Kids Ain't Cheap

But They Sure Are Worth It

How I Plan on Saving on Valentine’s Day

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Saving on Valentine's day is actually quite simple with a little planning. Here are the strategies we use for a fun but budget friendly Valentine's Day.I admit that as someone who is married, I’m not the biggest fan of Valentine’s Day. It always just seems very ‘’in your face’’ but as a Mother, I love it. Everything about having kids changes including your love of what I call, Hallmark Holidays.

My daughter gets so excited with every little event. Maybe it’s the excuses that come with it, like extra treats, but regardless we have fun with it. As much as I enjoy doing these little extras, I’m more concerned with our budget and how much it will cost. I’m not interested in spending an obscene amount of money on something like Valentine’s Day. Here’s how we plan to have fun with Valentine’s day as a family, without busting our budget.

Plan a picnic

Valentine’s day is in February and for us, that means cold. Having an outdoor picnic isn’t an option but instead we’re planning a family date night picnic style. We plan on saving our weekly dinner out for Valentine’s day but we’ll pick up something to go and come home and eat it picnic style (in the warmth of our house!).

Movie Night In

Our daughter is now at the age where she will, for the most part, sit through a movie. After we finish eating our picnic dinner, we’ll probably find a family movie for us to watch. To go to the theater on Saturday would easily cost us $50 for tickets alone so we’ll veg out at home in our pj’s and cuddle on the couch together. I would much rather this experience anyway.

Make Treats Yourself

My daughter will be having a Valentine’s day party at her daycare. We like to bring something for the kids to eat. I priced out a few pre-made valentine’s treats at the bakery and it was going to cost about $20 for what I was looking at. Instead I went to Pinterest and found a cheap and easy treat that cost me a total of $7 to make. It will also only take about 30min total to put together, with a busy schedule I also have to consider time.

Plan a Special Breakfast

Cooked breakfast isn’t something we often have time to do so I’m going to make sure we have time on Valentines to do so. Even something easy like pancakes or waffles, by adding a few Valentines sprinkles to the mix, there’s no doubt I will impress my three year old.

Skip Gifts

Our family won’t be exchanging gifts. My daughter did buy a $2 box of Valentines for her daycare party but that’s it. Instead of gifts we’ll be spending time together and enjoy some of the treats that we will make for her party (I did buy extras for us too!).

To me, Valentine’s day should be about demonstrating love, not buying things. Simply spending quality time with my family is all we need and it will be setting an example to our daughter that we don’t need to exchange ‘’stuff’’ to feel loved.

Does your family do anything special for Valentine’s day?

Use Chippmunk to Reduce Your Valentine’s Day Costs

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Valentines DayValentine’s Day is right around the corner.  While it’s a time to show your love to that important person in your life, it can also be a very expensive day.  The traditional Valentine’s Day might include a meal out at a nice restaurant, perhaps a movie, and don’t forget gifts for one another.

Besides the expense, if you opt for this route, you’ll be spending a lot of time simply waiting.  If you eat out on Valentine’s Day night, you  may wait several hours just to get a table.

Instead, consider having a quiet Valentine’s Day at home.  You can have a romantic dinner in and give each other gifts.  Better yet, use a site like Chippmunk to get nice gifts at a deep discount.

 

What Is Chippmunk?

Chippmunk is a unique site.  Rather than simply looking for coupons or coupon codes that can save you money, Chippmunk first asks you to choose your budget and what you are shopping for.  Then, the site chooses coupons for you based on your budget.

If you enter a department that you’re looking for such as “chocolate”, the site will find you the retailers who have the best deals.  You might be thinking of buying Fannie May candy, but you might find a better deal for Godiva Chocolate or Cherry Moon Farms.

Say you want to spend $30 on chocolate for the sweet in your life.  Fannie May Berries can give you 25% off boxed chocolates.  Or, you could save 20% off your order of $29 or more from Shari’s Berries.

Not sure which retailer you want to go with?  Chippmunk also offers ratings measuring the customer experience provided by the store.  In the above example, Fannie May Berries earns 4 out of 5 stars while Shari’s Berries earns 5 out of 5 stars.

In addition to searching by department, you can instead choose to shop by retailer.  If your significant other loves Lindt Chocolate, for example, you can search by that store.  There is currently a coupon there for 50% off.  That sure beats paying retail!

 

Other Chippmunk Features

Chippmunk also shows what discounts are available if you spend a bit more.  For instance, in some cases, if you spend $50 instead of $30, you’ll get free shipping or be able to unlock a bigger discount.  You’ll have to do the math to see if increasing your budget is worth your while.  Sometimes you save more when you enter a larger amount to spend.

Valentine’s Day is the perfect day to show those in your life such as your spouse and kids how much you love them.  However, you don’t have to wait 3 hours for a table or rob your wallet to do so.  Plan a romantic meal at home and take advantage of deal sites like Chippmunk.  You’ll have a fun day, and you’ll be glad you didn’t have to fork over so much money to have a good time.

What other tips do you have for a frugal Valentine’s Day?

Valentine’s Day Nostalgia

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Valentine's Dy

Photo on Mysie.com

I am so excited about Valentine’s Day! My husband and I usually do a date night –  sushi, typically – and while that’s always fun, and I really enjoy getting some alone time with my hubby; I’m looking forward to Valentine’s Day for a different reason this year.

At first, I couldn’t really figure out why I’m so jazzed about Valentine’s Day this year. I’m not crazy about hearts, I prefer jelly beans to chocolate, and my husband and I don’t make a big deal out of the holiday. However, I began to realize that I have really fond memories, of the Valentines parties we  had  in grade school. Since this is the boys’ first year in preschool, that means it’s the first year they get to do a Valentine’s party and card exchange.

Valentine’s Day as a kid

I keep thinking about how much I enjoyed Valentine’s Day as a kid. I have mentioned before that I am not crafty and that it was even worse when I was young. I always colored outside the lines and my drawings were hard to decipher. One time our teacher gave us each a big piece of paper and said we could make anything we wanted, I tried making a paper purse; which just ended up being a messy blob of paper, glue and tissues. The teacher later told me she meant we could draw whatever we wanted to. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Well, why didn’t she say that?

When it came to Valentine’s Day though, I really tried to do my best and make my Valentine’s mailbox the best that it could be! I was sure to put just the right amount of glitter, hearts and paper doilies on it. I also carefully wrote my name, so it would be easy for my classmates to locate.

I loved when it was time to go around placing our cards and goodies into each other’s bags. After that we would sit down and go through them. That’s when I had to see if, 1) the boy I had a crush on gave me a card and 2) analyze what the card was trying to tell me. Did he like me, like-like me, or should I just drown my sorrows in some Tang and forget about him because the card said “I don’t want to be your Valentine.” Lucky for me, there aren’t any Valentine’s cards like that (at least not in the packages that kids give out), so I always came out hopeful.

Anyway, my boys aren’t at that age yet but N. carefully selected his Spider-man Valentine’s with lollipops for his class and A. chose Scooby-Doo with pencils. They keep asking me when they can take their cards to school and have their party. I guess I’m not the only one who is excited. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Are you doing anything for Valentine’s Day? What is your favorite Valentine’s Day memory?