Happy fall y’all!
My hubby and I wanted to take advantage of a gorgeous fall afternoon. Our morning plans had not turned out exactly as we had wished, but we wanted to make the most of a day off together. We’ve been married now for just over 4 years, and we believe that continued dating in marriage is so important! We budget $25 each week for dating, and this challenge has fostered so much creativity as we believe we can have fun without breaking the bank! And we believe you can too! This particular afternoon, we regrouped from our crazy morning, talked about what we might want to do, sent out a text to a couple of friends, headed out to lunch, and then the it was off to the apple orchard.
Planning ahead
We looked up local orchards in our area already, but called a second time to verify prices and options of activities available. Different orchards or pumpkin patches have a variety of activities for the whole family. There’s apple picking, cider donuts, wineries, cider, pumpkin patches, corn mazes, hay rides, and kid friendly festivities or versions of the aforementioned activities. We had two orchards fairly close to our house, but one orchard charged quite a bit, as it was for a package of activities we were not interested in doing all of them. We asked if they could adjust prices for only certain activities, but they weren’t able to and that was ok, but it never hurts to ask. They did have cheeper prices on week days, but the hours and timing of those had been difficult to align with our schedule. So weekend and the higher weekend prices were what we had to work with so we did.
Budget Tip: Different activities and companies often have days, happy hours, specials etc, in which prices are lower, when possible, try to plan ahead and take advantage of those times-this is usually what we do, but as mentioned, it doesn’t always work out and that’s ok. I almost got discouraged and decided to wait, but we didn’t and I’m so happy I just sucked it up.
Off to the Orchard
In the end we wound up going with the other apple orchard, where we could pay per activity and only purchase the ones we wanted. For us, we had a goal-apple picking. I had never gone apple picking before, and that was on my fall goal’s list. So that’s what we went in determined to do. For a link to the orchard we went to see below.
Planning things with other friends is something we really enjoy. It keeps things fun and helps us each to be more open to ideas when we go out. Our friends met us there, and they of course wanted some cider donuts. We stood in the line with them, which was pretty insane-people in the midwest are pretty serious about their cider donuts. And in the end, the hubs wanted some too so we added those to the budget adding up to about $2 or so!
Apple picking
Next up was apple picking. To pick a bag full of apples cost a mere $15! We split the cost with the couple we went with so it only ended up being $7.50 for each couple. That sounded pricey until we saw how many apples we still each took home! Then when we tasted the apples later, I was reassured that store apples and prices didn’t compare-well worth the money! They were delicious. (Check online before you go for the dates that apple picking is open in your area, for this orchard they posted online that October was their last week this year.)
Last Stop…
Last stop was a corn maze. Another good ole’ fashioned fun fall activity. Once again, if you’re in the midwest, or have a corn maze available in your area we love taking advantage. We’ve moved a lot and when we lived in Florida and Colorado this was not maybe as readily available. That’s ok, celebrate the place you live, or if you’re planning a trip look ahead at what local things you can explore. There are different types of corn mazes, but no we didn’t do a haunted corn maze where people chase you around at night, we did the regular one and it was still fun. They even have a cute little design that they use as the layout, this year was Curious George-well that’s what it looked like to me anyways-see for yourself!
We went in the October, the regular fall season; for two adults this cost us $14 total. But if you go now in November they have a discounted price of only $5 per person!
Grand Total
All in all it was a great day, we got to pick some apples, sample some yummy made in house donuts, and navigate a corn maze all for a whopping total of $23.50! You don’t have to do all of these activities at once. You could break up a few different parts of this to do over a couple weekends throughout the fall, or spend a good part of your afternoon there like we did and hit them all-it’s really up to you. We believe that dating is so important and should be fun, but it doesn’t have to break the bank.
Hope you can have a fun apple picking or festive fall date soon! Comment below if you’ve ever been to Robinette’s apple orchard. What are some of your favorite things to do? Tried out this idea? Post a pic of you and your family or date below to share, and don’t forget to tag me on instagram at Kenzieclaire47.
KenzieClaire 