From the perspective of a personal finance blogger, many may consider Valentine’s Day to be the anti-personal finance day or at least a way to not be financially responsible. It is a holiday that many consider to now be a “hallmark holiday” and it seems like the main purpose of the holiday is now to buy some sort of present or treat your significant other to something nice to show how much you love them. Obviously most people know this is not the case and the person you are with already knows how much you care about them. But we all have our human tendency to get jealous and maybe even feel a bit down when you hear what everyone else is doing or getting around you.
Even after I just told you all that, I ended up doing the complete opposite and ended up spending money on Valentine’s Day! Well, maybe not the complete opposite because we did not shower each other with gifts. My girlfriend and I ended up going out to eat at Olive Garden (yes I know, it’s not real Italian food – but it’s not too bad) to take advantage of their 2 for $25 deal. It was a nice a treat and it didn’t break the bank, as we both got waters so there was no additional cost. Most of the time we aren’t just ordering water to save money either, we both kind of prefer it to other drinks and it is much healthier for you. The whole thing ended up being around $30 once you include a tip which is pretty reasonable since we got bread sticks, salad, entree, and a small dessert.
I think we both kind of agreed to not spend money on Valentine’s Day because as of right now we are both in similar situations of spending as little money as possible (which we hope keep this mentality in the future, but in different ways). My girlfriend is still a broke college student, and I’m a broke college graduate! Well really I’m not broke, it’s just she knows I’m putting as much money into my student loans as possible so that we can potentially move in together when she graduates and is able to secure a full-time job. So I decided that I would treat her to a nice dinner out, as we would both be able to enjoy that and it’s not something super expensive.
You could definitely have a nice Valentine’s Day without breaking the budget by having a romantic dinner at home, or by going out for an inexpensive dinner like we did. There’s also the fact that most Valentine’s Day cards used to be all hand written or hand made instead of store bought. If you have the skills, why not try doing that? Or designing one on the computer and printing it out? It will end up being more thoughtful and should save you a few dollars.
What I have also done in the past is take advantage of Bing Rewards to earn enough points to get a gift certificate to Pro Flowers or Shari’s Berries. The gift certificates are usually worth $15 and there are plenty of nice items on the website for around $20-$25. So you usually end up spending around $15 total after the discount with shipping included. Obviously these websites tack on shipping surcharges for Valentine’s Day delivery, but it’s always a nice surprise to give to someone you care about on other occasions too.
What did you do for Valentine’s Day? Save your money? Go out for dinner? Get flowers or chocolates? Something completely different?
photo credit: Chaval Brasil via photopin cc
I’m glad you still found a way to celebrate with your girlfriend! My other half and I went out for supper as well and got each other a few small gifts. I work part time in a jewelry store and I see people coming in and can’t imagine why they would be spending $500 on Valentine’s Day…what are they going to spend on other holidays if they’re willing to drop that for a ‘small’ holiday?? Crazy! Some people have more money than brains…maybe someday we’ll get to be those people!
That sounds like a nice Valentine’s day for you as well 🙂 I think my girlfriend might be worried if I spent that much on just Valentine’s Day. And I hope to someday be there too, but I probably still wouldn’t spend on it on that!