22 Cute & CHEAP Summer Date Ideas

The dog days of summer are HERE, ladies and gents! Are you sweating yet? Since J and I are currently under the same roof, we’re together all the time (minus work, GNO’s, me sneaking off to Target, etc.). While we’d both love to go out on fancy filet mignon dinners every Friday night, our bank accounts would run drier than the California drought. So whaddya do when you want to be dating and going on fun dates, but don’t want to break the bank? You get creative! Now presenting, 22 cute and C-H-E-A-P summer date ideas. Bonus points if you try any on your next romantic rendezvous!

22 CUTE AND CHEAP SUMMER DATE IDEAS

First thing’s first: J and I are currently OB-SESSED with Trivia Crack. To the point where we spent half of last Sunday sitting across the living room from one another battling it out in the most intense game of trivia knowledge. Have a full-out Trivia Crack tournament; best 6 out of ten games buys ice cream. For the record, I’m up 7/8. (;
Go for a sunset walk around the neighborhood. Extra credit if you make it outside (and makeout maybe? *wink*) as the sky changes colors.
Grab soft serve cones from the McDonald’s dollar menu. They’re deeeeelicious. (Did I mention they’re only $1?)
Hit the pool. If your family or friends don’t have one (or know people who have one), invest in a summer pool membership and make it a regular thing to hang out together poolside! Just be sure to use that SPF…
Have a couple’s game night with all the classics. We are Scrabble FIENDS, and we love making it a double date against my parents. Cranium is also killer for a couple’s double date night…just be sure you’re ready to get down and dirty. Cranium can get a wee bit intense if you’ve got competitive gameplayers battling it out. *Cough, cough*
Bring “The Newlyweds” game into the 21st century. Write down 30 questions/answers about yourself personally, and have your date do the same. Swap question sets and see how much you know about the other person! Whoever gets the most right wins a back rub. *For the record, this date was J’s idea, so it’s 100% man approved!.
Watch funny YouTube videos together. Some recommendations to get you started…this and this.
Go bowling (even if you need bumpers). Really cool bowling joints are opening up around Philly, like retro-chic South Bowl, complete with arcades, DJs, and drinks + grub!
Find the nearest beach and day trip on a sunshine-y Saturday. Have one of you pay for gas and tolls and the other cover dinner and drinks. BYO beach snacks, sunscreen, reading materials and music!
Rent bikes in the city and take ‘em for a spin! Philadelphia has a whole new bike share program happening now, with stations located every few blocks for you to rent out a bike in half hour increments. They’re bright blue and adorable, and they scream cute summer date. For us, no bike date (or really, no date in the city period) is complete without Starbucks, so we naturally stop for an iced green tea lemonade and s’mores frappucino along the way!
Backyard barbecue. We bought a teeny tiny charcoal grill from Walmart for 30 bucks, and it’s perfect for dinner for two! Make an afternoon of it and make your whole meal grilled – barbecue chicken or great burgers, shish kebabs of fresh veggies and onions, and fruits like pineapples and peaches that get a yummy caramelized finish!
Hit the library or a bookstore! Browse through book selections together and either make into a lighthearted game or legitimately snag some great reads to then haul to the pool together.
Rent video games from the library and have a Playstation tournament. J is currently obsessed (like, doesn’t blink and won’t leave the La-Z-Boy obsessed) with Batman: Arkham Knight. But we’re grabbing Jurassic World and Lego Batman at the library next weekend for some vegging out.
Find friends with boats and carpe diem with some tubing on a lake. Nothing beats a new adventure together!
Spend a Saturday morning at your local farmers’ market. Especially come summertime, you’ll find the best selection of fresh fruits (I’ve been downing a tin of blueberries a day!), veggies, and dairy. Our favorite thing is grilled corn, and we’re suckers for fresh cheese and milk. Bonus points if your market carries fresh flowers, too!
Make yourselves useful – and have fun cooling off on a particularly sweltering summer day – with a little parking lot carwash! Throw on a cute bikini and cut-offs and lather up in sunscreen, then grab a bucket and get ready to make some suds. Time to wax on-wax off…
Picnic! Go all out with a cute gingham blanket (or beach towel. #ghetto) and a basket filled with food and snacks. We BYO wine just because.
Cook together. One of you handle the apps and dessert, the other take over the entrée.
Go to a local fair or carnival. Don’t throw up on rides. But share an old-school funnel cake or deep-fried Oreos!
Grab bubble tea! It’s surprisingly addicting, but until you get the hang of slurping those tapioca balls, you’ll likely *have* a ball sipping and laughing with your date.
Hit the gym. There’s just something, well, hot about breaking a sweat together. J and I are members at the cheapest gym in town, and we go every day. While we each go off and do our own workouts, we still get to steal intermittent kisses in between crunches! #winning
Watch an old Oscar award-winning film. We tried out “The Graduate” the other night…would not recommend unless you’re a fan of unnecessarily provocative films with meta-themes that are overrated in relevance and depth by film critics, but that’s just us. (;

Those should keep you busy for 11 weekends or so…the rest of summer! Be sure to check out other Date Night ideas before you go! But now I’ve gotta know…