Recently, my husband and I really, really wanted to see the latest Star Wars movie together. In order for us both to be away from our children long enough, we both had to take a day off work. And by the time we added on a modest lunch at Nandos, cinema tickets and some popcorn, we’d spent around £50.
On special occasions like birthdays and anniversaries, our dates are even more expensive. We’ll hire a babysitter, go to a decent restaurant and have a few drinks. By the time we’ve paid for the babysitter, the meal, the drinks and the taxi, we usually spend in the range of £200.
Having quality time with your partner when you have young children gets expensive and is often inconvenient too. I always worry about leaving my kids with a babysitter. Which is why “date nights”, for us, only happen a few times per year.
So I was excited when I was approached by Date Delivered to review one of their dates-in-a-box. They send you supplies for a fun and creative activity to do at home, ostensibly after the kids are in bed and actually sleeping. The boxes cost £33.95, which sounds expensive at first, but when you think back to how much you spend on going out, it’s a bargain.
You can sign up for a subscription to receive a box every month, or every 3 months. Or you can just buy it as one-off. There are options to send them as gifts as well – a great alternative to a more traditional hamper. There is a fun quiz on the website about what you like as a couple, which helps determine what sorts of boxes you will receive.
The cocktails
The best sort of date for my husband and I turned out to be alcohol-related. Fancy that! So Date Delivered sent us a rum cocktail making kit. It came with the cocktail recipes, the rum and other special ingredients, some snacks and a list of conversation starters. It all looked so pretty and enticing in the box.
And indeed out of the box. Yum. Rum.
At this point, I should probably caution my readers who are planning on trying the cocktail-making kit that you really do need to read the instructions before you start. There is extra stuff you need to find. Ice, for starters. Luckily we had some ready in the freezer, but it was depleted because my 4yo son has a serious ice-water habit. We also needed some lime and grapefruit juices, a cocktail shaker and something to measure out the ingredients.
Luckily because we’re a boozy sort of household, we had all this stuff on hand. Although it would be good if the kit could include something to measure the booze. Because my husband is a scientific type and makes his own beer in his spare time, we used a graduated cylinder. Like total geeks. Maybe we’re a bit uptight, but we had to get it exactly right!
My husband also will divorce me if I don’t mention that the cocktail recipe card said you could make 4-6 cocktails with what was provided. He pointed out that the measures were exact and therefore you could only make precisely 5 cocktails with what was provided. Whatevs, though – 5 was definitely enough!
The conversation
So the cocktails were super tasty, as cocktails usually are. The salted caramel popcorn that we had with it was delicious as well. But surely the important thing about this product is whether it actually made for a romantic date night. Did we reconnect? Did we feel amorous?
Yes! We were both a bit surprised by how much fun we had. It was funny because I was spectacularly bad at making the cocktails. So we bickered a bit and then laughed about me not knowing how to shake a cocktail shaker. Here is my husband demonstrating while he laughs at me:
The conversation starter card that came with the date was also surprisingly good. When I read them on my own, I thought they sounded pretty cringey and that we’d be too embarrassed to try them. But once we had a couple measures of rum in us, we went through all of them and enjoyed laughing about old times.
One of the questions was, “if you could recreate one of our dates, which one would it be?”. My husband wanted to replicate our very first date, but not for the reasons you’d think. He thought it was funny because I ordered a filet of fish at the restaurant but then sent it back because it had bones in it. As far as I’m concerned, the word “filet” means “bones have been removed”. Some men would have been turned off by my diva-ish attitude, but apparently my husband found it endearing.
Another fun one was, “If you could name a cocktail based on me, what would it be called?” That was a tricky one. He named my cocktail “The Clumsy Wife” and I named his “Mr Know-it-all”.
It was great to flirt and tease each other. We didn’t discuss the kids or household admin for a change. We just had a fun chat with no mention of the washing up or who needed to go where the next day.
The verdict
We had a great time! It’s a fantastic way to ensure you and your partner make time for one another without all of the hassle and expense of arranging a date outside the home. And it is so exciting to receive a mysterious box and find out what your activity is going to be this time. I think I might actually sign up to receive a quarterly box myself.
Win one for yourself!
Date Delivered has very kindly agreed to provide one of the cocktail making date boxes to one of my lucky readers.
CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY.
Giveaway terms & conditions
- This competition will open on 2 February and will close on 18 February at 12am GMT.
- One winner will be selected at random.
- The winner will receive one cocktail-making date-in-a-box, sent directly by Date Delivered.
- UK entrants only.
- No cash alternative will be offered.
- The winner will be announced on The Mum Reviews’ social media outlets, not the blog.
- The winner will have 28 days to respond to their winner’s email.
Disclosure: I received a Date Delivered box for purposes of this review, but all views are my own.
Listed on The Competition Database and Loquax.
The Mum Reviews 
last time was almost 2years ago
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Oooh its been a long long time, definitely over a year
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oooh its been a long time, at least another year
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We managed a date night last month but that was the third one in seven yrs as our youngest won’t stay with anyone 😦
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It would have been April last year we had a night away
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it’s been a while, could use a night out!
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A fair few months back, it’s weird after so long!
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Every night is date night! lolz 😉
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too long ago to remember
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A long time ago – probably about 10 years!
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About 2 weeks ago! We always try and get a date night every fortnight/three weeks but sometimes life just gets in the way!
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I don’t have a partner
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Sometimes we just grab an hour for tea & cake in a café own the road, its the time to reconnect.
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Due to life and 2 sons,I can’t remember
lol
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last year when we were on holiday my mother in law came with us so she had the kids one night and we had a romantic meal at a restaurant on the sea front in tenerife was gorgeous
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about a month ago to the cinema
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Date nights are very very rare for us as we have 3 boys, the last time we went out was in November as my hubby bought me tickets to see Wicked for my birthday.
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Yesterday was our last date night, seeing as it was Valentines Day! We just had a dominos and watched Harry Potter!
xo Millie
http://www.modishrambling.com
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we don’t usually to be honest, only when we go on holiday!
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Had a date night last night for Valentines day
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Oh gosh, longer ago than I care to remember
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We used to have them once a week but my hours changed at work and I have to get up at 4am, so we haven’t had date night for ages.
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Ahh we treat every night as a date night!
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To be honest, I can’t remember the last time it was a night out with just the two of us, we are always with friends these days.
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We went on a weekend away last weekend for hubby’s birthday. I actually wore make up and unstained clothes!
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Must be 12 months
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The last date me and the other half went on was to the cinema to see Doctor Strange and he fell asleep! Romantic eh?
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Most weeks we try to have one even if at home
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About 2 weeks ago for my 40th birthday – we went to Dublin for 3 nights so had plenty of ‘dates’ there!
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It feels like about two years ago what with being pregnant and having our baby xxx
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about 3 weeks ago went watching trainspotting and went for pizza
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being honest about 2 years ago in the summer
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Probably on holiday last year!
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Well being single at the moment it’s been awhile. I would share this with my sister.
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been so long i can’ remember
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Not for a very long time! this looks great fun 🙂
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A couple of weeks ago for my birthday. We’ve really lucky because my mum babysits regularly
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it has to be at least 18 months ago when we went away, no kids, went on the friday did not get back until sunday eve
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Valentines night, we stayed in but had a bottle of wine, a takaway and watched a good film once the kids were in bed
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We don’t at all we just don’t get time but I’m gonna make time
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Last had a date night on Valentine’s Day night but that doesn’t count as it’s very corporately forced. Before that he whisked me off to Pisa, Italy in the middle of Jan as a birthday present! Very very spoilt! 🙂
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Last week!
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We had a date night on Valentine’s.
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We had a date night last month but that was the first time in over a year and we were asleep by 10pm!
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We had a weekend away at the beginning of February which didn’t exactly go as planned as I was in quite a low place.
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I’m sorry, I hope you are feeling better now
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Unfortunately we havent had a date night since we had our second child. I’m talking years 😦
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we used to have date nights all the time, not so much now
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We had date night a couple of Fridays ago. The kids are 20 and 17 so there should be no restrictions on us going out but as I keep replacing the kids with cats we ended up rushing home after our meal to let the cats in as it had started raining!
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Tried to have a date night at home on valentines hard work kids
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Gosh, it has been years since we had a date night.
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