Dating my Husband, From A to Z | Guest Post

Dating My Husband, From A to Z

My husband and I have been married for 12 years and together for 14. Over the years, we’ve added kids, stress and chaos to our lives. Our marriage suffered. A lot. We needed to do something drastic to get us back on track. We know a regular date night does wonders for a relationship, but in the past we’ve been able to either afford a date or a babysitter—not both. When we did have a night out, we’d go to dinner, talk about the kids, then sit in silence at a movie. Because that’s a date, right?

It was nice to get out of the house once in awhile, but there was still a big disconnect. Then, we stumbled on an alphabet dating game based on a book. Each time we get the chance to go out, we tackle the next letter of the alphabet. The idea is to come up with something more creative for a date than dinner and a movie. The only rule is movies don’t count. It has to be something that allows us to connect, rather than sit side by side ignoring each other.

We’ve explored downtown, enjoyed a weekend getaway and shared a romantic fondue dinner. The activities have been a lot of fun, and the time we spend planning each date in between has been just as good for our marriage as the nights out. We’re getting to know one another again, and enjoying every minute of it. I’ve fallen in love with my husband all over again through the last few months. In fact, we just renewed our wedding vows last month—J is for Just Married.

The project will continue through Z, but we’re already planning to come up with a new theme after that—it makes it more exciting, forces us to get creative and turns our date nights into something purposeful. If you aren’t being proactive and purposeful with your relationship, it doesn’t have the chance to grow stronger. It took years of our marriage crumbling around us, and a magical meteor shower, to make me realize dating my husband is very necessary. Alphabet Dating has been officially added to the budget, and it’s cheaper than therapy.

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About Heather: Heather Sokol is the founder of Inexpensively.com and has been featured in the Chicago and the Indianapolis Star. She has also appeared on CBS Nightly News and as a weekly contributor to Fox59 Morning News. She is the married mother of three beautiful, active girls who have created in her a Montessori mom, Scout mom, allergy mom and avid coupon clipper. She shares her deals and tips at Inexpensively.com and reports progress on learning to be a grown-up at JustHeather.com.

About Inexpensively: The Inexpensively network provides a whole lifestyle concept for savings. We compile weekly lists for grocery store deals, suggest ideas on living your life for less, offer tips on finding the best savings and encourage our community to be charitable even on a budget. We connect a network of individuals from around the country to provide families with the most up to date and accurate savings tools in their own communities. In short, we encourage families to maximize their budgets so they can use some of their savings to help improve their neighborhood.