If you want to have a marriage that lasts the distance, it’s important to make time for each other.
As Psychologist Michelle Linmore says, “In the rush of everyday life, it’s all too easy to let our love relationship slide off the agenda. Other pressures like work, kids and chores can so easily take up our energy, leaving little in reserve for our life partner.”
What I’m about to tell you is not new advice by any means: you’ve probably heard it said a million times before … but allow me to remind you …
- Make time for each other. Schedule time for romance. Book a regular date night!
I Must Confess however, that there is one other thing apart from time, which the hubster and I have found often stands in the way of our being able to do this.
Money.
Or rather, the lack of it.
Like most couples, we’ve been through prosperous times and lean times (“for richer, for poorer”) over the course of our 24 years of marriage. Okay, there’s probably been more of the lean times, like when I was at home with the children; when we’d bought a new house but hadn’t yet sold our previous one; or even now, while the hubster is on some well-deserved long service leave on half pay (so he can have twice as much time off). At least now the kids are older, we don’t have to fork out for babysitters anymore!
But through it all, we have always tried to make time for each other, and headed out for a semi-regular date night.
One of the ways we have been able to do this is thanks to Shop A Docket. We keep our dockets and coupons on a clip in the pantry, and use these for our date nights – there are often great specials for cafes and restaurants, like a certain percentage off, or two-for-one deals. Thanks to Shop A Docket, we can halve the cost of an outing – or go out twice as often 
We’ve had awesome counter lunches at a local pub; been out for Mexican; or just tried out the coffee at a new cafe in town. Heck, we’ve even been to the Golden Arches on one of our date nights!
How do you and your partner make time for each other – and do you have any suggestions of other budget date night ideas, for the cash-strapped among us?!
