Valentine's Day Gifts at Walmart-the $30 Challenge

Valentines Day is right around the corner! Walmart asked me to see just how many Valentines gifts I could pick up on a $30 budget.

Before I get to the items I chose (and I was surprised by how much I got!) I’d like to explain my philosophy about Valentines Day. I know that many people use Valentines day as a holiday to celebrate love of all kinds, but I’ve always been of the opinion that it’s a day for romantic love. So typically in the Frugal Upstate Village Homestead it’s a day for Yankee Bill and I–we don’t do anything for the kids. Of course they do the Valentine exchange at school!

Even for Yankee Bill and I try to keep it simple. We made an agreement years ago not to do big jewelry or expensive gifts for Valentines day–we reserve that for special anniversaries, Christmas or Birthdays. For Valentines Day we typically exchange cards, a small gift and then have a special dinner. This year we bought tickets for the touring company of “Rock of Ages” 🙂

Now for the actual challenge. I headed off to Walmart with my $30 in hand and absolutely no idea what I was going to buy. First I took a look at all the traditional items. Heart shaped boxes of chocolates (they had them at all price points from $1 to $10!). Candy. Romantic movies.

Next I decided to think outside the box. What about items that were fun, but more functional? Less traditionally “Valentines”. For example, I knew that Princess would love some costume jewelry (neon for example is very in right now!). Either kid would love one of the character themed USB drives for school. A new iPod/iPhone case would be a great gift, and who can’t use a new car air freshener? And of course my hubs loves baseball hats of all types:

My final picks? My favorite movie of all time, The Princess Bride as a family gift. For the kids I got two small boxes of chocolates plus some goofy looking bird pens that I knew they would love. Princess got a couple of pairs of neon earrings. Finally for Yankee Bill a new NY Giants baseball hat, a mug with a cute sock monkey in it, and a can of Wasabi almonds.