a meal together. Make things a bit fancier by setting the table with your favorite plates and light some candlesticks. You can even make things a little more interesting by trying to make your own pasta noodles! Or, you can stick with the old go-to: PIZZA
Have a movie night at home! – I strongly urge you to check out any services that your library provides. Noah and I love checking out a couple of movies for a late night movie. Plus, you can run to the dollar store and grab some candy bars and make your own popcorn! We’ve recently been using a streaming service provided by our library called Hoopla. I mostly use it for audiobooks BUT there are also tons of movie choices to choose from.
Have a baking night – this one is especially fun during the holidays but is a great date night activity any time of the year. Bake a cake or a fresh fruit pie! Last year, Noah and I spent a couple hours picking black raspberries and spent the evening making a delicious pie!
Go out for coffee – Noah and I go to our favorite coffee joint often! We can get a pot of our favorite tea for a couple of dollars and just enjoy each others company and the cozy atmosphere! Sometimes, we bring a deck of cards and play slap poker together.
Play a board game – Grab a board game you already have around the house and have a game night! Or, if you don’t have any board games head over to your local Goodwill and pick out some fun board games you might enjoy! I love bonding over a good board game. You could also do a quick google search and find some fun card games you can play with a traditional deck of cards. Noah got me this game of Washingtonopoly shortly after we started dating. We had gone to D.C. together the previous spring and he thought it would be a nice, sentimental gift. I lost track of it over the years and recently found it in the back of my car trunk. I’m saving it so we can pull it out for a special treat.

6. Find a local theatre that has affordable tickets– This is a tricky one but some theaters offer ticket deals. For example, in Cleveland Playhouse square offers smart tickets for $10 apiece. Noah and I have gone to see Hunchback of Notre Dame, The King and I, and The Phantom of the Opera for $10 apiece. Or, if you can’t find any deals for live theatre, check around and see if you have a “dollar theatre.” In Canton CINEMARK MOVIES 10 offers tickets for a couple dollars.

7.Go for a walk or bike ride in the park- Noah and I especially like taking walks in the fall. We are really lucky that Ohio has so many great bicycling trails. Our absolute favorite thing to do is start at Ernie’s Bike Shop and bike down to Canal Fulton to get ice cream at Oser’s. If you are an Ohio resident, you should definitely check out the different Ohio bikeways.

I’m a huge advocate of coming up with unique date nights! If you have any fun date night ideas that are easy on the wallet, please leave a comment below!

Irie Island Jamaican Restaurant (in Little Canton)

I am all about trying out new, unique restaurants. In fact, I keep a note on my phone so I can keep track of the different places I want to try. This also comes in handy when Noah and I don’t know where we want to go for date night! Plus, it is so much fun to try out new places. Today, Lydia (my youngest sister) and I were trying to to figure out where to go for lunch. We ditched my restaurant note, drove to a part of Canton we were unfamiliar with, and let google go to work.

The first restaurant to pop up? Irie Island Jamaican. A Jamaican restaurant in Canton? We couldn’t resist. Needless to say it was one of the best meals I’ve had in a really long time (and that is saying a lot for a foodie like me). All meals come with Caribbean cabbage and red beans and rice. If you get the medium order for $10, you get to pick two of the following: oxtail, jerk chicken, jerk catfish, caribbean fried chicken, and curried goat. Lydia and I both got Caribbean fried chicken. She opted for oxtail as her second choice and I got curried goat. Everything was so delicious. Plus, we were delighted with the pineapple soda that we ordered to accompany our ‘Jamaican’ meal.

Beyond the food, the service was great. Honestly, I’m always charmed by locally owned restaurants BUT this experience was even more special. Although there isn’t any fancy cutlery or cloth napkins, the owners make up for it with personality and kindness. As soon as Lydia and I walked in we were ushered to the front where we got to sample EVERYTHING before we made our final selections. And, as we were walking out Melissa gave us both a fried banana fritter (which was my favorite part of the meal) for free.

When the restaurant first opened in 2016 there was an article in The Canton Respository about The “New Jamaican restaurant coming to Canton.” Check it out to learn more about the owners, their humble beginnings, and their awesome goals for the restaurant.

If you haven’t tried out this little hole-in-the-wall restaurant, I highly recommend it. For $22, I got two meals (which could easily feed four people) of really unique food that you don’t oftentimes find in this area. Also, get the pineapple soda. Trust me!

Do you have any local favs? I’m always looking for new places to try so drop me a comment with the name of your favorite restaurant in the area!

First Friday: Fire & Ice

To get the most out of First Friday, it is important to know what is going on. Since each month has a different theme, there are different events going on each month. Tomorrow just happens to be one my favorite First Friday themes! Fire and Ice! Come downtown and watch local artists take part in live ice carvings. Although it is great fun to see the finished products, I really enjoy coming earlier in the night and watching the carvings take place. Plus, you can have even more winter fun at The Hall of Fame City Ice Rink. For the last couple of years, Noah and I have made it an annual tradition to try our hand ( or should I say feet?) at ice skating. It never goes particularly well but it is a great opportunity for some family fun. It is $2/person if you bring your own skates and $4/person if you need to rent.

I’m also very excited about what is going down at the Canton Museum of Art. They are having a free “Fire & Glass” event from 4pm-8pm. A local artist from Flameworked Glass in East Canton is going to demonstrate how to blow glass. Afterwards, you can head down to The Palace Theatre and see a free viewing of “Frozen” at 7:30pm. This event is free but make sure that you pick up your tickets in advance at The Box Office.

If you are into art, you can check out The Joseph Saxton Gallery of Photography and visit the “Hour by Hour” exhibit. The photographic works of Louis Clyde Stoumen focuses on time-square in the 1940s. The people down at The Saxton Gallery always do a fantastic job. If you don’t make it down there tomorrow, make some time in the next couple of weeks to check out this awesome show.

You can also check out Makeshift to see Chrystal Robinson-Shofroth’s solo exhibit. I actually had an opportunity to check out Robinson’s “Inspiring Show” at Alliance’s Jupiter Studios last year and was blown away, so I’m very excited to see what she has planned for her exhibit titled “Innovate the Future” at Makeshift.

There are also a huge amount of sales going on this month. Check out this link to see a map of First Friday and a list of all the other activities going on.

Also, check out my post on why First Friday is one of my favorite events in Canton.

Have any of you gone to First Friday before? What was one of your favorite themes? Drop a comment below!