1. Visit a Morning Market
Pop down to your local farmer’s market and purchase some fresh produce. Farmer’s markets are a great opportunity for farmers and food producers to sell organic and pesticide free goods to customers. Freshly baked breads, free range eggs, homemade jams, local fruit and vegetables, regional cheeses…Enjoy a fair trade coffee and a home baked muffin then and pop home to cook up a feast!

2. Hold a garage sale
Holding a garage sale is a great way of decluttering your home and can really place your values about consumption and having ‘stuff’ into perspective. Invite all your mates and put up plenty of signs around the neighbour. Pop your unwanteds out front of the house and make sure you have plenty of change. Price your goods but prepare to haggle. Your leftovers can be donated to the op shop and you can use your sale money to buy something

3. Go for a bike ride.
Borrow some old bicycles and helmets and go for ride along a creek or river. Girls, this is a chance to wear a pretty dress and cardi, and guys, definitely no lycra! Unless you’re both super athletic, think leisurely not speed racer. A great opportunity to be outside and in the fresh air. Leave your car at home and enjoy a flask of coffee or mulled wine in a grassy spot before you cycle home.

4. Join a Permaculture blitz
A Permablitz is a gathering of people at someone’s home to create a garden, share permaculture skills, enjoy a Melbourne and have fun. Help plant a veggie patch or build a chicken coop and enjoy a chance to meet your neighbours. It’s s great way to get involved in your community and you might even get a chance to have your garden permablitzed!

5. Board games by candlelight
Snuggle up under some quilts for an evening playing old school board games like Scrabble, Monopoly and Scattegories and enjoy a night by candlelight. Enjoy some hot chocolate and your favourite dessert and leave the lights and television off for an energy saving evening. You can even go outside to look at the stars (a great to sneak a look at your partner’s scrabble letters)!

About Green Renters
Green Renters is a not for profit for those striving to lead sustainable and ecological existences within the confines of rental property.

Frustrated by constantly attending conferences and exhibitions that only provide products and advice to home owners, Cate and Chris provide advice for those who are unable to make major changes to a property but still intend to spend many years and call somewhere home.

The Green Renters are available for workshops, stalls, presentations and panels with a host of tips, advice and home made goodies!

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1. 7 Great Date Ideas Beginning with G
2. 10 Fun Date Ideas for a Lazy Sunday
3. 9 Fabulous Date Ideas Beginning with F

F is for Festivals
If your city is anything like our city, there’s a freakin’ festival going on every time you turn around! Food Festivals, Film Festivals, Theatre Festivals, Jazz Festivals… make the most of the free events and the great talent that converges surrounding the next great festival in your town.

F is for Ferry Trip
In my opinion, taking a Ferry is one of the nicest forms of public transport possible. Leave the car behind and jump on one, wind in your hair, to visit a nearby stop. Jump off, explore, shout your date a coffee or an ice cream!

F is for F is for Fondue
Stay home (nab a fondue set from someone) or go out and delve into a fondue dinner together. You know the rules for the home one – if a piece of bread falls in, you gotta remove an item of clothing. (Is that how it goes?). If cheese isn’t your thing, go for dessert fondue – cut fruit, marshmallows and donuts dipped into a chocolate fondue! Who wouldn’t love that! Get – ahem – creative with the melted chocolate if you are so inclined. (Wouldn’t recommend that with the cheese though. Unless you’re into that kind of thing. Which is, frankly… gross.)

F is for Firefly Hunting
Believe it or not, we don’t have fireflies here in Australia. I did however, have a stuffed toy called a ‘Gloworm’ when I was a little girl that was supposed to be based on a firefly. His little face glowed orange when you hugged him hard enough. He stopped me being scared of the dark.

Anyway, I digress. If you’re lucky enough to live somewhere there are fireflies, go catch some together! Just be sure to let the little poppets go once you’re finished marvelling at them. I’m pretty sure the dead ones don’t glow.

F is for Fish and Chip Picnic
One of the most fun dates you can do for under $30! In summertime, find a beach or a park and go get a big batch of greasy fish and chips and beverages takeaway (you can fit alcohol in your budget on this one!). Sit under a tree and eat from the paper with your hands, getting yourself all messy in the process. Divine.

F is for Farmer’s Market
A great weekend date! Get the calendar online for your upcoming local farmer’s markets and go along for breakfast together. Think free range egg and bacon rolls, organic free trade coffee and the freshest of fresh hand-reared produce from local suppliers to take home. Too delicious for words!

F is for Fireworks
Take a blanket and a picnic to your community’s next free fireworks show!

F is for Fishing
Surely someone you know has some fishing rods you can borrow to head out for a quiet day on the water. I’ve never been fishing myself, but I imagine it to be serene and relaxing. Especially if I can convince Den to hook the bait, kill and scale the fish and cook the fry up for dinner.

Just remember: Fish don’t eat cooked fish! Best use worms.

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But they’re weeks away yet. Let’s concentrate with the one at hand.

Date Ideas Beginning with E.

Crap.

Alright, forgive me for any long bows I might draw here…

E is for Ebay
This a brand new date added to the system by Razzie in Melbourne and I love it! I can’t believe we didn’t already have it in there. It goes like this:

“Pour a glass of wine and pump the tunes. Go through your wardrobes and choose a few items that you could do without but are still in good condition. Take pictures of yourselves posing in the clothes. Post them up on Ebay and make a few extra bucks!”

You get extra points for taking ridonkulously silly photos and using them! Take the cash you make from your sales and go shopping together for your next date night!

E is for Exercise
Get active together! It’s good for your endorphins! Whether you take a jog around a scenic lake, head to a Yoga class or go for a bike ride, spend a day getting sweaty together. Jump in the shower afterwards together to get clean!

E is for Expensive
Get dressed up in your finest and hit the luxury brand shops near you. Think Prada, Chanel, Gucci, Tiffany & Co. Stop for coffee along the way as you browse.

E is for Education
Edumacate yourselves on something you’ve always wanted to know! Perhaps a historic tour of your own city, a wine tasting session, a cooking class…. Learning new things together sparks the same brain chemistry as when you first fell in love!

That’s it. You only get four for E. Do tell if you have any more bright ideas for us though! Stay tuned next week for F.

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D is for Dessert Only
Eat dinner at home and then head out on the town and splurge on yummy desserts in a cosy corner at a swanky restaurant.

D is for Dinner
Cook your sweetie a three-course dinner at home (preferably laced with aphrodisiac ingredients like asparagus, oysters, strawberries and chocolate). Light candles, play romantic music and make an effort to get dressed up for each other.

D is for Driving Range
Assuming you’re both in a spirited mood, head out to your local driving range and spend your night hitting a bucket of balls. Get close by giving your sweetie golf swing pointers. Go for coffee afterwards and giggle the night away.

D is for Drive-ins
Pack your own snacks, take a blanket for snuggling under and head to the drive-ins for a romantic night at the movies! Make sure you go see something your date wants to see (no room for selfishness on date night!). If it’s a nice night, you might want to consider the Drive-in for the New Millennium.

D is for Donate Blood
Now, it’s not one of our most popular dates but if you’ve been seeing your date for awhile now, it’s a lovely, charitable thing to do. Guaranteed to make you feel warm and fuzzy inside (if not a little light-headed). And free! They even give you cookies and juice afterward! Take a stroll in a park when you’re done.

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What I love about the Melbourne Comedy Festival is that they run a box office from the Town Hall that you can walk into at any point during the festival and get tickets for whoever you want to see at whatever time you like (providing they’re not sold out already!). Similarly, you can walk in off the street and just go “Who’s on now that’s good?” and the Ticketing guys will talk you through the shows getting the rave reviews.

So we had heard Tom Gleeson was putting on a good show from a few different sources. We rocked in at 8.05pm to the ticket box and in less than ten minutes were at the Vic Hotel with a glass of wine and a beer ready to laugh. Pure date night gold!

This one did cost us a little more than $30 (Double. It cost us double.), but some of the shows won’t set you back that much – particularly if you go on Tightarse Tuesday!

Here’s a little clip from Tom Gleeson at last year’s Comedy Festival Gala (warning: probably NSFW if your boss is a hardarse. Language and adult themes and such.) It’s a particularly funny clip to me because Den happens to BE a male masseur… anyway, just watch it. He’s funny.

And from personal experience we can also recommend the highly inappropriate, extremely hysterical Eddie Ifft – but don’t go if you’re one of those sensitive types… he’s riDONKulously out there and nothing is sacred (just the way we like it.)

On second thought, here’s another Tom Gleeson video from this year’s Gala. Very funny. Enjoy!

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Ever played roulette? No? Perfect. Set a budget for your date night (it’s no secret we like ye olde faithful $30 limit) and head to a low-betting table at a casino to learn the ways of roulette and (hopefully!) win some money. If you pick a table where there are no other punters, the dealer will be very patient in explaining the rules to you.

If you win big? Head for a lavish dinner together. Lose it all? Ice cream and a nice walk for you! Follow the link to check out our casino date night review.

C is for Cinema

The cinema is one of those tried-and-true date nights that couples always seem to gravitate to. We don’t need to tell you how to go to the movies. But what we will tell you is that if you’re sick of the cinema, there are a few twists you can throw into the mix to make it a little different. The Drive-ins, the Open Air Cinema and the Gold Class cinema are all on the list… click the link to read more about 5 Different Ways to Do the Movies.

C is for Cooking Dinner

Not just slap together the old spag bog with a jar of sauce! We’re talking a proper, fancy, three course meal from scratch complete with candlelight and soft music. You may even want to dress up like you’re in a fancy restaurant to make it extra-special!

C is for Camping

Whether you travel all the way to your backyard or to a campsite, this is a great cheap date idea and a lot of fun for two. Of course, a campfire, ghost stories and roasting marshmallows are obligatory. Cranking up the BBQ to cook some sausages is a must.

C is for Cut Each Others’ Hair

Are you high? Of course you’d never actually do this. But the idea has been submitted to our date generator and continues to hold it’s place there nonetheless.

C is for Comedy

Laughter will keep you young and keep your happy-hormones firing on all cylinders. Spending a night at your local comedy club is the perfect way to relieve a stressful week and to break the tension if you and your partner have been a little niggly with each other recently.

C is for Café

A blissful, relaxed few hours in a favourite café is a great rainy day date idea or a perfect Lazy Sunday idea…. Surround yourself with good coffee, the weekend papers and the latest issues of your fave mags and while away the afternoon in peaceful contentment.

C is for Concert

Is your favourite band coming to town? Do you have a secret affinity for the orchestra? Surprise your date with tickets to a concert that you know they’ll love and win yourself major brownie points in the meantime! If you want to be really impromptu about it, find the place in your local area that sells half price tickets the day of the show and really take them by surprise!

C is for Coin Flip

Bored out of your brain and want to shake it up a bit? Jump in the car or take to the streets armed with a coin. At each intersection, flip to see which way you will go (“heads, we go left; tails, we go right”) and see where you end up. Perhaps take a GPS device just in case you get entirely lost together!

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Imagine the look on their face when they wake up in the morning to find the house strewn with chocolate eggs! Or send them into the backyard where you’ve planted chocolate treats all over the place for them to stumble across.

Or if you want to steer away from the chocolate, pick up some of those plastic easter egg cases and pop love notes inside them instead… leaving them clues for where to find their next note.

Enjoy the weekend! We’ll see you on the flipside!

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B is for Bowling
Sounds corny? It totally is. This is one of the cheesiest dates out there and we love it! Bad shoes, bad hot dogs and bad lighting all make for a fun date for two.

A nice twist on this date is to find a nightclub bowling alley with neon balls and dimmed lighting for a (slightly) sexier bowling option.

B is for Board Games
Feel like spending a night in? Crack open a bottle of wine and pull out your old Scrabble or Trivial Pursuit set.

B is for Baking
Have some fun in the kitchen together whipping up a tasty treat! Cookies, brownies, a cake… whatever you make, make it from scratch (especially fun if you’ve never tried it before!)

B is for Bubble Bath
Assuming your tub is big enough for two; and not overrun with rubber duckies and the like, then a relaxing bath could be just the perfect date to end a long, stressful week.

Clean the bathroom (we like to use baking soda and vinegar so no harsh chemical smells linger), remove all traces of children’s toys and set up some candles and music.

Take a trip to pick up some luxury bubble bath and a bottle of champagne, then unwind in the tub together.

B is for Bar
Find a chic, sexy bar with appropriate lighting and nestle yourselves into a corner together where you can share a few glasses of wine and some bar snacks. Go midweek and find out when happy hour is or what specials they have on during the week so you don’t break the bank.

B is for Bingo!
No longer the domain of the blue rinse, couples need to reclaim the bingo halls for themselves! This is a great date – hilarious and comfort-zone-pushing all at once. Check out our review of this particular date idea here.

(NB: If cheesy, no-frills bingo halls really aren’t your style, find a local bar that puts on a themed bingo night to up your coolness stakes.)

B is for Bookstore Date
Take your date to a bookstore café and send them to find their three favourite books from the shelves. You do the same, then meet back in the café and spend the evening chatting about them. Why they were your favourites, how they influenced your life, where you were when you were reading them, etc.

Use the books as a great conversation starter if you don’t know your date well, or a great conversation starter to learn something new about your longterm date.

B is for Bicycle
Whether you go bicycle made for two or separate ones, this is a lovely date idea for a fine, sunny day. Take a leisurely ride to a picturesque spot (stick to bike trails if you’re novice – away from the roads is best!) and have a picnic or stop for ice cream once you’re there. Whimsical and romantic all at once.

B is for Beach
Oh I love a day by the seaside! Pack your towels, sunnies, suncream, magazines or a good book and a huge beach umbrella and spend a day with your toes in the sand, playing in the waves. If you’ve got the, ahem, balls then you could even consider the nudist beach.

Any other B date ideas I’ve missed out, daters?

And how go my other alphabet dating couples?

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We kicked it off last night with a visit to Cafe Lalibela for African food in the heart of Footscray, Melbourne. It doesn’t get more authentic than eating with your hands. They served their dishes up on huge ‘pancakes’ of traditional, sour injera bread. You tear pieces off and use them to scoop up the tasty, spiced stews that are set in the middle of them.

Everything on the menu costs $12. They have some of the best vegetarian cuisine around – and we definitely recommend the vego dishes over the meat ones. The dishes were very filling, especially when you factor the bread into it.

Grab yourself an Ethiopian Beer while you’re there for a tiny $5 (Cafe Lalibela imports it into the country themselves!), and let the wait staff recommend to you their favourites… they definitely know what they’re on about.

Cheap as metaphorical chips, you won’t be disappointed and you’d be hard-pressed to go too far over your $30 budget. Take your own wine if you like, they don’t sell it there (Remember: it doesn’t count in the budget if you already had it in the house!).

Cafe Lalibela
91 Irving Street, Footscray (Melbourne, Australia)
Reservations Recommended! (03) 9687 0300

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The ABC Dating trend has been bandied around for awhile now. We’ve heard of couples that have done it themselves, it’s been written about in the media and now?

Denis and I are going to attempt it.

So on top of our usual date night parameters (Being a $30 Budget, taking it in turns to organise the date nights and making sure we date once a week) we are now Alphabet Dating.

It’s pretty straightforward – we start with a date that starts with A (i.e. Going to an Art Gallery) and work our way through B, C and the rest until we get to Z (Which will undoubtedly be a trip a Zoo of some sort).

It starts tonight… stay tuned for the update on where we’re going and the review. I’ll also be listing great date ideas by letter for the next 6 months as we go!

We’re looking forward to it. And hey – if you feel like your love life needs a metaphorical Berocca, why don’t you join us in our ABC Adventures?

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