Valentine’s Gifts on a Budget

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner! I feel like there is a lot of marketing pressure to extravagantly proclaim your love to your significant other. But Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to break your bank. This article has mostly suggestions for couples, but first a word about Valentine’s cards for school kids.

Did you know you can get Valentine’s cards at the dollar store? This is our first year with a preschooler, so we got a pack of 30 cards (which will last us 2 years) for just $1. They had a great selection and the cards either came with stickers or temporary tattoos. It took my son a while to choose because he loved them all. They also have cute little Valentine’s mailboxes all ready to go at Dollar Tree.

Okay, now back to couples. Since Valentine’s Day is a couples-centered holiday, here are three ways you celebrate without overspending.

Set a Budget

This is kind of a no-brainer, but set a budget for any gifts or treats given on Valentine’s Day. Maybe one year you really can’t afford to spend any money on Valentine’s Day, and your gifts are homemade. Maybe another year the budget is $30. Either way, set a budget and stick to it.

Split the Work

I know a couple that takes turns planning Valentine’s Day and their anniversary every year. This means that one year the husband is in charge of Valentine’s Day, while the wife plans for their anniversary. The next year the wife is in charge of Valentine’s Day, and the husband focuses on their anniversary. This is a great way to cut costs of gifts because only one spouse (instead of two) is giving gifts on those days. My husband and I decided to celebrate “Korean-style” where I give him gifts on Valentine’s Day, and he gives me gifts a month later on White Day. This works out especially well for me because he gives me lots of discounted Valentine’s Day chocolate the next month!

Make an I Owe You (IOU) Book

Get a cheap photo book from the store of your choice, cut up some paper, and get to work. I’ll let you figure out your own “sexy” IOUs, but if you want suggestions for some general IOUs, here are some that work for both genders:

• Massages (feet, back, neck, hands, etc). I’d recommend adding a time limit.
• Favorite homemade meal (could apply to breakfast, lunch, or dinner).
• Sweet treat (homemade or you can do a “craving run” to the store when they would like).
• Hobby break. Does your spouse love to play sports or do something crafty but never has the time? Make time for them to do one of those things!
• Venting session. I know that men are less likely than women to vent about things, BUT a fifteen minute venting session about work might be just what he needs.
• You pick the movie night. My husband and I don’t always share the same movie interests, although we like watching movies together. This way one of the spouses gets to watch their favorite show with their favorite person.
• Nap time. Let your spouse take an uninterrupted nap!

Looking for more budget Valentine’s gift ideas? Here’s a list of 10 cheap or free gifts from our friends at RedTwoGreen.

Good, Old-Fashioned Meal Planning

Are you one of those people that dreads figuring out what to come up with for dinner? Or are you a super-planner who always has meals planned out ahead of time? I don’t consider myself a super-planner, and I don’t use one of those fancy meal planning apps or services, but I consider myself pretty good at meal planning! I thought I’d share what I do. One of my motivations for writing about this is because I want to hear how other people do their meal and grocery planning! 🙂

1. Get a whiteboard to use as the “meal board”.

I have loved having a little white board for my meal planning! It goes on the side of our fridge and it helps me stay organized. It’s nice to be able to have a visual of what meals we have planned for the week. It even allows me to write in meals that I think of that I want to make in the near future and not forget about- I just write it on the board for future reference.

2. Plan out the meals you want to make for the next 7 days.

I find that if I plan 7 meals at the beginning of the week (on Sunday or Monday), I go to the store less often throughout the week! I decide which meals I want to make for the next 7 days, then write those on the whiteboard.

3. Write the ingredients on a shopping list.

This is the part that takes the longest for me. I’m a recipe follower (I don’t just make up my own recipes), so I get out all the recipes for the meals I planned for the next 7 days, then I write all of the ingredients I will need on a shopping list. This part takes so long because I have to check our kitchen to see what ingredients we have and which ones we still need, for the recipes.

I should also mention that I usually make a list of sides and treats I want to make for that week, and write those on the white board as well. So on the shopping list, I have all the ingredients I need for the 7 meals PLUS ingredients for those extra things I want to make.

4. SHOP!

Walmart’s grocery pickup service has changed my life! I love it. I don’t use it every time, but I do love using it when I don’t want to go on a big shopping trip with my kids. But sometimes I actually enjoy doing a longer trip at the store- usually that’s only if I have just one of my kids with me or if I’m with my husband on a date. 🙂 Yes, we like going shopping on our dates……

Thoughts on budgeting…..

My family definitely lives on a budget, so we can’t just spend willy-nilly on groceries. That being said, I don’t like being stingy on groceries, especially since we’re on a tight budget on everything else we spend. We’re trying to stick to a certain number (it’s more like a range) of what we spend on food each month. I try to plan some of our meals to be economical (like dinners with rice- Hawaiian Haystacks are a family fav!) and some of them to be fancier (like nice homemade Asian dishes my husband and I make after our kids are in bed). I feel like that kind of balances it out so that we don’t feel like we’re eating like poor college kids all the time…

And that’s it! Now tell me, what are your secrets to meal planning? More specifically, do you have advice for those of us who are on a budget and still want to feed our families nutritious, hearty meals?

Quick Animal Costumes

My son has been on an animal kick for the past two months. Sometimes he’ll go several days pretending to be the same animal, other times he’ll go through four or five animal personas a day. So I decided to whip up some animal headbands to match his pretend play. I got a set of four headbands at the Dollar Tree.

The felt I already had on hand, but it usually costs about 35 cents a sheet, depending on the craft store you go to. So each headband cost about 50 cents. These make really quick Halloween costumes, if you have solid colored clothes at home to match.

The Bug Costume

For the headband, all you’ll need is some pipe cleaners. I folded each in half and then twisted them to form the little antenna. The wings I made by cutting up some poster board I got for 50 cents at Dollar Tree. I tied it on using some extra ribbon I had on hand. At first I just tied it around my son’s waist, but eventually added some extra holes so they could go around his shoulders. The nice thing about getting poster board is that you can decorate the wings however you’d like. We kept them white, but you could add spray paint, stickers, or glitter. My son liked to pretend he was Fly Guy from the book series, or a Bee. This costume is super easy because you can have your son dress all in black, or in yellow and add black stripes with tape.

The Bear/Monkey Costume

To make these ears, I just cut out an 8 shape into felt, and folded it around the headband. I hot glued around the edges, making sure I didn’t actually glue the felt to the headband. I then added the half circles in the middle for an accent. By not gluing the ears down, I was able to move them around so that they can function as a bear or a monkey. If you’re looking for a quick Halloween costume, you could have your son be Brother Bear from the Berenstain Bears. All you’d need is a collared red shirt and some jeans to pair with these ears! You could also dress your son in all brown for a quick monkey costume.

Cat/Fox Costume

For these, I cut a kite shape out of felt and wrapped it around the headband, hot gluing it like I did for the bear ears. The other benefit to not attaching the ears directly to the headband is that you can swap out the ears later on. I made a orange kitty ear set and a gray kitty ear set. These could also double as fox or wolf ears. Use some eyeliner to add whiskers and your son can wear all orange or gray to complete the look!

The Pig Costume

Ever since we went on our Three Little Pigs reading kick, my son has been obsessed with pigs. I used the same template for the kitty ears to make these pig ears. The nose I made by cutting out one of the egg spots out of an egg carton. I cut out a square and then made snips in each corner so I could mold it around the carton. I then hot glued it in place and used a sharpie to draw the nose holes. I had an extra shoelace without a partner that I cut in half and glued on to make the tie for the head. I used a styrofoam egg carton, because that’s what we had at home. It’s turned out really well because styrofoam has been easier to disinfect after a runny nose. If you don’t want your son dressing in all pink, you could have him wear overalls and a shirt since that is often used in retellings of the Three Little Pigs.

I hope you give these costumes a try! They were really easy to make, and my son has loved the enhancement to his pretend play. 

The 8 Phases of a Spending Freeze

As mentioned in a previous post, my husband and I decided that we would go on a week-long spending freeze every month this year. We go a whole week without shopping—at the store and online. We pick the week randomly, usually deciding a day or two beforehand. This helps keep us on our toes, and also helps us avoid weeks when we know we will have to spend money.  Now that we’ve gotten six spending freezes under our belts, we’ve started to notice that each spending freeze goes through the following phases.

Day 1: The Confident Phase

“I’m totally nailing this spending freeze. We got everything we needed yesterday and we are set for the week! This is going to be so easy.”

Day 2: The “Oh Well” Phase

“Rats, we forgot to pick up more _____. Oh well. Good thing we’re only going on a spending freeze for a week. I’m sure we’ll get by without it.”

Day 3: The “I Just Found a Great Deal!” Phase

“Hey honey, we just got the weekly ads in the mail and look at what they have on sale! We should get _____! … Oh yeah. We’re on a spending freeze.”

Day 4: The Failed Spontaneous Phase

“Let’s be spontaneous and go to _____! … Oh wait. We’re on a spending freeze.”

Day 5: The Turning Down Friend/Salesman Phase

“Oh, I’d love to come to a lunch date with you, but we’re on a spending freeze. Care to meet up at a park?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, but we’re on a spending freeze right now. Maybe we can buy your product later.”

Day 6: The Countdown Phase

“Just two days left. Just two days left.”

Day 7: The List-Making Phase

“Okay, so what have we run out of so far? Let’s make a list so I can pick up everything tomorrow.”

Day 8: The Spending Phase

“Thank goodness it’s over! Let’s go to ALL THE STORES.”

 

By far the hardest part of the spending freeze is breaking our habit of going to the store for every little thing. We get so used to spending money nearly every day that it can be hard to adjust. But it’s really been worth it! It has helped us keep our spending in check and reevaluate what is really important to us.