Valentines day what a wonderful day full of happy couples cuddling up to each other showing their loved one how much they care.
I love seeing all the shop windows filled with hearts and flowers and all the beautiful gifts, however a lot of us can not afford to spend crazy money on gifts and meals out. I worked out that a large bunch of roses are about £50 then you have the chocolates, champagne, maybe a cute teddy, don’t forget the card and meal out can cost a whooping £150 and really who has that sort of money to spend right after Christmas!
So I said to my boyfriend that this year I want to do it as cheaply as possible, I was going to make a card for him like I do most years but I picked up a very cute one last year in the sales! I am going to pop up some ideas that I have been thinking about over the last few days (I always leave everything to last minute which isn’t great as I get some amazing ideas hours before the event in which the gift is going to be given at and not enough time to do it in!!)
This year I am going to do some love vouchers for him to use, like play on the Xbox for as long as he likes, a night out where ever he likes, gets to choose the move, and a get out of jail free card (when he has done something wrong and he knows I wont be happy with it!)
I wanted to get some inspiration and where better to get that than Google! So many great web site that I could loose hours on just looking at all of the great printable’s that you can use for free!
I really like some of the printable’s on this link below!
http://freebies.about.com/od/valentines-day-freebies/tp/printable-love-coupons.htm
I had the idea of doing a treasure hunt around the local area and hide sweets and little silly gifts but because of the awful weather that we are all experiencing I think that it will have to be left to another year. However you could do it in your house if you wanted but as our house is tiny it would be a short lived treasure hunt!!
Cakes and biscuits, who doesn’t love baked goods not only are they sweet and everyone loves a treat they are very inexpensive to make yourself you don’t even have to be a master baker a lot of the supermarkets do a little kit with biscuit mix and a heart cookie cutter in for as little as a £1 and if you have kids they will love to join in making them!
http://www.marthastewart.com/332264/chocolate-sweet-hearts
These little biscuits not only beautiful and moreish they are only 50 calories each, so even if you or a loved one is on a diet they can have a sweet treat and not feel bad for breaking their diet!
These little cupcakes look so cute with a little love heart sweet on the top
http://fussfreeflavours.com/2011/02/pixley-berry-cordials-valentines-cupcakes/
If you are a little more crafty you could make fabric roses or make and decorate a little box of memories (you can buy a sweet little boxes if you are not so crafty and fill it with all memories) to even making your own stuffed toy.
Love heart sweets, we all grew up with the little love heart candies that had writing on them, pop them or any love heart jellies in a jar and you could always label it “a jar of hearts, every heart in here is a reason why I love you!”
I love photos and I put together on the computer in the paint program all of the photos that mean something to me I made these into a card for my boyfriend for his birthday but you could do it in a shape of a heart and pop it on some nice coloured card or paper and put it in a picture frame, its a simple and easy present which means a lot to the person that you will be giving it too as its all your memories together!
If you are like us we don’t have any spare money to go out for a slap up 3 course meal with wine. So tonight we are going to make it a nibble night like a picnic on the sofa with lots of sweet treats (the yummy biscuits and cakes that I put the recipe for above!) I am going to make heart shaped fruit skewers (using a metal biscuit cutter) and heart shaped crisps using wraps and cutting heart shapes out of them with a cookie cutter and baking them till crisp! If you are wanting to do a 3 course meal you could do nachos with the value nacho crisps that cost about 45p in the supermarkets with a sprinkling of cheese and some sour cream then for a main a nice pasta or pizza dish which you can either buy and pop into the oven or make from scratch to make it even cheaper then for dessert my all time favourite dessert molten chocolate cake, amazing and so easy I use the super markets own chocolate (30p per bar) or from lidl (19p per bar) I’ll pop the recipe up later on!
I wish I had the time to make some heart shaped bunting either out of paper or fabric I have seen so many of these in shop windows and I have fallen in love with them! I may even make them when I have a free day any way with all the scrap fabric that I have!
There are so many romantic things that you can do on a budget with a few candles and some thought anything can be made romantic, from making your own pizza together to watching tv or even talking in the candle light. You don’t have to buy expensive gifts to make a loved one feel loved its all about the thought!
Have a wonderful day and even if you cant afford to buy or make anything for your loved one just make sure they know how much you care by telling them, words don’t cost a penny!
loubeesdayone 