Tired of hearing the question, “What do you want to do tonight?” and having no idea? If you’re like us, you probably just default to watching TV, reading, or playing on your computers/phones because you’re tired and can’t think of anything better to do.

It’s tough trying to think of things to do together. Especially things that don’t cost much (or any) money. And, sure, sometimes it’s not so bad going back to the same old thing you do every night. There’s a comfort in being perfectly content just sitting together.

But sometimes monotony gets boring and you want to shake things up a bit.

Or maybe you just want a sweet, DIY gift idea.

No matter your reason, I have the answer! (And you can do it together.)

We finally got tired of having ideas when we didn’t have time to do anything together, but then not having a single idea when the time finally revealed itself. So we made a date night jar. It’s super simple and I’m going to show you how to make one!

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How to Make a Date Night Jar

• a mason jar (I got a single quilted jar one from Michael’s for about $2)
• Dyed Popsicle sticks (or sticks + paint)
• glitter pens (optional)
• paint pens
• ribbon or baker’s twine
• scrapbook paper

Step 01: We spent hours searching the Internet, trying to come up with ideas for our jar. I went here and here. I copied down some of their ideas, which inspired us to come up with our own. (I’ll show you my list in a moment.)

Once I found ideas I was happy with, I wrote them down on the popsicle sticks. (The first time I did this, I used regular sticks, painted them, wrote on the front, and put glitter glue on the back. This time, I got dyed sticks–WAY easier–and I wrote on both sites.)

Step 02: Decorate your jar. I spray painted the lid with chalkboard paint (because it was all I had) and put a piece of scrapbook paper on it.

Step 03: Make a label. I spray painted a piece of paper that I cut into the shape of an oval. Then I wrote on it with a white paint pen.

And you’re done! I made a little bow out of some baker’s twine and stuck it on there, too.

Some people like to pull out a date night idea and then stick to it. Generally what we do it use it as a reminder that there are plenty of things for us to do together. And we sift through it until we find one we’re really interested in…unless we can’t decide. Then we just do whatever we pull out. 🙂

Mostly this jar is a reminder that our relationship only stagnates because we let it. Our hope is that this jar will help us get it together when we start to feel that way.

Date night ideas:

Stay-at-Home:

Some of these are free and some we have to pay for. But all are done at home. We tried to keep the expense low.

1. Bed fort and reading together (or watching YouTube videos)
2. Mario Tennis / Mario Kart / Mario Party
3. TV Show Marathon
4. Chocolate Tasting
5. Take out + board game night (check out this list of Great 2 Player Board Games!)
6. Decorate mugs for each other
7. Movie marathon
8. Popcorn + singular movie
9. Homemade pizza + The Godfather (or another movie)
10. Popcorn + Youtube videos
11. Puzzle + pizza
12. Wine & cheese
13. Dessert only dinner (can also be done at a restaurant)
14. Make dessert together
15. Sushi + Netflix
16. Crossword puzzles + breakfast for dinner
17. Fondue + Netflix (first I need to figure out how to make fondue….)
18. Diablo III + beer and pizza
19. Play The Newly Wed Game
20. Play “Would You Rather?”
21. Listen to a podcast and do a puzzle together.

Free:

These are things we can do for free outside the house. There aren’t  very many, but we have extra sticks in case we think of more.

1. Bike ride
2. Hiking
3. Planetarium show
4. Wine tasting
5. Go to the library and read together

Cheap or Affordable:

These are all relatively cheap things outside of the home that require no planning.

1. Coffee date
2. Restaurant (pick a number and then find that number on Yelp)
3. Read at a bookstore or library
4. Dinner + private book club
5. Mini golf
6. Dinner + Movie
7. Team Trivia Night
8. Buy a new board game
9. A trip to the mall (even to just walk around)

Expensive and Requires Planning:

As the description says, these cost money and require more planning. These are things we won’t do very often.

1. Trip to the zoo (because this is an hour and a half away in Pittsburgh, it requires a whole day’s commitment)
2. Bed & breakfast
3. Murder Mystery Night
4. Weekend away
5. Dave & Buster’s
6. Couple’s massage
7. Trip to the mall
8. Fancy restaurant
9. Hotel for one night
10. Spend a day at a theme park
11. Go tubing (water or snow)

We also have sticks for holidays! Obviously, we’ll only keep these in the jar around the holiday season.

Fall/Halloween:

1. Decorate jack-o-lanterns
2. Visit a haunted house or penitentiary (Moundsville Penitentiary is very close to our hometown)
3. American Horror Story marathon
4. Scary movie night
5. Cornfield maze + hot apple cider
6. Fright Night at a theme park
7. Fright Farm

Winter/Christmas:

1. Christmas movies + cocoa + cookies
2. Drive around looking at Christmas lights
3. Decorate the tree
4. Make ornaments
5. Snowball fight / build a snowman + cocoa

That’s all we’ve been able to think of so far. I’ll update this if I add more! 😀 I recommend making one of these, especially if you find yourself just doing the same boring things over and over again.

Cost:

Jar = $2 Popsicle Sticks = $3 Paint Pens = $4 Total Cost = $9

This post was featured on Creative Geekery.