Valentine’s Day has become more commercialized than ever and you don’t have to buy into the hype. Many say the day has become less about expressing their love to another and more about over-spending, agonizing over selecting the perfect expensive gift, and coughing up a small fortune for a meal in a crowded restaurant that will cost half that price the following day.
If you feel that Cupid has sold out and you would like a more meaningful (not to mention more affordable) way to acknowledge a special someone or your children, here are 11 suggestions:
· Create homemade valentine cards with your children using good old construction paper, doilies, glitter, glue, and markers. It’s a fun creative outlet for them, and saves you money from purchasing individual cards for family members.
· Pick an “I Love You Everyday Day” close to Valentine’s Day and take your one and only out to dinner for normal restaurant prices and non-rushed service.
· Purchase flowers on a day after Valentine’s Day when prices have returned from astronomical heights.
· Bake cookies in the shapes of hearts. Decorate with red sugar and candy hearts.
· Write a poem for the one who lights your spark.
· Watch a romantic movie together.
· Cook a memorable meal with your sweetie—much more intimate than ordering from a menu.
· Share the bottle of wine you and your guy or gal first truly enjoyed.
· Play romantic songs on the stereo and slow dance together at home.
· Frame a picture of you and your sweetie from when you first fell in love or took a vacation together.
· A personal favorite from MyDearValentine.Com, “Write love notes on small cue cards and hide them in places like the closet, stick one on the mirror, in the pocket of the bathrobe and other such other places.”
Holiday Inc. is constantly churning out ways to encourage you to spend more of your hard-earned money on days that have long lost their origins. You and your family and loved one can do intensely meaningful things together and for each other that are free or nearly free. If you simply must beguile your sweetheart with an expensive gift, why not save it for your personal anniversary—unless of course, that falls on Valentine’s Day.
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