I wanted a web application that would serve up date ideas randomly rather than dipping into a fish bowl. And so thirtydollardatenight.com was created.

How $30DN become popular.
A friend submitted $30DN to www.stumbleupon.com – 2 days later we had 10,000 visitors to our site. For the next 6 months traffic poured in, each day thousands would visit $30DN and I had no idea what to do with it. The website was not ready for this much traffic – I wasn’t ready for this traffic – I had no idea of website design or development! At that time (3 years ago) the website was simply a badly constructed generator and “nothings else” here’s a snapshot of my very first designs of the generator.

Of course the traffic slowed down, we knew we wouldn’t remain a hot topic on stumbleupon. In hindsight I should have jam packed the site with advertising to make some money; instead I used the traffic to see what people want on the site.

As of today $30DN averages more than 1500 visitors per day. I plan to throw a massive party when we consistently reach 100,000 visitors per day.

Why we’re so cheap.
We used to go out on dates with no cash limit and it became ridiculous. It was easy to drop $150 on an evening out, sometimes even more as we’d always try and outdo each other to see who could create a better date night. This was not sustainable!

It was Emma’s idea to cap it to $30. We knew it would be a tough task but we agreed that $30 for date night is an achievable budget that will allow us to enjoy an experience weekly. I have learnt that the cheap date ideas force you to be creative and often end up more enjoyable than splashing out $$$. Now that we have a mortgage saving is all we seem to be doing – I’m glad we’ve set the $30 limit.

We find it tough spending only $30 on date.
Our aim was to be able to enjoy a weekly date night without it being a financial burden yet still keep the date fresh and interesting. YES, $30 is a small amount of money and it’s difficult to find cool date ideas for under $30. YES, there are plenty of times where I think of a new date idea only to discover it costs $150+, if I still love the idea I may choose to do it – sometimes you should break the rules if you can afford to.

It’s hard to impress someone (aka your partner, even yourself) with a $30 date idea if you analyse it before experiencing it. Often when you plan a cheap date, in your head it can sound boring or worse super cheesy which may result in embarrassment. My motto is “if you think it’s going to be cheesy, then you most definitely should try it. The date ideas that take you out of your comfort circle often turn out to be the most fun.

We have day jobs
I’ll admit that most of our time is spent working on $30DN, but it’s not our “day job” and $30DN most certainly doesn’t put any food on the table.

Emma is a professional writer; she has a weekly column in an Australian Newspaper based on relationships, appears regularly on television and radio and works with a production group within the media.

I am an acupuncturist and massage therapist. I own Merkas Health – a massage therapy business that I’ve run for the past 10 years. I’m lucky to have a great team of massage practitioners that do the work for me which provides me with enough time to work on $30DN. I also run couples massage seminar. Here are the links to my businesses.

Merkas Health Massage
Make Your Partner Melt – Couples Massage Seminars
Couples Massage Online Tutorials

My thoughts on Date Night?
It took a long time for me to verbalise the words “Date Night.” Each time I’d say it I swear I’d smell the faint odour of moth balls and hickory. I remember even when the website started to take off I would shy away from telling people that I run a website called $30 Date Night.

These days is a different story, I proudly tell people that I run $30 Date Night and will gladly spruik the importance of taking your partner out for Date Night – no matter what your age.

Have any fans found us out on a date night?
No. But secretly I cannot wait until someone recognises us and asks to join us – secretly I tweet and Facebook what we’re doing in hope that we will be caught out. You can follow Emma on twitter via @30dollardate, and me @mr30dollardate, or follow us on Facebook via Facebook Fan Page. We have bumped into fans while out shopping which is always a great surprise. I love interacting with people who use the site!

A typical day at $30DN
Emma playing drums. This photo was taken today. Emma walked into my office while I was strumming chords to a song; she joined in for a jam. We’re going to need to put in a few hours to make a duo work.

Its vacation time for Emma and me; we’ve survived the New Year festivities and are relaxing our way through a sunny beach-side Queensland holiday… The ocean is warm, the sand is gloriously soft and I’m feeling as frisky as a squid on Tuesday. Needless to say sex on the beach was a high priority on this beach-side vacation.

Last night we found a quiet side of the beach, it was dark and not a person in sight – so I thought! We start fooling around, just a little. And out of nowhere Emma notices a herd of people walking from the beach directly to us! Why us?! There’s the entire beach! We quickly moved along, looking for a new part of the beach, yet the crowd followed – talk about a collective cock block!

And so ended our beachside romance… Boo! Although foiled it was a fun walking back to civilisation giggling like a pair of 16 year olds that almost been caught.

ROMANTIC VALUE:
There’s no denying it; sex on the beach is up there on the list of romantic things to do but I’m not sure if I’m convinced! I put it into the same category as dancing in the rain – sure it sounds romantic, but what makes it so? At the end of the day you’re just getting wet. I’ve tried that before and had a horrible time! Check it out here

Do you think sex on the beach has romance appeal? Have you tried it before? Could you make it happen?

What do you do when things don’t go to plan?

We’re up to the final letter in our ABC’s of dating, it’s the Z date! I’ve been wanting to take Emma to a Zen Meditation group. Meditation as a couple doesn’t get highly rated on $30 Date Night – nor should it… it sounds terrible!!! Which is exactly why I want to do it!

I find that people rate things according to what they “think” would be a fun date idea, rather then going out and actually experiencing it. I love trying the poorly rated date ideas just to see if the masses have got it wrong! Personally, my initial reaction to the meditation date idea rated poorly in my head, but lately I been very much looking forward to taking 2 hours out of my day to zone out and not think about anything at all.

Tuesday was the day – but, alas… like almost every other day I seem to be having… something has come up. This “thing” ran over time which meant that we wouldn’t make it to the Z date – and now pushes that date idea back by 4 weeks! D’oh!!!

So what to do instead… we pared it back. Stripped the excitement out of doing something different and stuck with a known goodie. Fish n chips by the beach. The food was nothing to write about, so I won’t. But the company, the conversation, the glorious weather and Elwood Beach was more than enough to make such an easy date idea an awesome few hours with my chicken.

Tell us about your favourite fish n chip shop? And the place you would go to eat your take out?

To get you started – I’m a fan of Hunky Dory in Port Melbourne for fish n chips… and maybe should have taken Emma there to grab our food. Or maybe we should have researched Elwood a little better.

Over the weekend Emma and I presented another of our increasingly popular Couples Massage Courses. 80 people walked through the door – our biggest number to attend a day thus far.

I always love watching couples enter the room shy and completely unsure what to expect. My ice breaker usually involves some form of uncomfortable remark such as “is everyone ready to get naked?” This time and the first time its ever happened a woman replied with a “YES!” which totally threw me off. Of course there’s no nudity during the 2 hours massage course – and we provide couples with Velcro towels to wrap around their torso to keep them covered up.

By the time we completed the 2 hour course there was laughter, banter, clapping, cheering and best of all a room full of smiles! Couples who initially looked awkward massaging their partner now looked more confident, relaxed and enthusiastic to get their hands on their partner.

The image you see on the right was taken only minutes before 20 couples were about to walk through the door.

Another first, well we assume its a first as it’s never been brought to our attention before; our very first $30 Dater joined us for the massage course. Which is brilliant news!!! In fact, this massage course is what inspired us to develop $30 Date Night!

We currently run Couples Massage Courses in Melbourne, Australia at the Como Hotel. The final course for 2011 is coming up on October 22nd. I have a special promo for $30 Daters only, because you guys will love it, receive 50% off either the Classic Seduction or the 2 hour Couples Massage Class.

For interstate travellers, we do have a package that will get you with accommodation at the plush 5-star Como hotel (offer is not valid for the bed me seduction, the 50% discount offer expires on the 21st of Oct, 2011. I have 10 spots available for the 50% discount)

For more info on the massage course visit Make Your Partner Melt Massage Course. The offer will go to the first 10 people that email me requesting the 50% deal for the 22nd of October course – contact me here – get in quick!

For those of you who cannot make it to our seminar – we’ve got all the info packaged up in a nice little 3 part series… you’ll find it on Couples Massage Courses

If you’re anything like me, you love to look in the past – at the good times and the bad. I love going back to what feels like a million years ago to remember who has been involved in my life and who is no longer a part of it. I know they say never look behind, always in front…

I disagree! Don’t bury your memories.

I recently added a Facebook update to our Date Ideas fan page
(become a fan here) about how a Fatboy Slim song reminds me of an ex-girlfriend. I remember we were driving in her old-skool VW beetle. It was raining; we were driving at night time through the main streets of Kew (Melbourne) on our way to a party with Fatboy Slim’s tune “Right Here, Right now” playing through the stereo, I was 21 years old – as our facebook fan stated – it now feels like a million years ago. I remember my ex bopping along to the track singing out loud “Right Here, Row Now” and paying little attention to the road. It’s a sweet memory and I’m glad it’s stuck with me.

Memories remind me of who I am, and who has helped shape my life. I love it when a song, a smell or a change in season brings back flooding memories. It makes me want to call or catch up with old friends who I haven’t seen in a long time.

There are many that say you shouldn’t dig into the past, let alone catch up with an ex, I think differently. Why not?

Emma and I agree that ALL memories should be cherished. And it would be silly to be jealous of a memory that was created long before either of us met. I like being able to share these memories with Em’s. We’ve all got them – and we should share them (the good ones at least).

FYI – I’ve shared the “Fatboy Trigger” with the Ex, told her that each time I hear that track it takes me back to that day in her VW beetle. Although flattered she can’t remember the moment – and rightly so (it’s my memory).

Which song triggers your memory of past flame? And what were you doing?

“X Marks the Spot” – but first you need to plant the “X”

The Date Idea: Hire a metal detector and comb the beach looking for hidden treasure.

THE IMPORTANT BIT: Plant your own treasure! Stupidly I didn’t realise the potential of this date idea, I think it’s often a short coming many have when taking out a date. Had I taken more thought with this date and buried treasure for Emma to find, it would have produced an amazing surprise! It’s quite a thrill to discover something cool.

The Con’s: Any more than 10 minutes of searching in the sand is boring if you don’t find anything. But once you’ve found something, and it doesn’t matter what it is, you may not want to stop!

The Pro’s: When you find something, it’s exhilarating, it’s infectious!

How to make your date fall in love
with this date idea!

When Burying Treasure For Girls:
- If you’re not sure what your partner will like, buy cheap accessories, like ear rings, rings, belts or bracelets / bangles.
- If the accessories have no metal components bury bottle caps with the treasure for the metal detector to pick up.

When Burying Treasure For Guys:
- Money Clips are cheap to find on ebay, or you can get creative and bury a 6 pack of beer, or something funny that’ll make him laugh or impress!

It’s easy to bury anything really, even delicate things that are packaged up in a box, even zip locked in an airtight plastic bag to avoid the sand and moisture. Make sure you add metal to the packaging so the detector can pick it up.

Decoys:
Use decoys to keep your date interested, and have want to search for more:
- Bottle Tops
- Coins

How To Hide Your Treasure So You Can Find It Later:
Plot out a section of beach. In the summer months I recommend areas of beach that are not too busy. If you’re hiding valuables, do so during the winter months as beaches are rarely used, and ensure that you bury your treasure at least 5 – 8 inches below the sand.

Bury treasure the morning of or the night before you take your date out.

Begin with a reference point, a landmark… maybe a sign post or bin nearby that will help you locate the area of beach when you return the following day.

Bury your main treasure first, make sure it’s not too close to the shore line as wet sand may give you a false reading, and you don’t want the tide to come wash your treasure away (if you haven’t buried it deep enough). Also the tide may wet your treasure.

Scatter a couple of coins 3 to 5 metres away (about 7-10 feet) from your treasure. I’d scatter them towards your marker. Only use 2 coins, you don’t want your partner finding coins all day.

Again, another 3 – 5 metres away, scatter some bottle caps even closer to your marker, so it’s easy to find these items as soon as you step onto the beach.

This will help you understand and locate the main treasure much easier. And will make it much more fun as your partner starts finding more valuable things as they move closer towards your buried treasure.

About the Metal Detectors:
I hired the metal detector from Aaron Zanussi at Metal Detector Hire Melbourne located in Melbourne, Australia. Aaron was awesome to deal with – he gave me lots of info about what to expect on the beach…Aaron mentioned that people usually hit the beaches in the summer months looking for lost rings and valuables, so in the winter time it’s rare to find anything fun – and in most cases bottle caps will be found, all true. Aaron thoroughly explained how to use the metal detector, it’s easy, a trained monkey can do it.

Aaron’s hire out of the metal detector will break the $30 Date Night budget. It’s $40, with a $100 deposit which is reasonable. I highly recommend this date idea; but only if you take time to bury treasure. You know your date will be thrilled when they find something. You’ll have a blast!

In USA we eat! Up to the letter U in our ABC date night challenge…

The concept of the “Great American Diner” is a novelty to Australia. I never knew it existed until Emma mentioned it, an all American diner in our very own backyard of Melbourne. Excited, I was dying to find out if the American Diner would cut the mustard amongst Melbournian pallets.

Misty’s diner has everything health fanatics tell you NOT eat – and it’s served up the way you’d expect in USA – LARGE! At 32 years of age I tried root beer for the first time – ever! It’s an odd taste and quite difficult to explain. Best described, it was like drinking deep heat, or goanna oil. You know the ointment used to reduce muscle inflammation. There was no burning sensation but rather this medicinal flavour undertones in-between a massive hits of sweetness. And I mean a TRUCK LOAD of cane sugar! YEEEEAAH – sugar high!!!

There’s so much to love about this place, it’s loud, and it’s very pink and stereotypically American with juke boxes, finned cars and Misty donning a Lady BOSS shirt. The diner is nestled within a Car Wash. The place is packed all the time and I’m told you can’t book a table. We were lucky enough to walk right in and get a table – usually you’ll wait in line.

The highlight was most definitely the shakes. Reeces Pieces Shake – OMG! It’s full of artery clogging goodness. For the Aussies that have never had Reeces Pieces – its peanut butter in a chocolate tart-like shell, which is added to… well, a shake! The shake alone is reason enough to make it out to Misty’s Diner.

Misty’s Diner has my tick of approval for a strictly one time only experience to try something different. Now that I’ve done it, I doubt I’ll make it back – it’s not the kind of place you’d go for a source of nutrition. I may make an exception for a craving of a reeces pieces shake once or twice a year.

Want to try out Misty’s Diner & Car Wash for yourself?
103 – 105 High Street, Prahran. Melbourne, Australia.

Enjoy!

Den.

Take your date row boating was pretty amazing on central park lake, New York but to be honest anything we did in the 5 days we were in New York was pretty amazing, because it was NY right! (ya, I know! Freakin’ tourists!)

Ok, so let’s say you’re not a tourist, you’re in your home town and you’ve decided to take your date out on the row boat date night. There are 2 scenarios:

1. The Lake: Rowing on a lake is easy. It’s perfect for new lovers who are still getting to know each other as it provides a quiet place for the two of you to chat and laugh at each other’s rowing technique. For the seasoned relationship I recommend packing a picnic, a camera, and I highly recommend $30DN’s conversation starters if you haven’t already downloaded a copy. Download here. You may find rowing alone isn’t stimulating enough on its own.

2. The River: if you’re rowing your date on a river (like what we have here in Melbourne) you pretty much don’t need to sort anything out. The river currents will provide enough entertainment that you probably won’t need to arrange a picnic. Although having a backup plan just in case is worth it. At least have the conversation starters on you for something light that you can pack and use if the currents are not entertaining you.

This footage was taken a few months ago – so we didn’t exactly do it this week. You’ll notice that Emma is doing all the rowing here. She wasn’t leaving a good impression on all the other ladies out on the lake! One dude actually clapped Emma… his date was not impressed at all!

Happy Dating!

Den.

Oh, PS… if you want to see Emma’s “singing in Vegas” clip. PLEASE comment below and convince her – it’s hilarious!

Everyone’s got a different idea of romance…

lets take Valentine’s Day for example. It’s around the corner (only a few weeks away) and it’s pimped out as the MOST romantic day of the year.

Whether you accept it or not, that is how most of us feel.

In a perfect world what would your partner do for you on Valentine’s Day? How do you want to be romanced?

Saying “I want him to sweep me off my feet” simply doesn’t cut it, you should be able to define what he/she needs to do to sweep you off your feet.

This romantic notion has got me thinking… This year $30 Date Night turns three years old. This means that for over three years, Emma and I have had a regular date night.
At first date night was about romance; making our relationship spark. Three years later and our focus moves to “Sharing New Experiences.”

You’ll agree that many of our date reviews are far from romantic – and rightly so I believe.
I believe there comes a point when there is only so much romance one can take.

At the beginning everything is romantic, but if you do dinner over and over each night, how romantic can you make your Valentine’s Day dinner when you’ve done it so many times before?

Now I’m not saying that I’m giving up on romance, and I certainly believe that in this year’s themed resolution of “Sharing New Experiences” Emma and I can find new romantic experiences which I’m excited about. I’m just wondering…

In a world where we’ve done it all before, what would make your heart tick? Or has your Valentine’s Day routine exhausted its romantic appeal?

Happy Australia Day to our fellow Aussies!

BEFORE THE DATE: Dialog Between Denis and Emma .

Denis - “ABC Dating, we’re up to O. I’m choosing to do orienteering, or rather Geocaching. Ya, I know it really should be G, but I’m bending the rules a little.”

Emma - “Really? Sounds geeky, isn’t geocaching on par to those who dress up in medieval clothes and role play?”

Denis - “LOL”

So I’m excited about this date idea, I’ve already downloaded geocaching app (by Groundspeak Inc) for the iphone – $12.99 and I’ve created a free profile. Go to geocaching.com to set up your profile and details on how to get the app on your phone.

I announced the geocaching date idea to Emma, clearly it didn’t sound like her thing, and it receives the welcoming (see right) most people give to date ideas they think will flop. Before any of our geek friends are offended it’s important that I point out Emma is a geek at heart. Don’t let her cutsie girlie appearance fool you – she’ll probably out-geek anyone reading this blog.

WHAT IT GEOCACHING
Use a GPS device to find something small like a box or container, this is called a cache (see pics). Inside you should find a log book and possibly a novelty item. You sign into the log book, and can take the novelty item IF you replace it with something else of equal or greater value.

DEVICES
Hardcore enthusiasts will use a standalone GPS and plot the cache location via coordinates. This is perfect for the bush – if they want to log their find they’ll then go to geocaching.com and add the details to their profile.

I on the other hand am going urban – using my iphone via an app (android phones have an app too) that tells me where caches are located in my city, google maps guides me. Easy? Not so, even tho you know where the cache may be located you still have to find its secret spot, usually not in plain view. The iphone lets me log what I’ve found and can give me tips, hints and even spoilers if it’s getting hard to locate a cache.

GET INTERACTIVE
Some caches include travelling items… items that may have a mission. You can get involved and help the item get to its mission by finding out where its next home should be and get it there. Of course everything you do can be logged at geocaching.com, or you can play anonymously and just search.

Sound like fun? I think so… I’ve downloaded the app, I’ve set up my free profile and I can see there are caches less than 200 metres from my house… now Melbourne if you could only stop raining so I can set this date night up…

Ok, ready? Let’s Go!

Melbourne has finally turned on the weather today… a beautiful 28 degrees Celsius, perfect for urban Geocaching. With coffee in hand we started looking for the first cache, we worked our way to ACDC lane, named after one of Australia’s rock band pride and joy – AC/DC. The iPhone app said that the cache was easy to find, but we had no idea what we were searching for, 20 minutes later we used the cheats via the app and found the cache.

Second cache found us only a couple of blocks away… this was different type of cache all together, called a nano cache and it’s super tiny! Inside is a rolled up piece of paper in which you log yourself in and then put it back. (see very top pics)

We missed a few other caches because there were too many people around and we didn’t want to expose the caches, or look like baffled fools staring at pipes and walls. And one cache in particular was simply too hard to find. We spent 25 minutes looking around but no prize

It’s been an awesome day, trotting around the city checking out the lane ways, graffiti art and playing secret squirrel in the warm summer sun. After the purchase of the Geocaching app, I still had $17 left in the budget to blow. Enough money for a fine lunch Laurent Bakery – cnr The Causeway and Little Collins Street.

We loved this date idea so much that we’ll be making our own $30 Date Night caches for Melburnians to find. I’ll keep you updated.

Ideally, I would have liked it if we got up earlier and searched the city around 8am. All CBD’s are super quiet on weekends at that time but Emma enforces a strict no getting out of bed before 11am policy on weekends. If you’re trekking through the city geocaching take a camera, you’ll grab some beautiful shots amongst buildings and artwork. Have breakfast afterwards, use that time to enter in your finds and photos to share.

Guys, get into it! It’s a lot of fun exploring your city… there are millions of caches all over the world, and highly likely that you’ve got some in your city. Some caches will include interesting facts/history about the location and surrounding of the cache.