10 Romantic Quality Time Ideas For Couples On A Budget

These quality time ideas for couples recognize that it’s hard to spend quality time together. After you’ve been in a relationship for a while, it can be difficult to work quality time into your routine. In the beginning, maybe it’s hard because of your busy schedules and/or limited finances, and trying to get to know each other is proving to be challenging even though you are really into each other. Either way, it’s important to find quality time ideas for couples even if you are on a time and financial budget: it’s what keeps the relationship strong, healthy, and growing forward.

1. It’s As Easy As Going For A Walk

Okay, maybe it isn’t exactly that easy, but choosing the right setting and the right time of day for a walk can transform this simple activity into a romantic quality time idea for couples. At the end of the day, you’ll come home and see that the sun will be setting soon, so you take your sweetheart to a calm spot to walk through the woods, walk along the coast, or walk through campus while the light softly changes and falls.

Walking can make the conversation the central focus, and you can open up communication while you wander through the changing scenery. If your ideal quality time ideas for couples don’t include chatting, just enjoy seeing the world with your sweetie by your side.

2. Cooking

By cooking, I don’t mean making pasta with red sauce, ramen noodles, or heating up a frozen pizza in the oven. Rather, slow cooking more complex dishes is very romantic and sensual, and allows you to work on your teamwork organically. Choosing a dish that you both love to eat at restaurants and don’t usually cook for yourselves because it is a bit more complicated would be perfect.

You’ll both be excited to eat something that you love, and to be with someone you (maybe) love. Transitioning into a romantic dinner date afterwards is easy when you set the table with a few candles!

3. Playing A Game

Playing cards, Othello, Scrabble, or any number of board games can be very romantic and affordable quality time ideas for couples. Putting on your favorite record and drinking some good wine will set the mood, and you can challenge each other mentally while enjoying each other’s company. You might think board games are boring, but imagine not being focused on the game, and being focused on the exchange between you and your partner instead. Some candles or soft lighting really help here, too.

4. Doing A Puzzle

Okay, maybe games aren’t your thing. No problem. A puzzle achieves the same effect: you are doing something in the same space with your S.O., working together, and perhaps more interested in being there with your S.O. than in doing the puzzle. Talk to them, drink some tea or wine or hot cocoa with them, make jokes and make them laugh.

I personally think puzzles are a whole lot of fun, but they are also a really good way to spend quality time together. Pick a puzzle with lots of patterns or sections to make things easier instead of a big landscape with lots of the same color. It will go a lot faster, and you may even become a puzzle convert.

5. A Picnic

If you have nice weather, or if you have a good place to go even with more ominous clouds and temperatures like an indoor garden, pack a picnic with cheese, crackers, olives, prosciutto and various accoutrements for a romantic lunch or aperitif. If these aren’t your types of snacks, that’s okay, pick snacks that are romantic for you like strawberries and chocolate, or hot Cheetos and pickles.

The point is that you’ll sit down to have some food with your partner in a calm and romantic setting where you can share some food. Bring books, games, cards, crosswords, or any other simple activity you can do with each other to stay entertained and enjoying one another.

6. Free Concerts

Even if you (most likely) can’t see your favorite artists for free, there are plenty of local artists who are performing for free or depending on donations to put on their shows. You might think that there is only one type of show happening in your area, like punk, jazz, or country, but in reality there are probably more artists with more variety than you realize.

Check out community center bulletin boards, student bulletin boards, and other places people hang flyers like restaurants and cafés. If you’ve never looked before, you might find that there is a whole lot more happening that you’re interested in than you thought! You actually live somewhere pretty cool.

7. Being Active Or Working Out Together

Not everyone thinks that working out together is romantic, and I certainly don’t think that every type of working out would be romantic for me, but there are some activities that would make perfect quality time ideas for couples. For example, a hot yoga class, a nice swim, stand-up paddle boarding, hiking, biking, or other gently active pastimes are good options.

If you feel that quality time is about really pushing yourselves together, try rock climbing, a HIIT class, or something else that feels challenging to you. Different couples bond in different ways.

8. Massages

Massages are really hard to give to yourself, but all of us really need them. A perfect, romantic quality time idea for couples is to buy a nice oil or lotion for massage, lay down a blanket or a few towels, and help each other relax by working out some knots. This activity can be sexy or not, but either way, you can focus on taking care of each other and making sure the other person feels good and relaxed.

Think about the massage in terms of what hurts for you and start there, and then listen to the guidance of your partner (verbally and non-verbally). Give an amount of pressure that feels loving and helpful to you, and listen again. This quality time idea for couples also helps you listen to each other, but only if you decide to focus on that. Take care of each other.

9. Roller And Ice Skating

These simple activities often have a discount night, especially roller skating, so you can enjoy this activity on the cheap. I like roller skating because I don’t prefer being cold, but you’re also more likely to work up a sweat while roller skating, so keep that in mind. Either way, these activities are good quality time ideas for couples because you can get out and do something that you don’t normally do together, and maybe get a laugh and some hand holding out of it. That’s pretty sweet, if you ask me.

10. Just Desserts

Eat at home or at the dining hall, and then take your partner out just for dessert to save money, but keep the romance. Plus, for those on a budget, you probably never order dessert at a restaurant normally. Go somewhere that has a special item like cheesecake, creme brulée, or whatever your favorite dessert is. Get tea, get coffee, sample the desserts. It will all feel very fancy, but it won’t end up costing you that much.