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dating for college students
My boyfriend and I have been dating for a little under two years. We are both busy college students. We are musicians and it takes up a lot of our time. We are trying to find ways to romance eachother, but it's very hard with our schedules. Do you have any advice for dating and what to do that isn't super expensive for dates? Do you have any sweet ideas?
Re: dating for college students
My husband and I are like that too. He works a lot, and I'm swamped all the time with college related work. We like to do a "date night in" where we pick a movie, put away all the other distractions, and each make each other a dessert we like. I know it sounds cheesy, but picnics can be nice, too, if you like to cook (or even if you don't, really). I'm not sure what type of stuff you like, but my trick is to make popular date type things cheaper by doing them at home. I like to cook, and so does he, so instead of going out to dinner, we cook together. Instead of going to the movie, we rent one and pop awesome popcorn at home. Who needs a shooting range when you have a couple airsoft guns and about 100 pop cans to set up in the yard?
One of the sweetest dates we ever had involved these books we got for our wedding. They came in a set, and there were two entitled "All About Me" and one entitled "All About Us". The point is to fill them out together, especially the "All About Us" one. It brought us right back to happy events, like when we met, what our impressions were, etc. You could easily make something like this on your own, and it could be something you do while listening to music, or having dinner, etc.
starbucks
avoid banging there though
It depends on whether you live in a big city or a smaller town. Do you have access to a car or good public transportation? And what, besides music, are your interests?
Anyway, some good, cheap dates I have been on:
late night at a greasy spoon diner -- good for talking and silly confessions
sharing an ice cream sundae
paddle boat ride
ride or rent a bike and bring a picnic
moonlight walk through a nature preserve
dancing at a club with no cover charge (or just the guy has to pay a charge)
really old movies at the discount theater
ice skating/roller skating
zoo or museum on their free day; city art museums usually have cheap singles nights but there's no reason you couldn't attend as a couple
does your college have plays, or movie nights, or bring in bands? Art shows? Author's readings? We saw a Common/Roots double bill at my college for $5 each.
A bottle of wine and an episode of Mad Men usually does the trick.
My boyfriend and I are pretty much identical to you! Two years on the 18th of April! He's a cellist and guitarist, majoring in music production, and I'm a bassoonist, minoring in music.
Im sure it's been done before, but nothing is cheaper than making music. Make music together. Use your instruments. Use each others instruments. Don't use any instruments. Go to a practice room and just make music.
My boyfriend and I actually spent last valentines day at my dress rehearsal and then spent about two to three hours in a practice room writing out a song.
and I regret nothing. 
My boyfriend and I are very much like you too! I'm a violist and he's a composer, and we've been together for nearly three years. We live together now, but for the first two years we were long-distance (living about two and a half hours away), so I TOTALLY understand about not being able to coordinate schedules. And we are similarly broke! It may sound cheesy, but just being together can be the best date of all
Meaning cooking a fancy(ish) dinner together, then maybe watching movies on Netflix or something. I always think cooking is fun because, even if it's terrible, it's something you've made together. Plus, it's like twenty million times cheaper than going out. Anyway, I don't think that's what you were looking for.
Okay, so real date ideas. If you have bikes, try riding to a picturesque place nearby. (You could, of course, also bring a picnic.) Lots of outdoor things like that are totally free. If there's an arboretum in your town, for instance, that might be a nice place to wander around for a day. You could play frisbee golf at a public park in the spring/summer (if that's your thing--I'm terrible at it), or, when it's snowy again, go sledding, have a snowball fight, or just take a walk in the snow.
A lot of museums have student discounts, and many even have free admission days (usually Sunday, but maybe just once a month). We're coming up on great weather, which means outdoor public events like street fairs and such--those are usually free. The local paper, especially an alternative paper, will have listings of possibly interesting events. If there's a major symphony in town, they will definitely have student tickets, usually for about $10 each--although if you're classical musicians (which I'm not sure you are) you probably already know that. I've actually gotten free tickets from friends in the Cincinnati Symphony (players always get comps), but if you don't want to pay, you could also volunteer to usher. You see the show for free AND you help out the organization, but it won't be as carefree as just going as a patron. (You'll spend a lot of time helping old people to their seats, depending what job you're assigned to.) The same thing goes for a lot of arts organizations, like the opera, ballet, theatre, etc. You could also go see a game of whatever sport you like best at your school--different schools have different student ticket policies, and they tend to vary between sports, but that could be cheap and fun.
As for fun nights out, my boyfriend and I often split food when we go out. Restaurant portions are huge anyway, it costs half as much, and it's romantic. We also sometimes only order appetizers, which are often about the same size as entrees but much cheaper. Water or soda is always cheaper than alcohol, but I wouldn't want to cut out beer with dinner if it wasn't totally necessary! Splitting pitchers of beer or bottles of wine is way cheaper than buying separate, equivalent amounts, too. Basically, splitting things is the key, haha. If you like bars, try going on ladies' nights, when only your boyfriend will have to pay for drinks. If you want to see a show at a particular bar, you can try arriving way before it starts, before they start charging cover, and just stay
(That might be a moral grey area, though, since you could be taking money away from fellow musicians. Use your best judgement on that one.)
Anyway, I hope I've helped at least a little! Good luck to you two!
When DH and I were in college, there were always a ton of interesting things going on for free or cheap to do together. Honestly, we had no idea how good we had it until after graduation.
Where we went to college, there was dancing at least 1-2 nights per week, some fancy, some casual. We also took a couple dance classes together, which was not only fun, but also we got credits for it. We also cooked together, went on long walks all over campus, played pool and air hockey in the activity center, camped out in empty academic buildings over the weekends, went to plays and concerts put on by our classmates, practiced our bridge game, and like a million other things. I think we were together more than two years before we found time for something as boring as watching a movie together for a date.
Band Camp!