Things To Do Together When You're Broke or Can't Get a Babysitter

"You've got a friend in me ..."

We like going out, but sometimes the state of our bank balance tells us we have to stay in. Other times, the bank balance is fine, but there's no babysitter.  Here are some of our best budget / no baby sitter date night ideas:

• Movie night.  Put on a DVD or stream a film, crack open the snacks and the drinks, dim the lights ... Enjoy your film.  Lose all feeling in your lap when cat appears and makes himself comfortable.

• Board games.  We dig out Monopoly or Cluedo.  Playing them is like being transported back to when you were 10 at a time there was no Internet or Mobiles and only 4 TV channels.  (The Tubblet always looks horrified when we talk about this).  We are all very competitive, but Rev T usually wins. Some of us have mastered their "gracious loser" face whilst others are still learning.   You can also shoot things on the games console if there are enough controllers to go round.

• Go for a coffee.  We love spending an hour or so in coffee shops watching the world go by. It's much cheaper than going for dinner but still gets us out of the house.  We like window seats so we can sip and people watch.

• Walking.  Beautiful scenery, fresh air whilst talking about important stuff and getting fit. 

• Pinterest challenge.  Pinterest is full of pictures from days gone by - holiday brochures, knitting patterns etc.  Make like a model and recreate the photos.  Check out The Quirky Parent for inspiration.  Make things more interesting by having a competition.  Load the photos up onto Twitter, Instagram or Facebook to see who gets the most likes.  Loser buys coffee.

• Dinner parties.  One friend provides the venue and the main course, the other the pudding and both contribute towards the wine.  This assumes you have friends who like cooking and both sets of children get on, but hopefully! The children borrow a bed for a few hours being taken home and the parents get some adult time.  We only had issues with this once, when we suggested it to another Ministerial couple.  They only allowed family members upstairs.  We totally got it.  Having boundaries to ensure the Manse is a family home not an extension of the church is really important. Everyone draws them differently. For them, it was who went upstairs.  It took a bit of negotiation, but everyone got their dinner, the Tubblet got a place to sleep and a great time was had by all.

• Do stuff online.  iRazoo lets you earn points by doing tasks - taking a survey, reading a blog, watching a video, playing a game, referring a friend etc - that turn into rewards to spend at online shops like Amazon or turned into cash from Paypal.  See who can earn the most in an hour. (See.  Told you we were competitive).

Let me know what you think of these ideas or other things you've tried in the comments.

[Disclosure:  This post was done in collaboration with iRazoo but all views are my own].