Today I'm so excited to be starting a new series that I hope to continue into the new year! It's no secret that having intentional alone time is paramount to the success of any relationship- but there are also usually a million excuses standing in the way of them happening.

We cant afford it. We don't have a babysitter. Our schedules are too busy. We've already done all of the fun dates in our town. Why spend money when we can just watch Netflix at home?

These excuses are all too common and while there is truth in them- it's so important to make time for each other. Aj and I know the struggle all too well- the babies are usually the main reason we don't go out often. Our babysitters (my parents) moved away a few months ago, and so in lieu of paying someone else to watch them AND spending money on a date (except for special occasions) we decided to experiment and try doing fun dates at home.

The good news is these dates don't have to be expensive at all, and with a little planning and use of resources (we recently discovered Personal Capitol's services*, which help us manage our finances all in one place, but that's a story for a different post!), date night takes on a whole new meaning.

I want to share our date nights with you all in hopes that they both inspire you to try to save a little money and get creative at home AND to push Aj and I to do it more. Accountability is never a bad thing. The ideas probably won't be revolutionary, just simple and completely do-able. Look for them each month in the coming year! (Hear that, Aj? ;)

SO- without further ado, our first at-home date:

Again, this date is so simple that you definitely didn't need me to think of it, BUT it's a tried and true classic for a reason- it's fun!

What you'll need:

Game of your choice (we literally only own cards, Scrabble and Apples to Apples....we need to up our board game game...)
Drink of choice (I made Jameson spiked hot chocolate- recipe to come soon!)
A little bit of mood lighting.
Each other.

Try to focus on connecting with each other a little bit deeper than you do throughout the day. Go deeper than "how was work" or "what should we do this weekend?"

If you're the competitive type, try not to let it get in the way of having fun. Scrabble can get pretty brutal- so we had to be extra careful ;) But, for the record, I won...