Hi Everyone,
I hope that you are having a beautiful Thursday morning!
Today, I wanted to dedicate a post to "8 Must Do Dates - when you're ballin' on a budget". I mean, let’s be honest ma Peeps. We're probably all ballin' on a budget. So, Nathaniel and I have brainstormed 8 of our most favorite dates that will not break the bank. I am here today to share them with you. My hope is that you will take away from this post some fun and cost effective dates to implement in your lives! I do want to clarify though, that you do not in any way need to be on a date to enjoy these activities. Nathaniel just happens to be my favorite person to enjoy things with. Now with that, I will begin...
1.) Taking a quick trip to a nearby destination - Our latest and most amazing date so far was to Primm, Nevada. Which is literally just 45 minutes away from us. I'm not saying take a full on road trip or even drive a few hours away. Oh, no. No. No... I'm saying take a reasonable drive that won't cost you more than $10-$15 in gas for the entire trip. We had originally woken up that morning to watch the sunrise from on top of a mountain, but... Waking up at 5 am on a Saturday was just a little too difficult for us. (If you can do that, I commend you) So, we ended up hitting that snooze button for another hour, procrastinated getting up, and took our sweet time getting ready. Making us miss the entire sunrise all together! Fear not though, we were definitely doing something. I do not get out of bed at 6 am for nothing. (Just ask Nathaniel) Nathaniel had mentioned a few days before that he wanted to take me to ride the Desperado. A rickety, old, and way too rusted roller coaster that runs half way through the Buffalo Bill Hotel in Primm, Nevada. (So of course we had to do it!) Sadly, everything in Primm was closed, literally EVERYTHING! We were a little bummed at first, but ended up just adventuring to the top of buildings and parking garages. The views were seriously amazing! The skies were crystal clear with a slight breeze that was cooling, but not chilly. (The pictures don't do it justice) Since we brought the tripod, we decided to see what all of the hype was about and tried it for the very first time. We had so much fun racing to the front of the camera before the cameras timer went off. Each time we did this, it would catch us off guard causing us to laugh hysterically when we would view a picture of one of us mid-sentence or half blink. Definitely a date to remember.
2.) Night hiking - I advise a head of time that you do your research of the mountain you are about to blindly trek up. (Of course your eyes will eventually adjust, but it is still nice to know what you're working with. Take it from me.) This is actually a date that happened a little while back, but one we still reminisce about. It was the Fourth of July and I had just gotten off of work when Nathaniel texted me asking what my plans were. Since we are both very big family people, I assumed he would figure spending time with our families (Which we did, but under a time crunch.) and asked if I wanted to hike up Lone Mountain (A small lonesome mountain- hence the name.) in Las Vegas. Again, I couldn't turn that offer down! Thankfully, nights in July are beautiful in Las Vegas. So, we just changed our shoes, took a quick 15 minute drive (if you live in Vegas, you know how quick that really is lol) and started our way up the mountain. We ended up not realizing that there was a super easy path to follow and went up the back of the mountain, because you know... We create our own path. lol (We still laugh about that to this day.) Anyways, when we finally got to the top of the mountain the view was so incredible we forgot all about the very difficult climb up. Not only were the city were lights twinkling like little stars, but the fireworks were still going off from all angles of the mountain! If you're only going to choose one of these to do, I highly recommend this one! :)
3.) Pick meals from a jar - Nathaniel and I have a very bad habit of being lazy and just going anywhere close to eat. So, instead of going out to eat, we created a jar full of meals we can prepare at home. (Aka Spaghetti, eggs with pancakes, and well... cereal.) Which, if you have ever seen us in the kitchen together, it’s a house fire waiting to happen! Seriously... but thankfully we still always find a way to make it amazing. With either some friendly competition to see who can create the better meal or a little dance session in the middle of the kitchen. Even though we never left the house, those ended up being some of the best moments we have together. (We also have places we have never tried before in the jar, but we just put them back in the jar and let it leave us excited for the next time we decide to go out.)
4.) Movie nights! - Nathaniel and I are huge movie lovers. We could go to the movies everyday of our lives without getting bored. Which we have done before and had to stop doing, because trust me. It adds up! We ended up doing our research and finding out which movie theaters had discount days (If you live in Vegas, Santa Fe is only $6.50 and the West Wind Drive in Theater is $5.50 per a ticket both on a Tuesday.), but I am sure every theater in every city is different. You just have to do a little research.
5.) Community Events - You can research local events in your city or whatever city you are visiting. Multiple cost free events will pop up! I personally love doing this. Not only because it's free, (who doesn't love free?) but I love watching the community come together. It's something truly amazing. Our personal favorite community events to go to are First Friday (an event dedicated to all the local artists in the area placed in the Art District.) and our local Farmers Markets (You can click the link below for local farmers markets in the Vegas area.) Such a fun way to enjoy the outdoors while spending quality time together.
6.) Star gazing- Nathaniel, loves. Loves. Loves these dates! He seriously has such an interesting fascination with space and the universe. He is constantly sending me black hole documentaries! I am definitely not saying I don't love me some black hole action ;), I'm just saying he's a little bit obsessed with space. haha Which is what he took me to do for our second date. We ended up hopping over a rusted fence to get to a mildly wet middle school soccer field. There we sat and watched the stars for hours while talking. Some of our deepest conversations happened while star gazing. It's a great way to get someone to open up and trust you. (Or think you're a serial killer)
7.) Park dates- I am going to start off by saying that Nathaniel is the most competitive person I have ever met in my entire life. When I say ever, I mean EVER. I have personally watched him race an 80 year old woman (who didn't know she was in a race might I add) at putting the cart away at Walmart! Granted he did end up helped her after he won, but Dude? lol Tell me that is not the most competitive shit you have ever heard?! (I'm laughing just thinking about it) Okay, now that we have gone over that. It seriously makes park dates with him so much fun! I'm not really a competitive person by nature, but I also don't like people going easy on me or letting me win. So when I do win, (let’s say, who can slide down the slide the fastest.) It makes the victory so much sweeter. Now, I am sure you can already tell that I love being outdoors. Which makes these all the more fun and exciting must do date!
8.) Redbox - I am not going to lie, I miss Blockbuster more than anything. Blockbuster for you youngins was kind of like a library where you could rent movies instead of books. (But it cost money.) In short, it was pretty awesome. They had every movie you could think of. I once rented the entire Star Wars collection and binged watched the bejesus out of them. Anyways, since Blockbuster closed down in Vegas, (RIP) we now rent from our friendly neighborhood Redbox! Which mixes things up when you're tiring of Netflix. Especially when you make a little makeshift bed on the floor. It takes it from an average night in, to a fun little sleep over.
If you decide to try any of these. Click the little envelope at the bottom! I would love to hear about some of your must do dates and adventures!
https://www.vegas4locals.com/free-things-to-do-in-las-vegas/farmers-markets/
Comments