Would love to hear some inspiring and affordable Valentine's Day gift ideas.

What I am going to do for DH is surprise him with a great steak dinner--in my favorite cozy restauraunt--at home that is!

I will pull out a small table, cover it in red and white. Will place a single rose and write a romantic poem, too.

You could have ton's of fun by cozying up to a romantic dinner at home on Valentine's day and save money to boot. By NOT having to pay for tips, transportation, etc, I could splurge by spending extra on a better cut of steak. DH loves his smothered in onions. Why not? So do I! LOL

Am thinking of making a red velvet cake with the heart shaped cake pan I snatched on Ebay for a song.

What are some of you planning to do?

J

DD (10) and I have invited her daddy and grandma over for chocolate cake.  I will probably have some tea or icecream or something to go along with.  We are making the cake and DD is so excited to make her decorations.  She already started to cut out hearts from construction paper and hang them on fishing line around the dining room.

I was going to help her cut out big hearts and decorate with Glitter and personalize for place settings.  They can take home the place settings as valentines.

We are going to light some candles, have some flowers (not roses, just a small bouquet) and that's about it.

When I think of romance, I always think of flowers, candles and chocolate. 

I think grandma and daddy will appreciate the sentiment or at least the cake!  ;-)

this past s ummer at a church sale I found a set of three heart pans. I have a heart muffin got that a sale too

I am planning on muffins for breakfast and making DH his favorite cake and favorite dinner ..  he always gives jewelry just the way its been for many many years. and he sends flowers to me  our girls get flowers from their Daddy too .. he got some new ones this year with the new grands ...

my  Dear Uncle is with us now and he wants me to make his wife red velet cake she would add food coloring to the frosting and decorate with candy hearts ..  he will be gettting that cake  

My SIl gives out Valentines she makes incrediable she loves to this   it a big event here

 

A quick and easy heart-shaped cake without a special pan requires the equivalent of two layers. Make one in a square pan, one in a round whose diameter is the same length as the side of the square. Cut the circular layer in half and position the cut side of each half to adjoining sides of the square. Connect with toothpicks as needed. Frost and decorate.

I've been struggling with this one and I think Muffins for breakfast will be a great start.... Just not sure if I should take my partner out for a meal or cook at home.... We don't splurge much so maybe it's not the day to be too frugal.

I definitely will NOT be buying a card. I always make cards or send ecards for free these days.

A week or so ago I bought DH a card and a small heart-shaped box of chocolates. I also bought a container of fake rose petals. So I'll make some kind of decorative display of them somewhere he won't miss it. For dinner I'll probably make steak (or maybe lasagna). Believe it or not he's working that morning.

Jill

DH birthday is at the end of February so we usually just exchange cards but he knows how much I LOVE chocolate and I usually get some chocolate. DH also writes me a love letter, long-hand, for Valentine's day. This means more to me than anything! We try and have a date night or just a night at home with the kids over at Gma's. I don't like waiting and big crowds so we skip eating out on Valentine's Day.

But in the early days of our "courting" and marriage, we did try and exchange gifts. I have some lovely (not expensive) bracelets he gave me. We had a $20 limit or so and I usually bought him a movie we would both enjoy or a picture frame with a photo of us inside.

I bought DH a gift card to the movies---he loves to go & I don't, so that's a treat for him. I bought DD some little TinkerBell & friends to go with a playset she got for her birthday.  DH has always gone overboard on Valentines since DD was born. The past two years DD & I have received beautiful Disney collectibles, but they are expensive. We usually take DD with us to eat dinner.  Since it's on Sunday this year, I don't know when we'll celebrate.

At our Mom's group yesterday we made hand dipped chocolate caramels.  Really easy, fun and inexpensive.  I lead the craft for our group, and blogged about the finished product.  You can click on my blog link below, it'll give you instructions on how to make them and present them.  Perfect for Valentine's day!

http://storingupmytreasures.blogspot.com/2010/02/hand-dipped-chocolate-caramels.html

The Center For a New American Dream has a booklet called Simplify Your Valentine's Day with lots of ideas for a Valentine's Day with less stuff and more heart.