Date nights are an important part of keeping the spark alive in a relationship. Quality time together alone is necessary, but unfortunately going out every week isn’t always in the budget.The great news is that you don’t have to sacrifice a fun evening together because funds are low. There are a ton of really fun stay-at-home dates you can plan that are just as fulfilling as going out.

In this post, we’re going to focus on a super fun movie date night at home. But instead of just busting out a microwaveable bag of popcorn, we’re going to spice it up with some out-of-the-box ideas that we think you’ll love.

First up, renting the movie. Now, we all know Blockbusters are few and far between at this point, and movie renting has become an online thing. You can rent movies from amazon.com to stream to your television, order Netflix DVDs in advance so they are ready for your date, or have fun with it and hit up the $5 bin at Walmart, Target, or other stores and grab some campy movies you’ll both enjoy. If you want to snuggle up, make it a scary one.

Next, make some gourmet popcorn. It sounds difficult, but it’s not. You can easily make flavored popcorn by infusing the butter. If you don’t have an air popper, grab some no-butter microwaveable bags and add your own flavored butter afterwards. Infuse it with rosemary, cinnamon and sugar, or try a paprika/cinnamon/chile pepper combo for a spicy treat. Make a few different flavors so there are options!

You can’t have a movie night without candy, and we love going with traditional movie theater choices. Hit up your local drugstore (which usually has great deals on candy!) and pick up some Milk Duds, Sour Patch Kids, M&Ms, Twizzlers, and you can’t leave out the good ole fashion snow cap. To make it even more fun, lay everything out on a table to emulate the candy stand a the theater. Create signs that read small, medium, and large and let your gf/bf pick the candy/popcorn/soda combo of their choice. A little role playing never hurt anyone.

Grab some pillows and blankets, and get ready to snuggle your way into a super fun evening. Oh and wine, obviously. No one’s driving, so both adults can imbibe.

What stay at home date nights have you done lately? Let us know in the comments! -Sasha Huff