Celebrate Valentine's Day on a Budget

With Valentine’s day coming up you might be wondering how you can celebrate Valentine’s day on a budget.

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Couples will be gearing up to find the perfect gift and way to celebrate Valentine’s day with their loved one. We all want to spoil that special someone in our lives to show them how much we appreciate them.

And yet, not even spoiling them with the most beautiful things in the world could come close to expressing how much we love and appreciate them. Are you with me?

That’s how I feel with my husband. He’s so incredible, and every time I remember that I get the pleasure of spending my entire life with him, I get an amazing feeling of gratitude and can’t help but thank God for how blessed I am.

So, to try and show R how much he means to me, I want to spoil him. I want him to feel loved by seeing how much thought and effort I put into this special day. I want him to feel loved when he sees the stuff I get him.

But this way of thinking isn’t always right, and it’s not how we’re going to be celebrating Valentine’s day this year. R knows I love him way beyond what words can express, and he doesn’t need the biggest gifts around to affirm that.

In fact, even if we do spend all of our money on spoiling our loved ones on Valentine’s day in trying to show our love for them, I’ll bet there is actually something they would prefer much more (I know I would prefer it!).

Do you know what it is?

Quality time spent with one another.

Because who cares if you get all the gifts in the world if you don’t get to spend time with the one that you love?

If you are on a budget this Valentine’s day, let this be hope and encouragement to you that you don’t need to go broke trying to spoil your spouse to show them how much you love them.

There’s a much more practical and thoughtful way to do it.

Anyone can buy big fancy gifts without much thought put towards them and give it to their loved one.

Let’s start spoiling our loved ones in meaningful ways, not with fleeting money.

I’m not saying it’s bad to buy your loved one a gift, in fact, I am going to buy R something nice. But, I’m not going to make us go broke over it.

Because money can’t measure my love for him.

Some of the happiest couples in the world might be broke. Do you know why? Because money does not measure love. And money does not equal love, either.

I would be sad if R bought me an expensive gift, but I didn’t get to spend time with him. I would much rather no gift at all, except the gift of time spent with one another. Making plans, making memories, and just having fun together.

I would rather spend the rest of my life receiving no gifts at all, but being able to just spend quality one on one time with R, my soulmate, and best friend.

And I’m willing to guess that you and your loved one feel the same way. Gifts are nice, but quality time spent together with the right one beats any of the gifts in the world.

All this to say that we shouldn’t be going broke over Valentine’s day. Don’t let yourself get wrapped up in the idea that receiving gifts is the only thing that matters.

But just because we shouldn’t go broke over Valentine’s Day doesn’t mean that we can’t still spoil our loved ones.

We just have to get creative with it.

Here are a few ways that you and your loved one can celebrate Valentine’s Day on a budget this year.

1) Make homemade gifts. Not only will making your own gifts save you money, but it’s also such a thoughtful way to do gifts. You’ve put time and effort into creating a gift for your loved one that you know they will love. There are so many DIY gifts that you can make for many different occasions, Click here to get some great DIY gift ideas for Valentine’s Day.

2) Eat in. Rather than going out for dinner together, buy some special ingredients at the grocery store a few days in advance and make a fancy dinner for the two of you to enjoy together. The bonus of it is, you don’t have to make any reservations, at the end of the meal you won’t be presented with a large bill, you don’t have to wait in line-ups, AND you can turn the lights down and light some candles. Can you say romantic?

3) Have a home movie night. Turn the lights off, grab a cozy blanket, make a nice warm drink and some popcorn and cozy up on the couch to watch a movie together. If you want to be adventurous you can even drag your mattress off the bed and into the living room and set it up in front of the TV. And have a sleepover in the living room.

4) Celebrate your Valentine’s day before or after February 14th. If you’re traditional and don’t like to change things up too much this won’t work very well, but for those of you who don’t mind celebrating Valentine’s day before or after February 14th, flowers, chocolates, and pretty much anything Valentine’s Day related will be much cheaper. If you don’t want to change up the date, but still want to save money, think about buying chocolates several weeks in advance, and buy flowers a while in advance. You will want to buy live flowers in a pot of dirt so they don’t die before Valentine’s Day. I would personally take live flowers in a pot over a bouquet of flowers any day! As long as you’re someone who can take care of plants, they will last you way longer than a bouquet of flowers will.