Both of the kiddos still do “Valentines Exchanges” at school. Nana purchased them both cards a few weeks ago (Transformers and Disney Princesses. . .can you guess which is which??). Princess was rather disappointed that last year lots of the kid attached candy to their cards but she didn’t. So I caved at the dollar store this week and purchased a bag of conversation hearts, a bag of individually wrapped heart gummies, and a package of 30 cellophane treat bags stamped with hearts all over. Since I didn’t purchase the valentines (although there was a good selection at the dollar store mind you-I think that is where Nana purchased them) I will have spent a total of $3 for both kiddos to have cards and treats to pass out.
Spouses or significant others can be a bit more complex. Yankee Bill and I made an agreement to not exchange any type of gifts for Valentines day shortly after we were married. It is just difficult to come up with wonderful gifts for Christmas, Birthday, Valentines Day, Mothers/Fathers day, Anniversary, and Easter! That is a gift every two months-honestly, for how many years can you truly come up with interesting and personal gifts for another person every two months??? Instead we agreed to do gifts on Birthdays, Christmas and Anniversaries that are multiples of 5.
Sort of takes the pressure off and makes those events we do exchange for more special!
But let’s say you do want to do something special. Simply Thrifty has a neat list of 20 things you can make yourself for Valentines day. Alenka’s Printables has free printable candy bar wrappers for both mini and regular sized candy bars.
Personally I’m taking Yankee Bill out to dinner and then a comedy play at the Cider Mill Playhouse in Binghamton (The Complete History of America-Abridged). For some reason I just felt like doing something different this year to let him know how much I appreciate and love him.
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On multiples of five?
Oh, that is TOO frugal for me! “Gift giving” is one of my love languages, and even though we keep things simple, special days without a gift would not feel special to me.
Do you find that your gifts are scaled up in cost/size when you do them every five years?