If you’re watching your pennies this year and looking for ways to romance your sweetheart on Valentine’s Day without breaking the bank, these cost-effective ideas will save the day. Remember it is about the thought you put into the gift, not the price.
1. Create an indoor picnic complete with checked tablecloth and fingerfood.
Enjoy your picnic on the living room floor or in bed. Play card games, board games, or do the crossword together.
2. Decorate a jar and fill it with 365 love notes. That way you’re giving them Valentine’s Day every Day.
3. Make a framed group of photos that put your relationship in chronological order, by months or years (depending on how long you’ve been together).
4. Make it an all-family fun Valentine’s Day – have a family picnic in the backyard, eat dessert and tell each other what your favourite things about each other would be.
5. Leave a note on your mate’s pillow expressing how special you think he/she is.
Place a couple of his/her favourite sweets in his briefcase or her make-up pouch. Surprises are always welcome.
6. Create a favourite drink together. Try all kinds of ingredients. Enjoy taste-testing.
Be sure to record the ingredients, so you can make the “your” drink again on Valentine’s Day year after year.
7. Create an at-home spa day for your mate.
Deliver the gift in a basket filled with inexpensive candles, bubble bath, rose petals, facial mask and scrub. Then give your mate time to enjoy it. When he/she is done, heat up towels in the dryer for drying off.
8. Cook dinner for your mate.
There are many easy recipes on food web sites that look like you spent hours in the kitchen. Be imaginative and set the table special. Play romantic music softly while you dine. Leave the clean-up until morning!
9. Present your Valentine IOU coupons:
I will make dinner; I will do the laundry; I will take care of the kids one day a month for the next year; I will clean the kitchen for a week; I will serve you breakfast in bed.
10. Make homemade chocolate-covered strawberries:
1) Melt a package of chocolate chips in a double boiler and add a small amount of oil; 2) Remove from heat and quickly dip the strawberries into the chocolate; 3) Place on wax paper and refrigerate for several hours until chocolate is firm.
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