“No romance without finance, guys!”
My Climatology lecturer made it a point to remind us in class every time he could. Maybe he was always reminded of young love and how flaming it looked on the outside whenever he saw couples on campus. He always pointed out that, to keep whatever flame a couple has, it is necessary to occasionally use the ‘paper’ to keep fanning it.
Till date, his angle on romance and finance is one of the most interesting ones of I have ever come across Truthfully, he has a point there if we took out his whole joke of literally associating money with a flaming love. Nevertheless, his point on money being an essential factor to romance is inevitably true. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a whole bunch of it, but a little might just be enough to set the scene rolling.
So for those who keep having this question running through their minds: Do you need to spend a whole lot to kill it at being romantic?
Keeping to a Budget
No, you don’t! You don’t always need a 5-star hotel or the fanciest eatery to show how romantic you are. Well, they say it’s easy to be caught up in the perception that romance has to be expensive. Yeah, its true expense can bring some amazing experiences, after all, money might just bring variety.
Unfortunately, people forget to remember that drowning your finances is not romantic at all. So yes you spent all this to be romantic now you can’t pay your bills?
The essence of a budget is to have control on your money instead of the other way around. If you are ever worried about your budget getting into you being spontaneously romantic, then how about you create a budget for that too – call it “Romantic Spontaneity”.
That way, the chances of you being in line with your budget are high.
Introduce Sentimentality
Sometimes, it doesn’t take much to give the perfect gift or give your partner the perfect time. Actually, the best ones are the ones that hold sentimental value.
Well to do this, you really have to know who you are dealing with. You might not necessarily know the other inside out, but you might have knowledge of a couple of their preferences. Now, how about you skew your acts of romance to his/her preferences.
She loves Rick and Morty? Get a fake portal gun and take her to another reality.
He loves NBA? Let him “accidentally” meet LeBron / Get him tickets to an NBA game/ or even save up to “unexpectedly” get NBA 2k for him/ organize a little game time with the boys for when his team is playing.
Remember, it should all be in line with your budget.
Try to Be Unconventional
Being unconventional can get you so high up the romance scale, so never underestimate this. For one, everyone would prefer if their partners were not a 100% predictable. To make matters worse, following the general norm can be as predictable as it gets.
How remarkable can you be?
Well, here’s an idea: Some months ago, a female friend showed me a “To-Do” list a guy she was dating had sent to her. On it, he had listed out a hundred cute, crazy, normal, interesting, dangerous, fun packed, and absurd (trust me, my adjectives aren’t enough) actions they’d do together.
The list had things as simple as kissing her at her workplace, to a short road trip with music she loved playing all through.
Find your remarkability, and adjust it to your already set budget to be the ideal Mr. Lover Lover.
As usual, remember it should all be in line with your budget.
Inexpensive Things Done to Stay Killing with Romance
- Write a poem.
- Bring home good coffee or a decadent sweet.
- Create a playlist of songs she might like
- Give a full-body massage.
- Take a moonlit walk on the beach.
- Kiss in the rain.
- Cook a romantic dinner.
- Pretend you’re going on a first date. Recreate the first time.
- Paint each other with flavored body paint. Be creative!
- Go Skinny Dipping Together!
- Go see a movie. Then, you ignore the movie and make out like teenagers.
- Declare your love, very publicly.
- Fruit or berries and freshly made whipped cream.
- Feed each other grapes like you’re in Ancient Rome.
- Try dinner on the roof – this doesn’t work if your roof slopes.
- Do that thing for her she’s been putting off forever (she obviously doesn’t want to do it!)
- If you’re meeting for dinner, get there before her and have a glass of wine waiting. (Okay so this costs money, but you were still going to order wine anyway, no?)
- Let her pick the movie or TV show. What I’m trying to say is, let her pick her romantic comedies or OITNB.
- Make her a drink (Without your shirt on? – 6 packs or 1 full pack)
- Tell her she looks sexy. Not cute, sexy
- Fix something you know she is not going to fix herself. (Bike, computer, headphones, whatever)
- Be nice to her friends, or if you really don’t like them, just be polite
- Brag about her to your friends (while making sure she is just close enough to hear).
- Eat the food she made and say it’s delicious.
- Pay all her bills and rent (ha! Just Kidding, this one belongs on another list, not romance)
Manny Obeng is a Ghanaian writer who hopes that his write-ups would serve its quota in making a world a better place, especially in Africa. With his love for creating content, he regularly writes when he’s not working with his team – Team Exhorton the best place to post job openings Ghana and Africa in general.