On A Budget? 4 Cheap Summer Dates

1. Attend Your Community's Free Summer Events

I live in a southern city that still takes great pride in providing a lot of free, family-friendly community events throughout the summer. I literally could go on a fun date every night in my town without paying a dime.

For instance, Wednesday evenings are "Movie Night in the Park" (a return to the old drive-in movie concept); Thursdays are Jazz and swing dancing on Main Street.

Friday evenings the local acting guild puts on an outdoor Shakespeare production; and on Saturdays, Greenville hosts their outdoor European market on Main Street—all of which are free and open to everyone.

Most cities present free concerts, festivals, parades, and fireworks shows in the summertime, usually close to the Fourth of July holiday. In my community you can find Independence Day-related events for several weeks before and following the Fourth.

Check your community's website events calendar to see what free events are available for you to attend.

Add your city's online "calendar of events" to your website favorites list, and check it often for updates. 10best.com is another great website for searching for local events within a geographic region, and it has a free things to do link for major cities.

2. Babysit!

This takes some nerve and stamina, but I promise you'll learn a ton about each other if you do it. Find a family at church or perhaps a relative who could use some time away from kids - and volunteer to babysit for an afternoon or evening.

Babysitting places you in a real-life (perhaps even high stress) everyday situation, far different from being all dressed up, sipping wine and ordering appetizers at a nice restaurant.

Working together in real-life situations is a key component of discerning your future spouse.

I'll never forget the babysitting experience I had with a boyfriend and his four nieces and nephews, all under age 7. We took the kids to Sunday mass together. It was a good test to see what life would be like if we had to handle four rambunctious little ones all by ourselves!

3. The Six-Dollars-for-Sixty-Minutes-Date

You can work any place, topic and price cap into this idea, but the Six-Dollars-for-Sixty-Minutes activity is a fun (and funny!) activity for any couple on a budget.

Visit a favorite bookstore and challenge each other to find a book on any topic that the other person would love to have, and it has to be done in under one hour and cost no more than $6. You will be amazed at how much fun you will have talking and laughing over titles and topics as you search for the perfect volume.

You'll be surprised at how much you'll learn about the person you are dating as well—his or her interests, favorite topics, books he or she has read, etc.

If books are not your thing, implement the same idea with a different topic—such as movies, music, clothing, antiques, or something else that interests both of you. Even a sixty minute thrift store challenge would be a hilarious activity to see what kind of gift you could come up with for the other person for just a few cents.

4. Sweat Together

Before you girls starting thinking "ewww, yuck!" to my subject heading above, let me share with you an interesting poll finding regarding the romantic desires of men.

In her best-selling book For Women Only, author Shaunti Feldhahn polled thousands of men asking how they define romance. In her poll, nearly 40% of men said they found the idea of getting out and doing things together (like hiking, golfing, driving around and exploring) more romantic than the traditional "dinner with candles" idea of romance.

According to Feldhahn, this means that many women are missing a prime opportunity to engage the men in their lives.

This summer, decide as a couple to try a few more active (even dirty and sweaty!) activities together. One idea is to train for a 5K race together, or a gonzo hiking trip. Spend an afternoon at a driving range, or challenge each other to a tennis or racquetball match.

If either or both of you are not athletically inclined, attending a sporting event or some type of outdoor activity that the guy especially enjoys is a great alternative. Many communities are home to a minor league baseball team that sells summertime tickets for as low as $3 or $5.

Or, perhaps one or both of you have younger siblings or nieces and nephews that have games on the weekends you can attend together.