Not a week goes by when someone in our home doesn’t mention the phrase, “low maintenance.” No, we aren’t talking cars or electronics, we’re talking women advice that’s given to our teen age boys men.
It’s that time in their life when some of our fun family night dinner time conversations revolve around character qualities and personality traits to look for in a future wife, and both my hubby and I agree that one attractive quality entails “low maintenance” women.
Now, out of context, that might sound kind of odd, but as I dream of a future daughter in law, obviously, I want her to be a women who loves my son, but I also want her to be the kind of woman who understands that “it’s the little things that are the big things.” Meaning, someone who can enjoy and embrace life’s small moments. Someone who can make the mundane magical. Someone who doesn’t have to be wined and dined lavishly on a regular basis to have a wonderful time. (Now, don’t worry. I am already sharing with my guys, every once in awhile that’s a special and fun thing. 😉
My husband and I have been married for nineteen years. It’s hard to believe, but just this month we are officially one year away from our big 2 -0. When I was approached about this post, they mentioned the theme Romance 365, asking “How do you keep romance alive and connection occurring post Valentine’s Day?” It’s a question that my husband and I know is important. My husband and I have noticed with many of our friends that once their kids grown up and leave the nest, they don’t have a relationship left. They’ve forgotten how to communicate.
We definitely don’t want that to happen to us, and we realize the importance of keeping the fun and friendship alive with open lines of communication. For us, that means date nights. Honestly, we recently admitted that we need to commit to making that a priority, and we’ve been doing much better. One of the things I love about our relationship is that we never have to do lavish things to have a great time together. In fact, I remember our fifth anniversary. Typically, that’s a “big mile stone” year when couples go on a trip or celebrate in a big way. Well, finances were really tight that year, so we lived life large that year with a $1 movie and a BOGO free dinner coupon meal at a cheap, greasy spoon.
Looking back, it was special. It was celebratory. All these years later, that year created better memories than a fancy dinner ever would.
Keeping the romance alive is as simple as pizza by candle light with meaningful conversation and quality time spent together, and Dr. Oetker is going to give someone a fun evening in.
I love family owned businesses, and Dr. Oetker’s is a fifth-generation family-run business headquartered in Germany. Italy’s #1 frozen pizza is now spreading throughout the US. If you’ve been a reader here for any length of time, you know we eat our share of frozen pizza.
With five kids, three of them teen boys, it’s a staple in our house, but I never had the privilege of trying it until last week. I had planned on throwing it in the oven for a special, pizza by candlelight meal, but by the time I arrived home, there was only one piece left of the Pizza Quattro Formaggi. (A delicious blend of mozzarella, edam, emmental and blue cheese, complemented by a tantalizing basil seasoning on a crispy thin crust.)
I missed the Ristorante Spinach, which was layered with sun-ripened tomatoes, savory leaf spinach, cheese and mozzarella, perfected by a hearty garlic sauce because one son polished it off himself and assured me it was beyond delicious. I told him it was supposed to be for a “special meal.”
Dr. Oetker’s Ristorante frozen pizza features fresh, high-quality ingredients on a thin crispy crust. Dr. Oetker’s Ristorante frozen pizza gives you Italian restaurant style pizza taste without paying restaurant style prices.
They come in a variety of specialties: Ristorante Speciale, Quattro Formaggi, Ristorante Spinaci, Ristorante Mozzarella, Ristorante Funghi, and Ristorante Vegetale
One fortunate winner is going to win a FUN PIZZA prize pack which includes 1 branded pizza cutter, 1 branded freezer bag, 1 Free Dr. Oetker coupon, and 1 Pizza Slice & Serve Board from Crate and Barrel.
You have four chances to win, but only one entry is necessary to win.
1) Tell me how you keep the romance alive on a small budget.
(Note: Scroll to the bottom of this post and click “Post Comment”. You must be on my site – you can’t do this through a reader.)
2) Follow me on Twitter @beautyandbedlam and tweet:
Enter to win a Pizza Prize Pack from Balancing @beautyandbedlam https://beautyandbedlam.com/tag/giveaways/ #giveaways #food
3) “Like” my Balancing Beauty and Bedlam’s Facebook Fan page (if you already do, promote this contest on your page)
4) Subscribe to Balancing Beauty and Bedlam by email or in a reader and stay on top of all of my daily posts! If you already subscribe, please leave a separate comment letting me know that you are currently a subscriber (thank you!).
Dr. Oetker Ristorante is currently available at grocery stores in several states, including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Washington, D.C., Rhode Island, Baltimore, Maryland and New Hampshire, but anyone can enter to win.
This is a sponsored giveaway post. Dr. Oetker’s Ristorante product and additional incentives were provided to me. All opinions stated are my own.”
We use the free codes for Redbox and pop some popcorn (that I got cheap with coupons) and enjoy a movie date night.
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Movie nights at home with a redbox… a lunch out while the kids are at school
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Going out for coffee is just as nice as going out for a full meal! Adult conversation without kids interrupting you is good no matter where it is!! 🙂
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My husband and I love starbuck pike’s place coffee… We have weekly dates at a local starbucks to talk away from the noise and interruption of our 6 kiddos… it costs about $5 total each time for our dates, and I look forward to them every week.
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We keep the romance alive by going on family dates and talking about all the things all of us are going through.
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We keep the romance alive with lunch dates (cheaper than dinner!) and cute random notes or text messages.
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This one is easy! I search for free or bogo restaurant deals, so I can take my husband out on dates! Easy to do with sites like yours!
We recently went through a major career transition, and for about 4 weeks my husband was unemployed. However, the release of the stress that had been on him was huge. So we made everything fun, even going to the grocery store! Now that he is employed again (at a much less salary, but money isn’t everything), we watch a movie after the kids are in bed, and enjoy a sweet treat that is kept just for us. Or, we will drop the kids off at their activities one night, and then just take a walk. He calls me on his drive home from work, and I look forward to those calls. Anything that keeps you connected and communicating. Our 19th anniversary is coming up April 3. We are celebrating with friends, nothing big since we are saving for a trip on our 20th anniversary next year!!
My husband and I like to get up early before the kids and sit out on the porch with a cup of coffee for him and hot tea for me and watch the deer grazed in the field across from our home. What a great way to start the day together.
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Cheap date nights mean using my sister as a free babysitter and using gift cards.
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We enjoy an early movie and sharing popcorn and a drink. We also can spend a long time walking through the mall or even WalMart – just looking.
I try to do the small things that are important to my husband.
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We do things like a picnic dinner at the park or go to the science center on their free night
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we keep the romance alive on a budget by entering to win things like this!
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We like to buy a steak and grill it at home to celebrate.
We use restaurant.com coupons for a cheap, local dinner.
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We live far enough from a red box kiosk that even the free codes don’t make for a “cheap date” if we have to commit to another trip into town to return it the next day. We are happy to watch DVRed episodes of British sit-coms from PBS.
We like to go to the diner for dinner at least once a week.
Awesome on your almost 20 years! We are going on 10 years, we live on a small farm so we stay in a lot. I like to make things he likes, wear nice clothes not just sweats. Put on some makeup.
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We do double date nights with a coupon for a movie and a coupon to a food place, or most often we’ll try to rent a $1 redbox-style movie and make or order in a pizza. I want to try the Pizza Quattro Formaggi!!
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we go and run errands together, rent a movie or better still get free movies from the library, have a cold ice tea or beer and sit on the back porch together and chat with all of the lights out and just a few candles lit, we spend time together that is quite time since so much of our lives is so busy otherwise.
woops, in previous comment I meant we spend quiet time together 🙂
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Boys… I have an almost 23 year old.. enough said. 😉
We keep the romance alive day by day.. a touch, a smile, a kiss out of nowhere for no special reason.
We often will hop on the motorcycle and m’honey takes me on the most wonder winding rides thru some gorgeous countryside… We may stop somewhere for a meal, or we may stop at one of our favorite fruit & veggie stores out in the country, sample their offerings (cheeses, apples & dips, chips or crackers & dips) and buy a bag of bite size pieces of cheese & some beef sticks. Or we may hit one of the Amish stores and share an old fashioned root beer or cream soda & a pastry or beef sticks & cheeses there.
We also love to go to the area festivals, which Ohio is teeming with. Looking forward to the Maple Festival in Chardon soon! We dont have to spend a lot of money there, but we just enjoy walking around, seeing what they have to offer the world..
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Post it notes with sweet nOtes around the house!
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We have been married for 25 years. Years ago we saw this couple walking around this cute little town holding hands and eating ice cream cones. We grouched that wow, it must be nice to have time to do that. So, we started to do that. We drive to a cute town and walk around and talk and window shop with an icecream cone. We have had some great summer nights spent this way. It’s inexpensive and still a treat.
truth be told…..we definitely dont give date night a priority like we should…maybe we will start with candles and dr. o’s pizza? thanks…
A Netflix movie that we both enjoy is a fun evening. Always remember to say nice things to each other.
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Our schedules are very different. My hubby waits for me to have dinner together.
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Always try and make time for each other. Try to remember to appreciate one another no matter what. Never leave with out saying I love you to one another.
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My husband and I have a date night in every Saturday night. All the rest of the week, I cook, but on Saturdays, he makes a gourmet meal. We eat it by candlelight after our three little kids have gone to bed. I look forward to it every weekend.
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My husband and I don’t really go on formal dates , but we do make an effort to spend quality time together sharing activities that we both enjoy, such as working out at the gym and planning and planting our vegetable garden.
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Do ‘swap babysitting’ for an evening [leave the kids with friends we babysat for the week before], then have dessert and watch an online movie!
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My husband and I go out to eat occasionally , usually with a BOGO or other discount coupon. My husband will sit on the same side of the table with me so he can hear me better and hold my hand.
My husband and I live far away from family, so date nights without the kids are pretty nonexistent. We do go out to lunch on the weekends as a family, and while we chat and wait for our food he will text me little notes without me realizing it… simple, but thoughtful. He is typically a very quiet guy, but he gives me the most heartfelt cards for every holiday. 🙂
We both have Fridays off so we always try to do everything together – grocery shop, go out for lunch, clean the house, fold the laundry. Whatever it is…always together!
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My wife and I are hardly ever home at the same time. This makes the time we do have together even more special.
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We have been married 7 years. With the older 2 in college and our baby in preschool we are on a tight budget. I woke up to pink stick ‘ em love notes posted throughout our home. Even in the shower! Or send a love note just to say I love you via email 🙂
Chipotle and a Redbox movie are fun date nights for my husband and I and it’s less than $20!
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Laughing so hard at the question, how to keep the romance alive on a small budget… sadly, but lol, there is no romance! No one in my life for a long long time sadly.. divorce many years ago, and have dated pastors, missionaries, worship leaders and others off and on over years. But now I am dealing with serious health issues and without a car ( engine blew), there is basically no social life. Gosh that sounds depressing… at least it has me laughing not crying.
Soo.. that said, I will answer how to keep a romantic date also economic… picnics are wonderful and fairly inexpensive… actually you can even incorporate pizza into it.. I love cold pizza the day after and it is easy to take on a picnic, along with a salad, fruit, and other goodies. If you are a beach lover, another inexpensive romantic time out, is to make a sweet meal at home and then go for a beach or marina walk, hand in hand together. In our area we have weekly Thursday and Friday night outdoor events that are free, unless you choose to purchase something down at the marina and also in the up and coming revitalized neighborhoods. And, who doesnt love to have pizza, popcorn, and a great movie together without even leaving home?!
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Tea and Scrabble with a small treat, and talking.
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I am a widow now; but my husband and I used to go out to an inexpensive Saturday breakfast together and just sit and talk about our plans for the week ahead or whatever.
It gave us a chance to connect as a couple.
We have movie nights at home after the kids go to bed.
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Going for walks together, watching a movie at home together, working crossword puzzles togheterh, sharing a book we are both reading, just talking together.
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My husband and I take the time to go out for a soda or coffee. We usually spend a couple hours just talking to each other with no interruptions or distractions.
Rather than go out for dinner, which can be rather expensive, my husband and I sometimes stop at a local bakery, fast-food place for milkshakes, or stop somewhere just for dessert, which is much less expensive. Just this weekend, we had an impromptu date in the car when the toddler fell asleep while we were running errands and we had 45 minutes until we had to pick up our other child. We grabbed some drinks and sandwiches and “camped out” in a parking lot until it was time to head home.
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We definitely don’t do this enough – when we do go out, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law watch the kids for us.
We use coupons to shop dinner, free Redbox codes for movies, and enjoy a walk together.
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My husband and I have only been married 1 1/4 years, but 2 states, 4 houses, and 6 combined jobs later.. we’ve had to work at keeping romance alive already! One of the most memorable date nights we’ve had was one of the cheapest. We made dinner as normal, but turned out the lights, lit some candles, and pretended that we were at a fancy restaurant. My husband even came in and took my order (which, of course, ended up being the “house special”), then came through the other entrance to our dining room as himself. The ticket was “on the house”. Then we made up movie tickets to go to the theatre “next door” (in our living room), where we “sneaked in ice cream”. It may seem childish, but this was so much fun, and I can’t wait to do it again!
A babysitter and a walk in the park.
Like your marriage, my husband and I do not require the fancy-shmancy trappings (they are nice every once and a while & the rarity makes them special). We like to make a “date night” out of barnes & noble cafe!
We keep the romance alive by filling our home with pictures of us together (a lot from our wedding) and little tokens we’ve collected from our romantic trips together. Regular date nights help, too!
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We love to use Redbox or Blockbuster codes to get a free movie. I combine that with gift cards that I get through mypoints and use that for takeout. It makes for a very cheap, yet romantic night at home.
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One of the things we love to do together when we cant afford a fancy date night is to go to the local Farmer’s Market on a Saturday morning. We’ll browse all the wonderful local products and produce, talk with farmers and artisans, find a little something to eat and and sip coffee. It’s such a fun, relaxing and peaceful time. This is MUCH more hectic when we try to do the same thing with 2 young kiddos in tow!)
We’ve also been married 19 years (will be 20 in June). We have at home date nights often. We have 6 children so we put them to bed and spend time together. Cooking together is one of our favorite activities but my favorite all time date was taking sleeping bags in the back of the truck to look at the stars!
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Free babysitting exchanges and low-maintainence expectations – I don’t demand stuff and expensive meals – time together is the most important part of a date night.
We keep our romance alive by frequently leaving each other notes of appreciation- often hidden at unsuspecting places. The other thing we do is always take time for some pillow talk before going to sleep. That is such a special time and helps us connect for at least a little bit each day.
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Holding hands in bed at the end of the day while chatting about our day and dreams of our future.
we are trying to get back to that place. please and thank you go a long way, and compliments. he recently bought me a bouquet of flowers, so sweet.
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we have been married 13 years. each year on a weekend close to our anniversary we head out of town… i plan the even years and hubby plans the odd years. we have been to bed and breakfast places close by, a biking weekend, and other fun places. our ten year anniversary was a cruise which was a little more expensive but we felt the time alone was worth it. grandparents step in and watch our three littles. during the year we swap child care with another couple for nights out for each couple… that way the child care is free. sometimes we just head to a local barnes and noble and read other times we may head to the movies or dinner. we have fun together… i think we will be fine even after the children leave.
We have been married almost 43 yrs(June) and still need to work at keeping the flames lit.
We both appreciate the little things done for/by each other…a freshly brewed cup of coffee the first thing in the morning…a prayer(yes, prayer)walk together in the evening…or sending each other notes via email.
My husband and I are super low maintenance! At least once a month my husband (out of nowhere) will look at me and say “I’m taking you on a date.” We’re both in full-tim ministry so we enjoy just sitting at Taco Bell for 3 hours and talking (with no tv, cell phones off, and we even get a kick out of the funny looks from the staff that we’re still there!). One night we had some special coupons and got a special Monday night out at Arby’s. One worker was out to wipe down tables 4 times while we sat and talked. She smiled each time she saw us there still just talking!
And now that the weather is nice we also enjoy walks. It’s beneficial for our health and the health of our 5 year old dog. We enjoy that time with each other as our captive audience.
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Most often these days we have dates at home after our daughter is in bed. We watch a movie from Redbox (you can get one free each month if you sign up for their text alerts). Or we go to Starbucks when my husband has a gift card (he gets them from his work from time to time) and when Grandma can watch our daughter. We read through the Love and Respect book together and are now reading through Sacred Marriage. I think reading in a marriage book together several nights a week and praying together each night keeps us close.
romance kept alive by thanking husband 4 providing a4 us
after 35yrs of marriage we don’t need the fancy things, and romance can be found on a nice drive in the mountains and stopping along the blue ridge parkway to have a pic nic sandwich on a road side table, the smell alone of the outdoor pine trees and seeing natures beauty makes you thankful to still be together in good health
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I LOVE Beauty and Bedlam.com. I read the website everyday! It’s very inspiring. I love your frugal lifestyle. You should write a book!! It would be wonderful!
I keep romance alive by making a special dinner that isn’t too costly and using candles. In summer, we enjoy dinners like this on the deck in the evening. Thanks!
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We take what we have really, it can be a evening, a special snack, 1 hour with out kids and just talk, looking at our goals, we love Netflix much cheaper then the movie and can pause anytime!
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Netflix movie night and a beer every saturday!
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I always find that the low-key date-nights spent at home, end up being more romantic (and therefore more enjoyable) than when we try and make a big production out of everything. Incidentally, it’s less expensive as well. I see I’m not alone either from the other comments here bringing up Redbox movie-nights. We used to go to Redbox too, but I would fall into that trap of getting a new movie every time I went to return the previous one, and it got more expensive than I’d ever intended. That’s why I was eager to try the Blockbuster @Home service when my employer, DISH, released it. It’s a flat monthly fee that turns out to be considerably cheaper than what I was spending at Redbox, and I get more! There’s more selection, and there’s more options since I have move and video game rentals by mail, with instant streaming too. Ever since we got Blockbuster @Home, I’ve found we’re actually having more date-nights.
This will sound silly, but it’s FREE. My husband and I haven’t done this in awhile, but in the evening, rather than vegging out in front of the TV and not talking, we would play board games or cards. Scrabble was our favorite. We’d spend quality time together talking about books, politics, and current events while improving our vocabulary! What could be better?
(actually, adding a couple drinks makes it even better….)
Drinks after work in a quiet environment
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We enjoy weekly movies on tv and sometimes card games 🙂
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Redbox!
I pick up a bottle of wine and a free movie from the library.
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We take advantage of Redbox codes .. and little notes to each is always free 🙂
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We rent Redbox movies and get a cheap bottle of wine ($3 at Walmart, and it’s actually pretty good).
We occasionally do a date night movie out at a local “cheap seats” theater ($1.50 per seat before 6pm), and then we’ll go to a local restaurant and get an appetizer. Then we’ll go home and have dinner with the kids.
Home cooked meal by candlelight
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We pop some popcorn and watch a streaming tv show online that we miss during our busy week!
We usually wait until the kids are in bed & then share a small snack while we watch a movie or play a game together. It’s just having that uninterrupted one-on-one time. 🙂
Date night @ home!!
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