The most memorable valentine's day I had was when a man I was dating made dinner for me at my house. It was nice to be able relax in my own home while he did all the work. He used one of Rachel Ray's valentine's menus from her website which turned out great. Rachel's menus used ingredients that are inexpensive and easily found and the meal was amazing!
Chinese New Year often falls near Valentine's Day, so if you're fortunate enough to participate in the asian holiday, you can collect red envelopes and make them into a card or an origami-inspired gift.
Well, if we REALLY need to save money, as we have in the past...actually, some of our best Valentine's days were those times...
Get someone to babysit (if needed!) for FREE. Meaning, a relative, most likely.
Then stay in, get a Redbox rental, or have a Netflix movie ready, microwave popcorn, and either order a pizza, or a few cheesesteaks, or just have a quick, easy, premade, heatup dinner, by candlelight in the kitchen or living room.
Splurge and turn the heat up for a few hours if you usually freeze for a living, in the name of saving money, and just cuddle.
Make sure the room is clean and smelling good. Candle light, shades down, etc...
We've had our best times this way. And we didn't really spend anymore than we would have on a regular night.
If you've worked all day on Valentine's Day but want to avoid crowds, babysitters, and having to pay a tip...get takeout! One of the nicest restaurants in my neighborhood offered a dinner-for-two that came packaged in a big tin pan with a lid, just needed to be warmed up in the oven for 10 minutes. No cooking, no dishes, but cheaper than a restaurant.
Hubby has to work that Saturday so we planned to hit up the sale racks the next day and buy each other valentine candy and cards at 50% off. He loves peanut butter cups! The limit is to three dollar and the winner is the one with the most stuff!
In our house, Valentines day is about the kiddos, they love making heart shaped cookies (with pink icing of course), making hearts out of red construction paper and gluing paper doilies to them, and this year we are giving out valentines that I designed on the computer!
"♥ Address your cards as you regularly would if you were mailing them yourself (stamp and all).
♥ Put all of your cards into one envelope, and mail them to:
Cupid's Mailbox
P.O. Box 201
Valentine, NE 69201
♥ For delivery by February 14th, your cards must be received by Cupids Mailbox by February 5th. All letters received after this date will still receive the cachet, but might not be delivered until after Valentine's Day.
♥ The Valentine Post Office starts sending out stamped letters on February 5th."
We try to go see something at night that costs under $15 (a movie, a reading, any kind of performance) and then go to a restaurant with a cheaper late-night menu!
My girlfriend thought I was just teasing her with this. The guitar strap tip is cool too. I might as well try it on one of my guitars. I think it's the perfect gimmick for my gig next week. Thanks for these tips Myscha!
I too have been to broke to be frugal. A good current example is I pay for Car insurance monthly because I caanot "afford" the lump sum payment for six months.
A group of my friends (4 couples) have regular ethnic nights where we bring dishes from a certain country. Our next night falls on V-day, so the men have decided they are in charge and they will be preparing and serving the women! They say they have several surprises in store, but since they are in charge of making all of the food, it will be relatively inexpensive and lots of fun!
My tip is to celebrate Valentine's Day one day after the day itself. You'll save a fortune on restaurants, flowers and pretty much everything else. Why pay extra if you don't have to?
Don't have a significant other. Okay, for those that have to celebrate- bake cookies! My best valentines day gift was a box of homemade cookies (his favorite), a bar of toblerone, and candy. Thoughtful and cheap.
I write 2 poems for my wife every year. One from me, and one with help from our kids (6 and 8 this year). I'll also leave little notes in different spots with a hint on where to find the next one. The poems are waiting at the end.
Get some scrapbooking materials very affordable and make homemade valentine cards they are a great investment and people will ove them, alos they take very little time to make. Another tip I have is to make up coupons for your spouse such as I will make dinner one night of doing the dishes another night.
My wife loves this because it shows a lot of thought and I love it because it's fun for me. I use clues, hints, and misdirection to give suspense and surprise, making Valentine's Day the best day ever.
Each year gets better and better. But the first time I tried this it didn't really work out too well because I had my timing off. Toward evening she got a secret phone call from a phone she didn't recognize instructing her to go on this little scavenger hunt, which would allow me to sneak into the house and surprise her with dinner. But the scavenger hunt, instead of being a quick 30 minutes took about an hour. So she came back tired and dinner was cold. :( But we had a lot of laughs and we'll remember it for always and forever.
My roommate and I have taken very different paths on Valentine's dinners. Last year he had just started seeing some girl and to impress her, cooked something that it turned out she didn't even like, a rack of lamb. He went to a high-end butcher and even took an employees suggestion on wine... at $50 for the bottle. I flew solo last year, but the year before I found out that my date's favorite italian dish was Chicken Francaise, a relatively simple and much cheaper dish to make, all while still allowing an impressive looking plate. Let's also be real, there's about a 3% chance that your date is a wine snob, so a $15 will probably wow her just the same. A little homework goes a long way.
As kids, we all liked to make forts and hide in them because they were our own space, and no one could tell us what to do. In the same way, a Valentine's day fort is a great way to turn your living room into a fun and cozy retreat. Set it up in front of the fireplace, or the television - your choice. Add your favorite meal, person and movie and you are set to go!
Too broke to be frugal? Man, that hits home. Another example I've often heard of (thankfully not experienced first-hand) is getting shafted by enormous interest on paycheck advance loans.
It seems like some of these needs requiring short-term capital could be met with low-interest microloan services - I mean hey, if it works in the 3rd world, why not here? It might be easier to be disciplined with microloans than it is with a credit card.
My fiancee and I usually keep Valentine's Day low key. Our plan this year is to have a nice dinner at home.
I'll send her flowers at work about a week early, so they'll be blooming when Valentine's Day comes around. They always show up as buds and take about 2 days to get to full bloom. She'd rather have blooming flowers on V-Day than buds. They're cheaper right before Valentine's and I always use a coupon to bring the price down. I also don't include a vase because she has several at work, which saves $10-15 each time. I would estimate I pay <50% of a "normal" retail V-day price.
The most memorable valentine's day I had was when a man I was dating made dinner for me at my house. It was nice to be able relax in my own home while he did all the work. He used one of Rachel Ray's valentine's menus from her website which turned out great. Rachel's menus used ingredients that are inexpensive and easily found and the meal was amazing!
Chinese New Year often falls near Valentine's Day, so if you're fortunate enough to participate in the asian holiday, you can collect red envelopes and make them into a card or an origami-inspired gift.
Well, if we REALLY need to save money, as we have in the past...actually, some of our best Valentine's days were those times...
Get someone to babysit (if needed!) for FREE. Meaning, a relative, most likely.
Then stay in, get a Redbox rental, or have a Netflix movie ready, microwave popcorn, and either order a pizza, or a few cheesesteaks, or just have a quick, easy, premade, heatup dinner, by candlelight in the kitchen or living room.
Splurge and turn the heat up for a few hours if you usually freeze for a living, in the name of saving money, and just cuddle.
Make sure the room is clean and smelling good. Candle light, shades down, etc...
We've had our best times this way. And we didn't really spend anymore than we would have on a regular night.
<3
I will be cooking a special dinner for my sweetie - traditional italian.
Make candlelight dinner together and share a good bottle of red wine
If you've worked all day on Valentine's Day but want to avoid crowds, babysitters, and having to pay a tip...get takeout! One of the nicest restaurants in my neighborhood offered a dinner-for-two that came packaged in a big tin pan with a lid, just needed to be warmed up in the oven for 10 minutes. No cooking, no dishes, but cheaper than a restaurant.
Take time instead of money for Valentine's day. For example: make a card, make a dinner, made a CD.
Instead of spending money on a fancy dinner, we are going to Busch Gardens (we have annual passes) which is one of our favorite places.
Hubby has to work that Saturday so we planned to hit up the sale racks the next day and buy each other valentine candy and cards at 50% off. He loves peanut butter cups! The limit is to three dollar and the winner is the one with the most stuff!
In our house, Valentines day is about the kiddos, they love making heart shaped cookies (with pink icing of course), making hearts out of red construction paper and gluing paper doilies to them, and this year we are giving out valentines that I designed on the computer!
I did this years ago. Only costs an extra stamp. Makes a love letter extra special.
From http://www.squidoo.com/valentine-nebraska:
"♥ Address your cards as you regularly would if you were mailing them yourself (stamp and all).
♥ Put all of your cards into one envelope, and mail them to:
Cupid's Mailbox
P.O. Box 201
Valentine, NE 69201
♥ For delivery by February 14th, your cards must be received by Cupids Mailbox by February 5th. All letters received after this date will still receive the cachet, but might not be delivered until after Valentine's Day.
♥ The Valentine Post Office starts sending out stamped letters on February 5th."
We try to go see something at night that costs under $15 (a movie, a reading, any kind of performance) and then go to a restaurant with a cheaper late-night menu!
LOL@thong from a necktie
My girlfriend thought I was just teasing her with this. The guitar strap tip is cool too. I might as well try it on one of my guitars. I think it's the perfect gimmick for my gig next week. Thanks for these tips Myscha!
Tom
I never celebrate valentines day. Every day should be the day you treat your SO well.
I too have been to broke to be frugal. A good current example is I pay for Car insurance monthly because I caanot "afford" the lump sum payment for six months.
A group of my friends (4 couples) have regular ethnic nights where we bring dishes from a certain country. Our next night falls on V-day, so the men have decided they are in charge and they will be preparing and serving the women! They say they have several surprises in store, but since they are in charge of making all of the food, it will be relatively inexpensive and lots of fun!
My tip is to celebrate Valentine's Day one day after the day itself. You'll save a fortune on restaurants, flowers and pretty much everything else. Why pay extra if you don't have to?
Don't have a significant other. Okay, for those that have to celebrate- bake cookies! My best valentines day gift was a box of homemade cookies (his favorite), a bar of toblerone, and candy. Thoughtful and cheap.
I write 2 poems for my wife every year. One from me, and one with help from our kids (6 and 8 this year). I'll also leave little notes in different spots with a hint on where to find the next one. The poems are waiting at the end.
Get some scrapbooking materials very affordable and make homemade valentine cards they are a great investment and people will ove them, alos they take very little time to make. Another tip I have is to make up coupons for your spouse such as I will make dinner one night of doing the dishes another night.
My wife loves this because it shows a lot of thought and I love it because it's fun for me. I use clues, hints, and misdirection to give suspense and surprise, making Valentine's Day the best day ever.
Each year gets better and better. But the first time I tried this it didn't really work out too well because I had my timing off. Toward evening she got a secret phone call from a phone she didn't recognize instructing her to go on this little scavenger hunt, which would allow me to sneak into the house and surprise her with dinner. But the scavenger hunt, instead of being a quick 30 minutes took about an hour. So she came back tired and dinner was cold. :( But we had a lot of laughs and we'll remember it for always and forever.
My roommate and I have taken very different paths on Valentine's dinners. Last year he had just started seeing some girl and to impress her, cooked something that it turned out she didn't even like, a rack of lamb. He went to a high-end butcher and even took an employees suggestion on wine... at $50 for the bottle. I flew solo last year, but the year before I found out that my date's favorite italian dish was Chicken Francaise, a relatively simple and much cheaper dish to make, all while still allowing an impressive looking plate. Let's also be real, there's about a 3% chance that your date is a wine snob, so a $15 will probably wow her just the same. A little homework goes a long way.
As kids, we all liked to make forts and hide in them because they were our own space, and no one could tell us what to do. In the same way, a Valentine's day fort is a great way to turn your living room into a fun and cozy retreat. Set it up in front of the fireplace, or the television - your choice. Add your favorite meal, person and movie and you are set to go!
Too broke to be frugal? Man, that hits home. Another example I've often heard of (thankfully not experienced first-hand) is getting shafted by enormous interest on paycheck advance loans.
It seems like some of these needs requiring short-term capital could be met with low-interest microloan services - I mean hey, if it works in the 3rd world, why not here? It might be easier to be disciplined with microloans than it is with a credit card.
My fiancee and I usually keep Valentine's Day low key. Our plan this year is to have a nice dinner at home.
I'll send her flowers at work about a week early, so they'll be blooming when Valentine's Day comes around. They always show up as buds and take about 2 days to get to full bloom. She'd rather have blooming flowers on V-Day than buds. They're cheaper right before Valentine's and I always use a coupon to bring the price down. I also don't include a vase because she has several at work, which saves $10-15 each time. I would estimate I pay <50% of a "normal" retail V-day price.