How do you celebrate your anniversary?

[freeazabird]

What are some budget conscious ways to celebrate your anniversary?

[MudPuppy]

Picnic in your yard or a local park, movie marathon weekend of your favorite franchise, cooking a new-to-you recipe and cocktail together, stay-home camping (tent in the yard or even just sleeping in the living room, broiler s’mores, spooky stories, etc)

[ixtap]

This year, we got take out sushi to eat at home.

Every year, we plan a special meal together and tell each other how happy we are to be together and other sweet everythings.

[Blue Skies]

DH usually cooks me my favorite meal.  It is something we only have 1-2x/yr (sometimes on Valentine's day too!).  We have a nice quiet dinner at home, then watch a movie.

[LifeHappens]

We share a bottle of the same wine we had on our first date and re-read our wedding vows. It's sappy and disgusting and I love it.

[John Galt incarnate!]

What are some budget conscious ways to celebrate your anniversary?

We are not married  but on the anniversary of our first date I cook dinner for beloved SO.

[TheFrenchCat]

We just had ours on Sunday, and we normally do an extra special meal.  This year it was slow cooker ribs and a relatively nice bottle of wine. 

[Cranky]

I say “Happy Anniversary, Dh!” LOL

It’s 2 days after Christmas, because we were t allowed to get married during Advent, and I’m pretty much done with celebrating anything by then.

We have occasionally taken the family out to dinner,, but usually we just break out the Christmas cookies.

[Dicey]

We exchange anniversary cards, typically the kind from the dollar store.

[Zikoris]

We generally go to Europe. Last year we went to Japan for our 10 year and it was a blast. This year we got fucked, obviously. Maybe we'll get donuts.

[wenchsenior]

We generally go to Europe. Last year we went to Japan for our 10 year and it was a blast. This year we got fucked, obviously. Maybe we'll get donuts.

So....I'm interested to hear the budget-conscious part of this...the travel, not the donuts LOL.

[Zikoris]

We generally go to Europe. Last year we went to Japan for our 10 year and it was a blast. This year we got fucked, obviously. Maybe we'll get donuts.

So....I'm interested to hear the budget-conscious part of this...the travel, not the donuts LOL.

I mean, we spend 27K a year and this fits into that, so I guess it's budget-conscious? Lol.

[wenchsenior]

We generally go to Europe. Last year we went to Japan for our 10 year and it was a blast. This year we got fucked, obviously. Maybe we'll get donuts.

So....I'm interested to hear the budget-conscious part of this...the travel, not the donuts LOL.

I mean, we spend 27K a year and this fits into that, so I guess it's budget-conscious? Lol.

Impressive! 

[GuitarStv]

We don't really.  This really bothered one of the people I work with.

"What do you mean you don't celebrate your anniversary???  You should do something to make it special!"

But the thing is, we do special things for each other on a regular basis.  I figure there's no need to wait a whole year for that.

[norajean]

I can’t remember the year or month!

[SailingOnASmallSailboat]

Often we go out to dinner. Recently, we make some special dinner at home and get a nice bottle of wine.

[Steeze]

First year - road trip & camping on way to family reunion.
Second year - we did a trip to Spain a month earlier, so we called it good
Third year - backpack the AT for a couple days

Trying to keep up the hiking/camping thing. I proposed on the AT and got married on top of a mountain on the AT.

[HPstache]

We do an overnight trip  to our favorite local hotel / resort.

[AMandM]

On our first anniversary, we went to a fancy (for us--we were grad students) restaurant for dinner. Now we usually go to a baseball game--not free, but cheap seats through StubHub. If my MIL gives us a check as an anniversary present, we spend it on dinner, either on the way to the ballpark or hot dogs and beer at the park.

[FIRE Artist]

A couple close to me make anniversary pickles then they have them to eat all year.  For reals, the best tradition I have ever heard of.

[Michael in ABQ]

Usually just try to have dinner together by feeding the kids early and getting them to bed. Sometimes we've gone out to an Italian restaurant my wife likes, usually with a baby along. We've never been big into celebrations for certain days, generally keep it pretty low key. Plus with so many kids its hard to do anything outside the house just the two of us. 

[partgypsy]

A couple close to me make anniversary pickles then they have them to eat all year.  For reals, the best tradition I have ever heard of.

I like this!

[rantk81]

Ribeye steaks at home, with a side salad and bottle of cheap bubbly!

[Taran Wanderer]

On our first anniversary, there was an accident at work, and I kind of missed it.  That set the bar pretty low for us, and we have been working on raising it ever since.  We've been improving.  One time we took a local trip for a couple days with DW 7 months pregnant (and looking 8.9 months on #3).  She ordered an alcoholic lemonade that wasn't clearly labeled as alcoholic, and the waitress was like...  "Um, I don't mean to assume anything, but did you know this drink has alcohol in it?"  We all had a good laugh and thanked her profusely.  Last year, we went out for drinks... on an island... in Sweden... while grandma watched the kids, and that was pretty fun.

This year, grandma came over and watched the kids, and we went for a walk on the beach locally.  We thought about stopping at a favorite restaurant for drinks, but there were too many people in one place, even in the outdoor seating.

I enjoyed reading about some of the other ways of celebrating.  You all (even you, @GuitarStv ) are inspirational.

[Maenad]

I like giving and getting gifts, and DH is meh about them, so I usually splurge about $100 on something I've wanted but have avoided buying in the months leading up to it.

Sometimes DH will join me in the planning and shopping if it's something we're both interested in. One year we got me a new socket set - metric and imperial, deepwell and shallow. It was wonderful and I still grin every time I open it up to use them on a project. DH's coworkers thought he'd be in the doghouse forever for that one, they obviously aren't married to engineers.

We've done a few fancy dinners, but we often feel like our own cooking is just as enjoyable to us, so we'll have a drink, watch something on Netflix, and have some... quality time together.

[I'm a red panda]

We usually don't.

Our anniversary is 12/31. We pretty much never go out, and we rarely do anything particular to celebrate it.

Last year it was spent on a 20-hour travel day, with an infant and 2-year old, coming back to the US from Portugal.

In 15 years, I can only think of one time we did something specific- and that was to go to Target and buy a new game for the GameCube, and then stay up all night playing it.

[jinga nation]

with family, home cooked meals. Either just us and the kids, or local extended family. Anniversaries (and birthdays) for us are a time to get together to appreciate additions to the family and departures of loved ones, taste new recipes and relish some old ones with a new spin, and have good conversations.

[mm1970]

Well, our anniversary is today!  24 years.  It's mostly just another day.  We are both working all day, kids are home too.  We will make a nice dinner (salmon, potatoes, green beans).  We already had the salmon.  I think my husband is going to bake a gluten free cake today (chocolate, which is sweet because he doesn't like chocolate.) I did the grocery shopping today and bought him some raspberry sorbet.  I think our current plan is after dinner and the dog walk (so around 7:30), we will go for a walk on the beach.  So, that's it.  Nice dinner, walk on the beach.

[MudPuppy]

@mm1970 happy anniversary!

[partgypsy]

Sounds like some of you are lucky, live near the beach. Does that mean you are on "beach time" all the time?

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We typically plan a yearly trip without kids (my parents watch them) & it roughly lines up with our anniversary. We are usually not on the trip on our actual anniversary, so we typically have a nice dinner at home.

[calimom]

Well, our anniversary is today!  24 years.  It's mostly just another day.  We are both working all day, kids are home too.  We will make a nice dinner (salmon, potatoes, green beans).  We already had the salmon.  I think my husband is going to bake a gluten free cake today (chocolate, which is sweet because he doesn't like chocolate.) I did the grocery shopping today and bought him some raspberry sorbet.  I think our current plan is after dinner and the dog walk (so around 7:30), we will go for a walk on the beach.  So, that's it.  Nice dinner, walk on the beach.

That's pretty sweet! Happy anniiversary!

[chrisgermany]

Ours is today, too.
37th return, 7th year in ER.
As it will be rainy today we did a bike tour yesterday. We will go out for lunch or dinner and enjoy each others company all day.
There are some home made cookies to share, too.
Happy anniversary!

[Dicey]

I can’t remember the year or month!

Haha, we got married on 10/11/12 for exactly that reason. It's hard to forget, even if all we do is swap cards and acknowledge the date.

Congrats @mm1970 and @chrisgermany!

[Pigeon]

We discuss whether or not we want to go for one more year and then usually have dinner in a nice restaurant.  So far (39 years), the answer has been yeah, let's give it a whirl.

[LifeHappens]

Sounds like some of you are lucky, live near the beach. Does that mean you are on "beach time" all the time?

Well... I live 5 miles from the beach and we go there at least a couple times a month, so in a sense yes. In another sense, still just working and paying the bills, you know?

[mm1970]

Ours is today, too.
37th return, 7th year in ER.
As it will be rainy today we did a bike tour yesterday. We will go out for lunch or dinner and enjoy each others company all day.
There are some home made cookies to share, too.
Happy anniversary!

Happy anniversary!

Sounds like some of you are lucky, live near the beach. Does that mean you are on "beach time" all the time?

You would think, but no.  We rarely go.  This summer with COVID, been aiming to go more often.  I try to take the little one (he's just turned 8) once every week or two. 

Our beaches have tar from naturally occurring oil seepage.  It's a pain to clean off when you come home. 

[Arbitrage]

The last few years, we've had a vacation planned around the same time as our anniversary, so, voila!  The trip is now an anniversary trip!

[hudsoncat]

We try to do something we like to do together. Take a long bike ride, go for a hike, make an extra nice supper together... These are things we also do other times of the year, but our anniversary tends to fall at the tail end of a very busy time of the year for both of our jobs, so the anniversary "special thing" always feels like a small reset of focus on our relationship.

[ducky19]

Just celebrated 17 years yesterday. DW bought steaks for the family and grilled out with sliced veggies. We long since stopped exchanging gifts for anniversaries, birthdays, Christmas, etc. We were going to go play Scrabble in the park (we used to do that all the time when we were dating), but it was stupid hot out so we put that off for another day. My oldest daughter came over and visited and had dinner with us. That's about it, it was really a nice relaxing way to spend it!

[goat_music_generator]

There's a restaurant near us that has Taco Tuesdays with $10 for unlimited tacos. For several years we would always go there on the Tuesday nearest our dating anniversary.

Sadly wasn't an option this year :-(

[travelbug]

We get Thai takeaway (and have for 21 years in a row). Last year was our 20 year anniversary and to celebrate we both had a 1 hour massage.