Guess what? Valentine’s Day is on Monday. Like many holidays, Valentine’s Day has become more and more commercialized. In fact, according to the National Retail Federation, the average consumer is expected to spend $102.50 on Valentine’s day this year.
Here are some more interesting stats from the NRF:
- 36% will buy flowers
- About half (47%) will dine out
- 16% will buy jewelry
- 58% will buy cards.
Believe it or not, Valentine’s Day is second only to Christmas as a card-sending holiday, and Americans are expected to spend $1B on candy alone! With the foregoing in mind, I thought it would be fun to run a quick poll about your plans, and how they might impact your pocketbook.
{democracy:112}
Have a great weekend, and Happy Valentine’s Day!
We really don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. Or if ever we celebrate it, it’s just a simple one. This year, we just had breakfast by the beach. It’s very inexpensive but romantic.
In the past, I buy flowers at Trader Joes ($6-8), Buy dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant (less than $25) and stay at home. We have a nice romantic candlelight dinner and fire up the fireplace. I started this because Valentine’s Day was during the week and we were not willing to go out. Now, we prefer it.
It’s simple. As a couple, we spend less that $50. An exchange of cards with some loving handwritten words. Perhaps a small orchid plant and a simple dessert. We’re both excellent cooks (simple, but good) so we plan menus we enjoy. The sweet may be a 4″ mousse cake or a couple specialty chocolates. Our anniversary is a few days before, and we’re an older couple. We don’t go overboard, but we do small special shared treats and cards with a short love note. We spend our time together on the weekend, and try not to overload “our” weekend with chores.
We love special occasions. I bake homemade heart shaped scones for the boys and their dad for breakfast and leave a (reused) heart-shaped tin full of discount chocolate goodies at their places at the table. (Buying chocolate after holidays and freezing them.) Sometimes they give me cards, sometimes homemade stuff. Two years ago our youngest made a Lego heart. It’s wonderful, and sits atop the computer cabinet even now.
We celebrate Valentine’s a week early or a week later. This way, the restaurant meal is not overpriced and the cooks/waiters are not overworked.
We also buy chocolates on discount the day after Val’s Day. You have to be quick though. The good chocolates are snapped up by others who use the same strategy.
We no longer buy store-made Val’s day cards. We look at them at the store, enjoy them, then put them back. Saves money, decreases clutter at our house, and reduces waste in landfills.
@ Amy, I do the same thing for Godiva chocolate a week or two after Christmas.
My boyfriend and my anniversary is on the 25th of February, so we try and celebrate the two occasions together. This year for Valentine’s Day we’re having coffee and pancakes at the coffee shop where we used to go all the time on our dates. This fits around my work schedule (he’s not working at the moment). For our anniversary we’re going out to a nice restaurant where I have a coupon for a free main meal. It will probably cost about $50.
We got engaged on Valentine’s Day five years ago. So to celebrate, we’re going to be doing some “re-enacting.” Of course, we were poor college students at the time, so re-enacting will be frugal:
– Public transit into town
– Lunch at Subway
– Walk on the waterside
– Afternoon at an art museum (which was free on the original day, but probably won’t be this time)
None of this costs a ton, since we’re not re-enacting the diamond part. 🙂
What I find most scary about that $102.50 figure is that my boyfriend and I will spend zero. Which means there are people out there spending significantly more than $100 to balance out people like us who refuse to be part of that (wasteful) consumer culture.
I just want a nice dinner at a restaurant. I do the entirety of the cooking in my household, I even make basic staples like bread, yogurt, beef stock, chicken stock, etc. The last time my husband and I went out to dinner together, it was 2010!
It doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive, but sitting down with my husband to a delicious meal where I don’t have to cook or clean is the perfect way to celebrate Valentine’s Day. And, no, my husband can’t make it at home because he has given himself food poisoning more times than I care to count trying to prove that he can cook. He cannot, and I accept that.
We have three kids, and each one of them made a gift for Mommy. They’ll give her those gifts – then I’ll take her out for a nice dinner Monday.
-NCN
This might sound a little crazy, but we celebrate valentine’s day a week later. That way I can get my once a year Godiva chocolate at a discount.