Chocolate covered strawberries, heart M&Ms, red roses and tons of jewelry commercials are all indicators that Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching. From last minute floral deliveries to quick Kay’s Jewelry shopping runs, Americans spend over $18 billion on Valentine’s. That’s billion! To minimize the need to get into more debt to impress (or even remember) the love of your life, here are four tips that will help you save money and eliminate the need to create more debt.
[featured-image]
Plan ahead.
Unlike, Easter and other “floating holidays”, Valentine’s Day is on the exact same day each and every year—February 14th. So, it should not be a surprise each year when February arrives; therefore, when creating your January budget, make sure you include a line item for Valentine’s Day. By allocating funds to this day ahead of time, it will not only help you remember this special day is forthcoming, but will allow you to properly plan for it, thereby, reducing the need to overspend.
Look for Sales.
Since this is one of the many highly marketed days of the year, stores are boosting up their tricks to get you to spend; one of them being…SALES. So, search for online discounts, coupons in the Sunday paper and don’t forget about those gift cards you may not have used from Christmas. This is a good time to put them to use!
Instead of dinner, why not doing lunch?
This time of year is very hectic for our family—evenings in particular. So, most Valentine’s Day my husband and I will do lunch instead of dinner. It not only saves us more than half the cost of dinner, but we do not have to worry about finding a babysitter since the kids are in school. Added bonus!
Quality over Quantity.
My “love language” is quality time (The Five Love Languages) and my husband knows he does not have to get me tons of gifts (although I do expect something on these special days, ?). He understands I would rather spend some time with him, rather than receiving last-minute gifts. And since we are on our journey to being debt-free, having a ton of “things” do not impress me; seeing that “$0” balance on our credit card statement does. So, I’d rather spend time with him—the person I fell in love with. Why? Because I won’t remember all of the gifts he has and will continue to give me over the years. I will, however, remember the memories we have and will continue to create together.
So, on Valentine’s Day celebrate each other. And not just on this day, but every day! It does not cost much to show how much you love someone. It does, however, take a little bit of planning. Happy Valentine’s Day!
