Family Friday – Valentine’s Day On a Low Budget

Valentine’s Day is next week and you have little money to celebrate! What do you do?

All is not lost!  There are a ton of ideas to make the day special for you and your spouse!  Let me give you a few affordable suggestions:

• Get a pad of sticky notes at the Dollar Tree.  On separate pages, write
  • attributes you love about  your spouse
  • a memory of special events/happenings in your relationship over the years
  •  clues to find a hidden gift (more on the gift below)
• Put the notes
  • All over the inside of his car!
  • All over the house
  • Inside the shower
  • In his daily path –
    • inside his Bible
    • on the bathroom mirror
    • on his coffee cup
    • in his closet
    • in his shoes
    • on the computer screen
• Give a loving gift
  • Fill a box with little things he loves
    • His favorite candy bar
    • A favorite pen
    • $5 gift card to favorite fast food or coffee place
    • A  favorite movie dvd (even checked out from the library!)
    • A favorite Bible verse printed out from the computer
    • The favorite cookie or brownie you make
    • A favorite picture of the two of you in an inexpensive frame
  • Get him a small journal where you can record your dates and what you do in the next year!
  • Go to a used book store and find a great book he’d love.
• Dress up for an evening at home.
• If you have children, make dinneritme a time for the family.  Set the table with red and white.  Add conversation hearts scattered on the tablecloth (yes, add a tablecloth), burn some candles or votives.  Serve salad first, then clear the dishes and serve the main course.  Dessert idea below.
• Give the children little heart boxes of their own chocolates – if Whitman’s is too expensive, they have cute boxes at the Dollar Tree!
• To make a heart shaped cake, mix up a box of cake mix and pour half in a round pan and half in a square pan.  After baking and cooling, cut the round cake in half.  Put the square cake on a platter so it looks like a diamond shape.  Put half of the round on the top right and the other on the top left – voila!  It’s a heart!  Cover with pink or white icing.
• Give the children their dessert after supper.  Save yours and your husband’s for later.
• After the kids are in bed, serve dessert by candlelight in your bedroom.  Serve it on your good dishes.  If you need to bring in a small table, do so.  Make it special!  Light candles in the room.  Turn on some soft music.
• If you need a chocolate dessert idea, here’s a favorite of mine!

So, is there an idea here you think you could use?  I hope so!  I also hope you take these ideas and implement them into every day of your marriage!  Valentine’s Day isn’t the day to get caught up or to make up for what you should’ve been doing.  Make the day special, then keep it going all year!

Happy Valentine’s Day!