Dating your Spouse

Why Dating your Spouse Should be Added to the Monthly Budget

Are you still dating your spouse? Go ahead and cue up your favorite romance music in your head. This is your own personal rom-com. Well except this isn’t a movie. Marriage is hard. Marriage is work. Are you working at your marriage every day? Now it shouldn’t be horrible struggle to be married. However, it takes some effort. Growing with your partner, communicating honestly, and continuing to date. That is why every month, I budget to include some date time.

1. The Importance of Dating your Spouse

Like I said, Marriage is work. It seems like every day we get tons more stuff add to our plate. Sometimes the plate is magical and seems to get bigger, other times it’s like we are at a BBQ with everyone watching while sloppily things are failing off. Your marriage CAN’T fall off. KEEP YOUR MARRIAGE ON THE PLATE. When we allow the marriage to fall, we are getting complacent. We aren’t communicating.

Keeping the marriage on the plate, for my marriage, requires actively planning to go out together and forget all the other stuff. Remember when you had butterflies when you saw your spouse, remember being so excited to go out somewhere together? Well it can still be like that. It is important to sit together and talk about old times or things you are looking forward to in the future. It bonds you, it connects you, it reminds you why you got married in the first place.

2. Planning a Date

Don’t make this harder than it has to be, but also don’t be selfish. Dating your spouse is a little give and take. Give and take. Give and take. Maybe you do a hobby your spouse likes this time and you learn a little more about one of their passions. (I mean I didn’t even realize I would actually like video games until I started playing them with my husband). Then next time your spouse does something you love. Occasionally, it is about finding a new hobby for you both.

You really never know what you’ll like till you give it a try. Maybe dip your foot in first though. No need to take on a major home renovation together when you could just paint a wall to see if that is going to be your thing. (Hint Hint, this was not mine. I’ll stick to home organization over renovation).

3. Some Final thoughts

• This does not need to be expensive. Drag out an old board game you already own or pack a picnic and head to the park. I’ll be working on a list of cheap or free date ideas really soon and link it here for ya.
• Marriage is hard, but it can get easier when you are sharing the load.
• Remember my BBQ and plate analogy up in the 2nd paragraph? Everyone is watching you drop stuff off your plate? Your spouse should help you catch it. BUT have some friends that wanna get you both napkins. Have friends that want your marriage to succeed. Don’t surround yourself with people who want you to drop your plate and give up or who don’t care that your plate is too full. Marriage is just between the two of you, but having friends to cheer your marriage on is a great feeling.

Thanks for reading.