Today I have for you 14 Budget Friendly Valentine’s Day ideas from Tawra Kellam from Living on a Dime.  If you haven’t already downloaded the free Valentine’s Day on a Budget ebook that Tawra and her mom are giving away this week, be sure do so.

In the mean time, here’s a few more ideas to help make your Valentine’s Day special, without breaking the budget

….Shannon

Valentine’s Day On A Dime
by Tawra Kellam, LivingonaDime.com

Using a little imagination, you can make your Valentine’s day a little more fun and a lot less expensive. If you want to add a little personalized romance or if you don’t have the time or money to buy all the pre-made things in the store, here are some ideas to help you make the day special.

For The Kids:

• My mom always made a great but inexpensive Valentine’s Day treat for us. She would take construction paper and cut a big heart out of it. (About 8×10 inches). She would staple the edges together and write our names and an I love you on the outside. Then she would fill the heart with candy, purchased on clearance after Christmas. It was very inexpensive but we loved it!
• Have a Valentine’s Day treasure hunt. Leave little notes around with the last one leading back to the kitchen table with a heart full of candy.
• Leave sticks of red gum in their Valentine’s Day cards.

For The Lunches

• Make heart shaped Valentine’s cookies. Cut the kids (or hubby’s) sandwiches with a heart shaped cookie cutter. Add a few Valentine’s chocolates and put a note in red with a big heart on their napkin.
• Serve anything red for the day. Serve red Jello, red pudding, red apples, toast with strawberry jelly, tomato soup, red applesauce, red Kool-aid, strawberry milk, or red frosted cookies. Use powered food coloring from the cake store to get the deepest shade of red. Serving all red things at a meal will really have wow factor even if it is something as inexpensive as red jello and tomato soup.
• Make red heart shaped cupcakes. Make cupcakes as usual but place a marble down the side of the muffin tin between the muffin tin and each cupcake cup. This will make heart shaped cupcakes.
• Make hearts out of chocolate chips in each of your pancakes.

Things To Do With Or For Your Honey

• Mail your pre-addressed and stamped Valentines to Loveland, Colorado and they will postmark them and mail them for you. Send them to: Postmaster, Valentine Re-mailing, 446 E. 29th St., Loveland, CO 80538
• Make a treasure hunt for your spouse. Start by mailing or e-mailing him the first clue. Then leave clues all over the house, yard, car or his office telling him where to find the next clue. End the hunt by making a picnic in the back yard or going to a park for a picnic. Use your imagination and have fun. The simple things are the ones people remember.
• Go to a bookstore together and enjoy the silence and browse. Get a cup of coffee and make a date of it.
• Celebrate Valentine’s Day AFTER Valentine’s day. Everything is half off.
• Mail a love letter to your hubby’s work.
• Send your spouse a sexy email message.
• Leave “Why I love you” message all over the house. Buy a package of the cheap Valentines. Leave a message on each one and hide them all over the house for your honey. They will get to enjoy the gift for months!
• Use lipstick to make hearts and love notes on the rear view mirror, car windows, bathroom mirror or windows of the house. Leave a kiss on his napkin for lunch or dinner.
• Make a bunch of hearts out of construction paper. Put a love note on each one. Paste them all over the front door or car before your hubby or kids come home from work.
• If you don’t have money to go out, have a picnic on the floor. Use some candles and lay a soft blanket on the floor. Put on some soft music and have a romantic Valentine’s dinner on the floor. Use some white Christmas lights for additional romantic lighting!

Jill Cooper and Tawra Kellam are frugal living experts and the authors of the Dining On A Dime Cookbook. Dining On A Dime will help you save money on groceries and get out of debt, by cooking quick and simple homemade meals. For free tips & recipes visit LivingonaDime.com

Other Valentine’s Day on a Budget Related Posts:

• Valentine’s and Easter Gift Baskets for Kids (without the sugar rush!)
• Easy & Healthy Dinner Menu for Special Occasions
• Free Valentine’s Day On a Budget Ebook

Good news! Living on a Dime is once again offering their free 32-page ebook on how to celebrate Valentine’s day on a budget.  I went looking for this resource for you the other day and it wasn’t available, but now it is, so I had to share it with you.

I picked this ebook up in 2008 when it first came out and refer back to it each year for ideas.  If you don’t already have a copy, I recommend downloading it.

If you aren’t familiar with Living on a Dime, it’s a site run by a mom and daughter team: Jill Cooper and Tawra Kellam, where they share how they each got out of debt and in Jill’s case raised her children on a very tight budget. 

These ladies are generous with their experience, and I’ve learned a lot from them, their site, and their ebooks over years.

In this free Valentine’s on a Dime ebook, they share

• Tips and ideas for making Valentine’s Day special for your spouse – on very little money
• Ideas to show your kids your love and affection without breaking the budget
• How to use after christmas season bargains for valentine’s day
• A variety special Valentine’s Day recipes and treats for lunches and dinner
• A gourmet Valentine’s Dinner menu for two for less than $10
• Ideas for Valentine’s gifts for your  kid’s friends and teachers (great for homeschool support group or co-op valentine’s parties)

So if you are interested in ideas to save money this Valentine’s Day, head over to the Living on a Dime site to download your free copy of Valentine’s On a Dime. 

Other Valentine’s Day on a Budget Related Posts:

• Valentine’s and Easter Gift Baskets for Kids (without the sugar rush!)

• Easy & Healthy Dinner Menu for Special Occasions

Easter and Valentine’s Day. The barrage of gift ideas in the stores and the mounds of chocolate and candies are a little overwhelming. Personally, we don’t need any more stuffed animals, chocolates, or any other type of candy. And our budget definitely doesn’t need the cost.  

So, for Valentine’s Day and Easter, I’ve taken to putting together inexpensive little gift bags or baskets for the kids, usually containing items that they don’t get very often.

This year’s Valentine’s gift bags cost me less than $5/each:

$1.00 – a bucket of sidewalk chalk
$2.50 – a small notebook in child’s favorite color
$ .20 – a mechanical pencil in child’s favorite color (this was actually a multi-color, multi-pack that I split between the kids based on colors)
$ .50 – a bag of M&Ms
$ .14 – valentine’s gift bag (50% off regular price of 25 cents)
———————
$4.20 – Total for each child’s Valentine’s gift

Basically, I look for small, inexpensive things that the kids don’t usually get, but would like. This year, we were down to the last piece of sidewalk chalk and it has caused some friction between the kids, so when I saw little chalk buckets for a $1 each at Walgreens I picked them up. Small writing notebooks are always popular with my kids; they like to have little books to draw and write in. We go through pens and pencils like crazy around here, so the kids are also always happy to get a new pen or pencil in their favorite color.

Part of the joy is getting something special, but part of it is in the customization and the presentation. It’s always a special, secret thing to get the Valentine’s gift bag or an Easter basket; it’s shrouded in mystique and wonder for a time before hand.

Each gift bag/basket is similar to the others, but customized for that child. Little notebooks and pens/pencils are always in their favorite colors (pink, red, blue, and yellow or teal) and designs and games match their interests. It helps keep things even, but yet each child knows I was thinking especially of them when I put it together.

In the past, gift bags and basket items have included a combination of: 

• bubbles
• pens, pencils, or markers in the child’s favorite color
• travel or card games
• small crafts or craft items
• art supplies
• stickers
• seeds, a small pot, and a small bag of potting soil
• small notebooks or journal books
• play dough or modeling clay
• small puzzles or puzzle books
• special food treats of favorite snack foods (pretzels, Goldfish, M&Ms, or a few Hershey’s Kisses, etc.)

I’ve found good treats at the pharmacy stores (Walgreens, CVS, Longs, etc), the dollar stores, thrift stores, and even the grocery store. Sometimes if I plan ahead of time, I’ll head to Hobby Lobby, Michael’s, or Target and look through the little craft items they might have.

Overall I’m looking for inexpensive, but practical and engaging gifts, that allow my kids to be creative in their play without adding more clutter into our home or excess sugar into our diets (we have enough as it is).

Have more ideas? Please share them…

Other Valentine’s Day on a Budget Related Posts:

• Easy & Healthy Dinner Menu for Special Occasions

• Free Valentine’s Day On a Budget Ebook

My husband loves Filet Mignon, grilled to perfection. Tender, juicy, and flavorful. But it costs a small fortune to go out to type of restaurant that serves Filet Mignon the way he likes it.  Thankfully, it’s really simple to cook.

So, three times a year on very special occasions – Valentine’s Day, my husband’s birthday, and our Anniversary – I splurge and make it for him. We are on a tight budget and dining out at expensive restaurants are no longer part of the budget. So, for a fraction of the cost, this simple, but delicious at-home meal is usually my gift to him for special occasions.

Menu
Filet Mignon, marinated in Teriyaki sauce and grilled
Chicken breasts marinated in Teriyaki sauce and grilled
Baby red potatoes, steamed and drizzled with garlic butter
Steamed fresh asparagus
Fresh Fruit
Salad
Garlic bread or bread rolls

Shopping List
Filet Mignon (Beef tenderloin)
Boneless, Skinless Chicken breasts
Your favorite Teriyaki marinade (we like Lawry’s)
Baby red potatoes
Asparagus, preferably fresh
Favorite fresh fruit currently in season
Green salad mix
Garlic bread or bread rolls (or make your own)

(I’m assuming you have butter/margarine and garlic powder/salt on hand)

Instructions
1. Prepare meat, trimming off any excess fat with kitchen scissors, and marinate for at least an hour (longer if you can).

2. Prepare baby red potatoes for steaming. I prefer to leave as much skin on as possible, just trimming off the eyes as desired.

3. Place potatoes in a steam basket and steam until fork tender. (time varies, but it usually is 30-50 min for me depending on how big the potatoes are.)

4. Prepare asparagus for steaming. (Snap the asparagus stalks and place in steaming basket, and set aside until the last 10-15 minutes)

5. Heat grill to medium-hot temperature.

6. Cook meat to desired doneness (we do 10 minutes on each side), baste with marinate sauce before and after you flip the meat.

7. When the potatoes are fork-tender, place in a bowl and drizzel with a little garlic butter (butter/margarine melted and mixed with garlic and salt – to taste).

8. 10-15 minutes before meat is done, steam the aspargus, prepare the fruit, and make up the salad. Garlic bread goes into the oven or bread rolls get popped into the microwave for a reheat.

Serve!

Cost

It used to be that we could make this for just the two of us. Chicken for the kids and I, and steak and chicken for him, but now the kids love this steak as well, so I make it for all six of us. Even for six of us, it costs less than it would for just two of us in a restaurant.

Here was our cost break down for this year’s Valentine’s Day meal for 6:

$20.25 – 3 pieces of Filet Mignon ($8.99/lb at Sam’s Club – I cut each piece in half and butterfly cut it)
$6.00 – 3 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breasts ($1.99/lb)
$2.00 – Marinade
$5.98 – 2 lbs of asparagus
$3.00 – baby red potatoes
$2.00 – fresh fruit
$2.00 – Salad mix
$1.50 – garlic bread
—————–
$42.73 – Total for a steak and chicken meal for six

If I were going to make just for my husband and I, then here’s the cost breakdown:

$6.50 – 1/2 lb of Filet Mignon (Beef tenderloin) (1/2 lb at $12.99/lb from butcher)
$2.00 – 1/2 lb of boneless skinless chicken breast (1/2 lb at $4.00/lb from butcher)
$2.00 – marinade
$2.99 – 1 lb Asparagus (on sale or from can)
$1.00 – baby red potatoes
$1.00 – fresh fruit
$2.00 – salad mix
$1.50 – garlic bread
———————
$18.99 – Total for a steak and chicken meal for two

Actually, this is  high. To get the best price and save money, I usually buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts when they are on sale, and freeze them in meal/portion sizes for later.  And, sometimes I will buy the 3 pack of tenderloin from Sam’s Club at the lower price and freeze the other two pieces in separate bags, so I have it on hand for the next special occasion.  Same for the marinade, I usually have it on hand, purchased on sale, and for two people, a bottle goes a long ways.

So typically, using these money saving techniques, I can make this special meal for about $15, about a third of what it would cost the two of us to eat out, and Greg gets his favorite meal – cooked the way he likes it!

Anyway, if you are looking for a yummy, special occasion dinner, this works for us. And, with the grilled, lean meats, veggies, and fruit, it’s healthy too!

Other Valentine’s Day Related Posts:

• Valentine’s and Easter Gift Baskets for Kids (without the sugar rush!)

• Free Valentine’s Day On a Budget Ebook