Sunday, February 03, 2008

St. Valentine's Day without spending

Every year I mean to do something extra special for St. Valentine's Day, then fall back on a nice breakfast and dinner at home.

According to the archives, red dye, cheesecake and a bowl of apples is about as celebratory as we get!

How are you planning to celebrate St. Valentine's Day without spending a mint?

22 comments:

The Stepford Stepmom said...

This year, we have no money at all. Every time is going towards saving for a baby! This year, I'm doing up our guest room to be a Valentine's Lover's Suite. I figure, since we can't afford to stay the night at a nice hotel, or even a B&B, doing up our guest room in with romantic flare will be almost like staying somewhere else... After all, we *never* have spent a night there. :)

I'm doing a whole series of posts on the changes that are going on to it starting Monday. It's fun because I can start decorating waaaay in advance because he never goes in there, and he's still not going to know. :D

Meredith said...

Ohhhh, your guest room! Now that's a clever idea.

I really need to get on the ball with plans for our day. We have two family birthdays the same week, so Valentine's is often left to the last minute.

Sandy said...

Hello - yip! Not sure what I'm doing yet, but I really try to use what I have!

Anonymous said...

I like the guest room idea!
We'll have a kiddie party in the morning, and then celebrate as a family for dinner. Then it's just me & my Love for the evening by candle light playing games. Nothing fancy, but we'll enjoy good food and simple decor and great company!

Anonymous said...

Meredith, I can picture heart shaped soap from your molds! :)

Anonymous said...

My husbnad just loves my heart-shaped sugar cookies, so I will be baking those. I also have some top sirloin steaks in the freezer that I bought on sale in January for us to grill and serve with yummy side dishes. Then, I think we will snuggle up with a romantic movie. (Our 4 children are grown!)

I also plan to give Valentine goodie bags to my adult ESL students. These will include the same heart cookies and candy kisses I bought half price after Christmas. They were the foil wrapped ones in green, red and silver. I will just use the silver and red ones.

Anonymous said...

Like you, we have MANY family birthdays this month. My mother's 2-15, Gavin's 2-17, Evan's 2-19, my sister's 2-24....All this besides VALENTINES...do I have to tell you I have saved money by buying the gifts all year (before the birthdays) and at huge sales???My sweet heart will get to play 'find the heart' on ME...I will color with a body paint a few hearts on 'perfect private' places for him to find on me after the boys go to bed. Thirty-five, almost 36 years together and I still get excited about playing games with him. Then we will shower the off together...I know TMI...forgive me...Roxie

Amy said...

I love all of those ideas. Elise looks so tiny in that one picture. Sigh! Amazing how quickly they grow up.

We don't have any big plans for Valentine's Day. I will probably do a heart-shaped pizza for the kids with heart-shaped brownies. If we get a date night (depending on the sitter situation) I will probably make a fancy dinner at home.

What can I say? We are sooo predictable :)

Amy said...

Oh, I just read that comment. What a great idea about the guest room. I wish we had a spare room to do that. We did do a folding table and chairs in our front room and drape a tablecloth on it, making a "new spot" to eat one year. It was a hit- it just felt different and more special.

Great ideas!

Amy said...

My DH and I have never really "done" Valentine's Day, other than a nice meal. I usually bake something special & cook some of his favorites. Last year DD and I decorated with lots of paper hearts and had a fun time with that. :)

Marsha said...

We don't really do Valentine's Day, either (funny how it was so much more "important" when I was dating men with whom I knew I had no future - once I found my keeper the holiday instantly seemed so trivial). I usually will make dinner for the kids earlier than normal and then make a little something special for us to eat after they go to an ever-so-early bed - maybe chicken sate with onion rice, broccoli and parmesan biscuits or London broil with kale and couscous followed by my husband's favorite cheesecake.

It's not something that I want to do a lot of, since I really do believe that families should eat together, but once a year it makes a nice evening for us.

goodstewards.wordpress.com said...

We used our grad school student ID and purchased tickets to the symphony (a Valentine's concert) at a low student rate of $10. The regular tickets go for much more... I feel like we really got a great deal, and one that many students don't care to take advantage of.

Anonymous said...

I usually write a love letter or a poem to my husband,,,,I tell him how much I appreciate him for who he is and everything he does for us and our extended family

Anonymous said...

I must say, this is the one occasion where we splurge and go out for dinner, just the two of us. Now, granted, we have parents who will babysit for free and we generally choose a restaurant with a coupon, but it makes us feel special and romantic as a couple. This isn't the thrifty Valentine version that Meredith asked for, I realize!

anya* said...

well i am hosting a valentines brunch on valentines day morning for some friends and their wee ones. everyone will bring a dish, which will help with costs, but i will still need to purchase drinks (+champagne for mimosas)and the main dish like baked french toast and breakfast meat. my mom got some big beautiful rose covered topiaries at target after christmas way marked down so i will steal those for centerpieices. im debating if i should make a 'something special' for the toddlers who will attend.. as for dinner dh will be in class that night and not home till 7.30, so i will probable have dinner waiting for him when he gets home to enjoy while watching our show, Lost...i know, i know...but it's how we roll;)

Anonymous said...

Marsha said:

We don't really do Valentine's Day, either (funny how it was so much more "important" when I was dating men with whom I knew I had no future - once I found my keeper the holiday instantly seemed so trivial).

Ditto.

For the kids, we're going to a Valentine Day party with our homeschool group, and I'll probably make some cookies with the kids.

Anonymous said...

These are great~your blog is a wonderful find today! (((((HUGS))))) sandi

Anonymous said...

For Christmas I received a gift certificate for an Italian restaurant. I've been saving it to use on Valentine's Day.

Judy said...

To be honest, I haven't even thought about it!! Our son was born last Tuesday, and I am still recuperating. :-) Guess I'd better start thinking of something, huh?

At least this year we'll be together after his lesson that night. Last year, 3 days before our wedding, it SNOWED so he had to stay home (he lived an hour and a half away).

Judy
www.heavenonearth217.blogspot.com

Anne Marie@Married to the Empire said...

We're not big on Valentine's at our house. Steven would make a big deal out of it if it was important to me, but it's not. I usually just make a nice dinner for us and serve it on our fine china. And we typically watch a DVD or something.

This year Valentine's falls on our church small-group night. Our group decided to still meet, but share a nice dinner together. I think that sounds great!

Daiquiri said...

I've been thinking about ways to make Valentine's Day special too. In fact, I just did a post last week with an idea. Swing by to check it out...I think it will be fun :)

Daiquiri

http://calledblessed.blogspot.com/2008/01/recipe-frozen-yogurt-treats.html

Julie said...

Not sure what our plans are to celebrate Valentine's Day but I've been doing some inexpensive decorating for the holiday, with many more projects to go.