4 Best Date Night Box Reviews (for Monthly Date Nights At Home)

Thought about spicing things up with a date night subscription box? Here are our personal date box reviews for monthly date nights at home.

You might be wondering why a personal finance blog is breaking out the date night subscription box reviews.

Hear me out on this one:

1. I’m a parent, and I’m always trying to figure out: how to plan at-home date nights without it feeling like so much work.
2. I am ALL about having money dates with your spouse (I call these mini marriage financial planning sessions “money quickies”), and one way to make these a whole lot more fun is to add a date night subscription box experience after the money talks go down.
3. Date-in-a-box subscriptions look too DANG fun not to try out – especially since my husband and I committed to planning weekly date nights for each other about two years ago.

Before we dive into the fun we had “unboxing” these date night subscription boxes, I want to point out just how important date night is for a couple.

💌Benefits of the Monthly Date Night Box – Is a Date Box Worth it?

Date night boxes tie in nicely with at-home date nights for couples – they keep things interesting.

Not to mention, they’re great to have handy when you’re having those monthly money meetings with your spouse!

Here are some of the benefits we get from them:

• You BOTH Get to be Surprised: My husband actually brought this up the day after we had our first date box date – it’s so true! There’s no prep for either of you guys to do on date nights with a date box. All the work is done for you (how often does THAT happen now that we’re adults?)! So, don’t peek ahead of time, and you both get to be surprised – it’ll feel like someone is treating you two. Hint: For one of the date boxes, it turns out we were supposed to have done some prep work for. But in general, this worked out well.
• Serves as an Excellent Date Night Reminder: Look, I get it. We are BUSY. Especially with kids – not to mention I run my own business! When that little date box subscription comes in the mail? It’s a perfect reminder of our priority to continue dating one another.
• It’s Not Another Bill – It’s HAPPY Mail!: How many times as adults do we get to get something totally fun + surprising in the mailbox?

Date Night Subscription Box – Our Faves

Have I convinced you? Keep reading for our personal date night box subscription reviews.

1. 💘Crated with Love Reviews

Price: from $1.99/month to $5.00/month (Digital subscription service), and from $20.00/month to $30.00/month (they also offer one-time date boxes you can purchase at any time, such as their murder mystery date box, or their Tropical Escape date box – $35.00 each). Go through my link and get $5 off your first box with coupon code “FRUGAL”.
Time it Took Us to Complete: 1 hr. 15 mins.

Can I just say that I actually *snorted* and had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard during our first Crated with Love date night?

The activity I thought was the coolest was during a game where Paul had to keep using Google images to look up different classes of Jungle Species (like Jungle plants, Jungle cats, and Jungle bugs). He then had to pick one and tell me why it reminded him of me. His answers were hilarious!

My husband, Paul, says,

“It was a very fun and unexpected night. It was fun to have a date night be a surprise for both of us. I liked that it was romantic and light-hearted!”

Crated with Love also comes with bonus content online – you’ll get 4 additional activities, a relationship tip section, a “date night with the kids” idea, a themed Spotify list, and a date night dessert recipe for two. This 6″ x 6″ x 2″ box may be small (love that it fits in our mailbox), but it packs a PUNCH.

For this month, it was:

• Jungle sounds and jungle-inspired songs
• Several other games use the same materials in the box itself
• An activity teaching how to create SMART goals as a couple
• A Tiger Cupcake recipe
• Family craft night idea to make at-home pine cone bears

Since there are 4-5 different activities/challenges, one box can actually cover several date nights a month. I like that!

I also love how this date box brand was created by Tyler and Michelle, a married couple who happen to be Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists.

Their goal is to offer a date night once a month that costs no more than $20 (score!).

Each box comes with:

• A theme
• 4-5 date night challenges/activities
• Customized Spotify playlist
• Bonus Content (if you sign up for a plan)

Our second Crated with Love Review is for the Wild Wild West Box. Pretty fun, since we live in Texas:).

The night started off (after we hurriedly put the little one to sleep) with us drawing “Wanted” posters of each other. Now THAT was fun. And deeply, deeply silly. It also was a nice activity to start with because we were still eating our dinner (gotta squeeze all that in on a weeknight!).

We also got to fill out an outlaw card, meaning answered questions about which one of us was most likely to have committed certain acts. To be honest, we didn't have good answers for a few of these (like “who's messier” because we're both pretty clean), so we did the best we could – it definitely sparked great conversations.

Where we really heated things up? Was playing Kiss Poker together. The box came with instructions for how to play poker, the cards, and everything we needed, and the competition was to win enough games of poker to mark off all the different types of kisses to give each other.

Like:

• “Kiss me like I just spent 3 months away from home, exploring the West.”
• “Let's relive our first kiss! Tell me the story, then kiss me!” (we really enjoyed reliving our first-kiss memory, something we would never have thought to do on our own)

It certainly got the evening going in the right direction *wink, wink*.

What else came in this box?

• Bottle cap launchers, bottle caps, targets, and other materials to compete against each other
• Mini-game board to play “Odds, Evens, or Draw” game + game pieces
• Online access to a Cactus Cream Cakes recipe

Gift Subscription Option: $90.00/3 months, or $180.00/6 months – you choose the ship date, and can customize how many months you’d like to give (from 3 to 6 months).

2. 💞Date Night In Review

Price (for the Couple’s box): $41.99 for month-to-month, or $38.67/box for a 12-month subscription ($464.00)
Time it Took Us to Complete: 1 hr.

The founders of this Date Night in Box are Megan and Brian Pruitt, parents of two young children who were in need of some date nights at home (tell me about it!).

I prepared our dinner (something I had chosen myself), and then my husband, Paul, and I got our little guy to bed. After that, we both sat down to unbox our Date Night In together.

It was a surprise!

Our particular box was called Foundation of Love, and we were tasked with creating three building structures with toothpicks, jelly beans, straws, and a few other, fun, building materials. Let me tell you – this was definitely out of our normal routine!

To be honest, this date night was invaluable because it sparked some really deep conversations between the two of us – the kind that doesn’t always happen with a 3-year-old and two working adults.

And isn’t that really the whole point of date night? Well, at least one of the big ones!

My husband, Paul, says, “I think this is a great date night subscription box for newlywed couples.”

I really like how you get an invite printable with this date night so that the person in charge of the date night can get the other person excited about it!

There was a beautiful date itinerary that laid out your entire date night experience. This included a link to specific recipes made by a chef that you can access online.

In each box, they ship you:

• 3+ activities
• A couple’s snack (ours were jelly bellies…though we needed to use them in the construction, as well!)
• Music (a custom Spotify playlist)
• Curated dinner menu – this comes as bonus content that you can get online, but it’s really nicely formatted in a downloadable pamphlet and includes a whole menu prepared by a chef.
• Something to set the mood for the evening
• In our particular box, there was also the chance for one couple to win a $500 Home Depot gift card!

You can give as a gift: Buy an e-gift card for redemption, from $50 (for 1 box + $8 of add-ons) to $475 (for a 12-month subscription + $11 of add-ons).

3. 🏹DateBox Club Review

Price: From $32.95/box (for a 12-month subscription) to $39.52/box (for a single box)
Time it Took Us to Complete: 32 mins.

Let me tell you – I was really intrigued when the postwoman came to my door with a smallish box that happened to weigh more than my cat (I should mention, my cat loooovvves to eat).

What awesomeness could be waiting for us?

I waited until it was my turn to plan our at-home date night.

And that evening went something like this:

• Pick Paul up from work at 5:30 p.m.
• Battle traffic to get home at 6:10 p.m.
• Paul works on feeding our little guy, getting him in PJs, and playing with him
• I work on cooking a delicious meal
• While the meal is in the oven, I run to take a quick shower
• We switch off, then Paul takes a shower
• Family story time starts at 6:45 p.m.
• Little guy was in bed at 7:02 p.m.
• Dinner served + date night begins

(Whew. I’m exhausted just reading about our weekly night routine!).

Thankfully, we had this awesome date night planned already thanks to the DateBox Club (not to mention, we finally got to reveal why the box was so heavy).

And my heart leaped for joy – DateBox Club actually sent us (among other things) a small cast-iron skillet to make tabletop s’mores!

Now, for those of you who know me, you know that I am a s’mores aficionado. So, the fact that we got to fill a cast iron skillet with provided chocolate chips and mini-marshmallows, then sit it in the oven for 7-10 minutes and eat it with yummy graham cracker sticks for the rest of our date? Well, that bought major points with me (not to mention, with my husband, who a) loves cast iron skillets, and b) was tickled to see me so delighted!).

Here’s What Our DateBox Club Box Included:

• S’more-Making Ingredients + Cast Iron Skillet to Keep: This included enough chocolate chips and mini-marshmallows to make two batches of s’mores, the skillet (can’t talk about that, enough!), and two bags of Back to Nature Graham Cracker Sticks.
• 3 Match Games: The Match Games came in this really cute, reusable, metal container (I think I’ll fill ours with paper clips moving forward!), plus 3 card games of Match. The first match game was a game of questions (if you made a match, you then got to answer the questions). For example, my husband learned that if I could come back as an animal, it would be a tiger. And I learned that the superpower he’d like is having super strength (plus the ability to heal quickly). In the second match game, things got interesting. If you made a match, then you got the reward on the card. And the third match game was a fun and slightly more challenging puzzle game.
• Dedicated Spotify Playlist, Online

All in all, we felt that the materials were very classy and loved that they are reusable moving forward (we also have another batch of s’mores ingredients, minus the graham cracker sticks, which is nice!). We learned a few things about each other and appreciated that this date box was shorter than the other ones we’ve tried – because, let’s face it, to do a weekly date night you kind of have to squeeze things in. And sometimes, at the end of the day? There’s just not that much time or energy left.

Here’s what my husband has to say about DateBox Club:

“I was really not in the mood to try a new date idea. It was a long day, and both me and my spouse were getting over being sick, so I was really hoping for a chill night and early to bed. Before I knew it, we were laughing at the matching games, and loving the s'mores. It was a date saver for sure. We loved it and are planning to use the box again!”

Here are a few other DateBox Club Examples:

• In January’s DateBox, couples got to create a time capsule that will span 3 years using the “One Question a Day for You and Me” Journal Book. They also played a fun game of Pick-Me-Up Sticks, with reward cards for a twist. Then couples baked sugar cookies together and hand-decorated them with the provided ingredients.
• In December’s DateBox, couples snacked on a holiday snack mix (hint: peppermint kisses were involved!), played a caroling charades game, and used all the craft/art materials to create homemade holiday ornaments.

💑Is Date Night Important for Couples?

In one word, YES, date night is important for couples.

Here are a few studies about what consistently dating your spouse or partner can do for your relationship:

• Reignites the Romantic Love: Going to dinner and a movie is fun, but you need novel experiences with your partner in order to keep your relationship or marriage from going “stale”. In fact, when you experience something new, you actually ignite the same chemicals in your brain as what you felt in the early stages of your romantic love. (hint: date night boxes DEFINITELY will get you out of your at-home date night rut – we were really surprised with the activities waiting for us!). Arthur Aron, a professor of social psychology at the State University of New York, has tested this “novelty theory” in long-time married couples, and concluded that, “…novelty alone is probably not enough to save a marriage in crisis. But for couples who have a reasonably good but slightly dull relationship, novelty may help reignite old sparks.”
• Protects Your Relationship from Divorce: The Date Night Opportunity report from the National Marriage Project found that date nights strengthen relationships in the following five ways – communication, novelty, rekindling the romantic spark, commitment, and de-stressing. They also concluded that “the more couple time that wives and husbands reported…the less likely they were to divorce in the intervening five years.”

On top of all of that, I can tell you FIRSTHAND how important having a weekly date night has been for our marriage.

We didn’t start out having weekly date nights; oddly enough, we started them only AFTER our little guy was born. And it was from a (gentle) suggestion given by The Dating Divas.

Pssst: I guess this worked out for the best anyway, because, according to The Date Night Opportunity Report, “[f]or many couples, the experience of becoming a parent can undercut or diminish the quality of married life. This is partly because parenthood is stressful and partly because children often limit their parents’ one-on-one couple time.” Talk about the importance of date night for parents!

They talked about how important it was to make weekly date night a priority with your husband, and after we heard them say it together, we decided we were all in.

The greatest thing about that? Every other week, I get to be on a date with my husband, without having to lift a finger. He picks something out for us to do together, he figures out what we’re going to eat, and sometimes, he even lines up a babysitter and surprises me with a night out on the town!

It’s been amazing.

Here’s the thing though: that “night out on the town”? Really only happens once every 2-3 months. So, all of the rest of those weekly dates are spent at home.

We’ve been coming up with our own ideas for these at-home date nights…but when I got wind of date boxes being delivered straight to your door? I was totally sold on trying them out.

I'm a fan of game night, and lots of other at-home date night ideas, but I also love how these date boxes really add to date nights at home. Remember, too, these are monthly subscriptions that you can cancel anytime. So, give one a try and see what you think!

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Amanda L Grossman

Personal Finance Writer and CEO at Frugal Confessions, LLC

Amanda L. Grossman is a writer and Certified Financial Education Instructor, Plutus Foundation Grant Recipient, and founder of Frugal Confessions. Over the last 13 years, her money work has helped people with how to save money and how to manage money. She's been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Kiplinger, Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, Business Insider, LifeHacker, Real Simple Magazine, Woman's World, Woman's Day, ABC 13 Houston, Keybank, and more. Read more here or on LinkedIn.

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