Alpacto › Agreements › Bets for couples
Bet ideas for couples: 40 bets, the prizes, and a contract to write them on
Forty bet ideas for couples, sorted by how long each one runs: tonight, on a date, over a month, or across two cities. Below them are prizes worth winning, jobs for whoever loses in place of a punishment, and a one-page Bet Contract with a deadline and a judge. No money anywhere on the page.
Four weeks on the fridge, and nobody can pretend the bet never happened.
In short
A good bet between partners has an outcome someone can check, a date when it ends, and a prize the winner actually wants. The loser’s part should be a job done within a week: the laundry, a car wash, a planned date. Pick the bet from the list below by how long you want it to run.
Whichever of these bet ideas for couples you pick, write it down before it starts and name a judge who is neither of you. Unwritten bets tend to be quietly forgotten. The free Bet Contract has a line for each of those things and a line that says no money.
What makes a good bet between two people
A good bet between two people has four parts. There is an outcome either of you can check, an end date, a judge who is neither of you, and a prize and job small enough to hand over within a week. Write all four down before the bet starts, and the argument over who actually won never gets going.
A bet made in ten seconds is easy to forget by the weekend. One person on Reddit described how that goes in their home.
“But by unspoken agreement, the loser never had to go through with the planned punishment.”r/AskWomen, a thread about playful bets
That is fine for a bet about who remembers the actor’s name. For a bet that runs a month, four things keep it alive.
- An outcome someone can check. Who eats healthier is an argument. Who cooks at home on more nights in October is a count.
- A date when it ends. The sheet has a Deadline box at the top, and it is filled in before anything else.
- A judge who is neither of you. A sister, a roommate, a friend in the group chat. The judge’s call is final, so the result is never decided by whoever argues longer.
- A prize and a job that fit in a week. Breakfast in bed on Sunday gets delivered. A favor to be named later usually does not.
One rule from a forum thread on bets between spouses is worth copying word for word into the House rules box: “the winner can’t complain about how it’s done”.
40 bet ideas for couples, sorted by how long they run
The best bet ideas for couples end with an answer you can check without a debate: a score, a count, a time or a date. Pick by how long you want the bet to run. A bet settled tonight needs no sheet, while a month-long one does, so the lists below go from tonight to two cities.
Settled tonight, at home
- Who guesses the final score of tonight’s game closer
- Which contestant goes home first on the show you watch together
- Who names more songs from the first five seconds, ten tracks each
- Who solves today’s crossword with fewer hints
- Whether the pizza arrives before the app’s estimate
- Who wins a rematch of the board game one of you lost last time
- Who goes longer through the movie without touching a phone
- Whether the new recipe beats the usual one, judged by whoever else is at the table
Bet ideas for dates
- Lower score at mini golf, or higher at bowling
- Who guesses the other’s order before the menus open
- Who predicts the movie’s ending, typed into a phone before the lights go down
- More tickets from ten arcade games each
- Who guesses the year of three paintings closer, before reading the label
- How long the wait for a table is, closest guess wins
- Who keeps a straight face longer across the dinner table
- Who remembers more about your first date, written separately and compared
Fun couples bets that run a month
- Who hits a daily step goal on more days this month
- Who finishes the same book first
- Who keeps a new habit on more days: flossing, bed by eleven, no snooze button
- Who cooks more new recipes in four weeks
- Whether one of you runs a 5K under a set time on race day
- Who goes longer without a takeout coffee
- How many days the holiday tree stays up, closest guess wins
- Who keeps a language-app streak longer
Bet ideas for long distance couples
- Whose city is warmer on the day you next see each other
- Who solves the daily word puzzle in fewer guesses over seven days
- Who guesses the other’s outfit tomorrow, settled by a photo
- Who picks the winner of a show you both watch in separate apartments
- Who can go a week without mentioning the countdown to the next visit
- Whether the package you sent arrives on the promised day
- Who sends the first good-morning text on more days this week
- Who gets more right on a quiz about the other’s week, five questions each on the Sunday call
Cute bet ideas for couples
- Who goes a whole day without a chosen filler word, the other one counting
- Who guesses a parent’s answer to one question at the next family call
- Whose houseplant is still alive in three months, one plant each
- What the dog does first when the door opens
- Which friend replies first after the group chat goes quiet
- Who makes a mutual friend laugh first at dinner
- Who folds a fitted sheet neatly, the judge deciding what neat means
- Who wakes up first on Saturday without an alarm
And one thing that is not obvious: weight loss bets
Most weight loss bet ideas for couples count pounds or percent, which rewards the fastest drop. The CDC’s Losing Weight page says people who lose weight at a gradual pace of about 1 to 2 pounds a week are more likely to keep it off. So bet on something either of you controls on any given day, such as workout minutes or dinners cooked at home.
Good bet wagers for couples: what the winner gets
The best bet wagers for couples are small favors and treats the winner would actually pick, such as breakfast in bed or the next takeout order. A good prize can be handed over within a week and is a little annoying to give up. Cash is the one stake worth skipping.
One poster on a forum thread about a weight loss contest with a partner put the money question plainly: “Money makes no sense, since we have joint finances”. For a couple with shared money, a cash stake mostly moves money from one pocket to the same account, and the sheet prints a line that says no money.
Favors and treats
- Breakfast in bed on Sunday
- Three movie-night picks in a row
- A 20-minute back or foot rub, on a night the winner chooses
- The winner’s favorite dessert, homemade
- A Saturday sleep-in while the other person takes the morning
- Coffee in bed every morning for a week
Choices and bragging rights
- The next takeout order, no vetoes
- The good spot on the sofa and the remote for a week
- The next date, planned by the loser
- The road-trip playlist on the next drive
- One sentence at dinner, said out loud: you were right
Food is the default for plenty of couples. In the Reddit thread above, one person wrote that their bets are “always food related”, and that right then the loser owed cookie dough.
Punishments for losing a bet, rewritten as a job the loser does
A good punishment for losing a bet is a useful or funny job the loser finishes within a week, such as two weeks of laundry or a date planned from scratch. The sheet never uses the word punishment. Each player fills in two lines, If I win, I get and And the other person does.
Jobs that work
- The laundry for two weeks, or a full car wash, as in the example on the sheet
- A chore the winner dislikes, taken over for a week
- Dinner of the winner’s choice, plus the dishes after
- A date planned from start to finish, with no hints given
- The winner’s favorite movie or soundtrack, watched while paying attention
- A handwritten note of five things the loser likes about the winner
- The driving on the next trip, both ways
The soundtrack one comes from the same Reddit thread, where someone’s boyfriend lost and had to listen to the whole Legally Blonde musical “and actually pay attention”. Funny punishments for losing a bet work best at that size: the loser grumbles for an evening and nobody is hurt.
Bad punishments for losing a bet, and what to swap in
| Skip this | Why it goes wrong | Swap in |
|---|---|---|
| A cash stake | With shared money, nobody really wins, and the bet starts to feel like gambling | A favor or a treat from the list above |
| Anything posted in public | The joke now has an audience that neither of you picked | Something silly that stays inside the house |
| A chore the winner never does anyway | If one person already does most of it, winning that chore changes nothing for them | A prize the winner names |
| Eating something gross, pain, anything permanent | wikiHow’s guidelines for lost bet games say to pick “a punishment that’s not permanent” | Driving, cooking, planning |
| A favor, to be decided | It never gets collected, and the bet quietly disappears | A named job with a date in the Prize handed over on box |
The third row is from the forum thread above, where one reader pointed out that a chore bet gives nothing to the partner who already does “99% of the chores”. The fourth is from wikiHow, Lost Bet Games.
Write the bet down: the free Bet Contract
The Bet Contract is a free one-page printable with five sections: the bet, who says what, house rules, check-ins along the way and the judge’s call. Fill it in together at the table before the bet starts, and stick it on the fridge until the judge signs.
- The bet. We bet that, and It counts when. In the example: the park 5K on Oct 24, counted when the official race time is 29:59 or less.
- Who says what. Each player writes a name, their side, what they get and what the other person does.
- House rules. Allowed, Not allowed, and If it’s a tie. The tie line is the one people skip, and the one that settles a canceled race.
- Along the way. Two dated check-ins, so a month-long bet does not vanish in week two.
- The judge’s call. Winner, Decided on, and Prize handed over on, above the printed line “The judge decides who won, and that call is final.”
At the bottom are three signature lines, for both players and the judge, and a line that says “Not a legal document. A shared agreement between people who trust each other.”
Print the Bet Contract: three designs, Letter and A4
The Bet Contract comes in three designs (minimal, warm and color), each as a blank PDF in Letter and A4 and as a fillable PDF. Choose Letter in the United States and Canada, A4 elsewhere, and print at 100%. The fillable version lets you type the terms on a computer and sign the printed copy by hand.
Questions people ask
What are some fun bets couples can make with each other?
Fun couples bets have a result you can check quickly: who guesses tonight’s final score closer, who keeps a straight face longer at dinner, who finishes the same book first. Pick the ones that match how long you want to play, and add a prize you both want.
What are some good bet ideas?
A good bet has an answer you can check and a date when it ends. Who finishes the same book first, or who hits a step goal on more days this month, are two examples. The list of bet ideas for couples above has forty, sorted by how long they run.
What is a good flirty bet wager?
A flirty bet wager is something the winner would ask for anyway, kept between the two of you: a slow dance in the kitchen, a handwritten note, breakfast in bed. Keep it to what both of you would be glad to give, and write it on the sheet before the bet starts.
What to bet on with my boyfriend?
Bet on something you both follow: a game, a show, a race one of you is training for, a book you are both reading. Bet ideas for a boyfriend or a girlfriend are the same list, because the sheet has two identical columns, Player 1 and Player 2.
What are some fun things to bet on with my girlfriend?
Anything that ends with a count or a clear winner: arcade tickets, mini golf, the reality show you watch together, which of you wakes up first on Saturday. Then pick a prize from the list, such as three movie-night picks or the next date planned by the loser.
What’s a good punishment for losing a friendly bet?
A job the loser finishes within a week, such as the laundry for two weeks, a car wash or a planned date. Skip anything public, painful, permanent or paid in money, and write the job and the handover date on the contract.
What can long distance couples bet on?
Anything both of you can see from separate cities. The weather on the day you next meet, a daily word puzzle or the winner of a show you both watch all work. The fillable PDF can be typed in by one of you and sent to the other to print.
Should couples bet money on each other?
Usually not. With shared money, a cash stake only moves dollars between two pockets of one account, and it can turn a game into an argument. Bet favors, treats or choices instead, and write the prize on the contract before the bet starts.
Is there an app for bets between partners?
Yes. In Alpacto a bet is one of four kinds of pact, with two sides, clear stakes and an outcome you both call. It is on iPhone and Android.
The same bet, kept on both phones
In Alpacto a bet has two sides, clear stakes and an outcome you both call. A lost bet stays visible until it is settled, and the coins are records between the two of you, never money.