Cheap Date Idea

Well, hypothetically cheap...

If you promise not to judge, I will tell you about our fun date last weekend. It sounds kinda dorky, but it was a nice change from our typical "excitement" of dinner and/or movie.

I recently was due for an upgrade on my phone and joined the rest of the world with a touch screen, app downloading, fancy phone. I periodically check for new apps and have discovered a few addictions like Angry Birds and Wordfeud. The good thing is a lot of them are free, and if they stink you can just delete them, no harm done.

Last week I found one called Shopkick.

The app has a GPS, and the way it works is that you "check into" stores and earn points for doing so. Some places you don't really even need to go inside of, just be in the vicinity to get the points. Other stores, like American Eagle and Wet Seal, have sensors by their entrances that check you in when you walk inside earning you a larger number of points. Points can then be exchanged for rewards like gift cards up to coach purses, cruises, and a flat screen tv. Another perk is that most of the stores have coupons attached too, so you can just show the cashier your phone at check-out to redeem discounts.

So how did this work into our date? Well, another way to earn points is to scan the barcodes of specific items within stores. I talked Brian into downloading Shopkick onto his phone and since then we have fought to get more points than the other. Last weekend we had dinner at the outdoor mall near our house. After dinner, I convinced Brian that we needed to stop by all the stores that were participating to get our points, then drove to Target to pick up some baby food for Deacon. Target is one of the stores that gives points for scanning products, so we had a mini-scavenger hunt in the store.

This is why the trip has potential to be cheap. You can scan and earn for free, until your heart is content. But, you know how shopping works, especially in superstores: you go in to buy a couple jars of baby food and come out with items like a candy thermometer (seriously.), along with $200 in other purchases you didn't realize you needed...

Anyways, I am kicking Brian's butt with over 400 points, enough for a $25 gift card to restaurant.com. Not quite enough to make up for our shopping excursion, but a nice perk for spending that probably would have been done regardless.

If you are convinced that this is some excitement you can't live without, you can download the app on your phone and type in this promo code, earning 50 points right off the bat: tangerine5995

*In case you are wondering, I had NO idea my late 20's would be nearly this riveting...