Budget Valentine's Day Dinner Ideas

We're in an economic slump and everyone is trying to tighten their belt and shave costs where possible. However, that doesn't mean that you have to cut out all holidays and celebrations. You just might want to rethink how you spend your money on those holidays-and today we're going to focus on the most important question asked on Valentine's Day: what's for dinner?

This guide assumes you're staying in-after a few drinks it's hard to imagine spending less than $40 at a restaurant, and you can certainly do a better budget Valentine's Day dinner than that at home.

If you're trying to save a few dollars when setting the mood, consider only buying a few roses. A few roses on a candlelit table will look just as good as a dozen. This brings us to candles-chances are you already have a lot of them, so light the ones that you like. If you don't want the traditional romantic candlelit dinner for two and would prefer something different then there's no problem. You are in your house, after all.

So what to cook?

One of my favorite, cheap, and successful meals from my college days was a quick and easy Chicken Parmesan. I used pre-breaded Tyson chicken breasts that I bought in 5lb bags from Costco, about $13 a bag. While it's technically cheaper to bread your own chicken, for the ease of use (I was in college, after all) it was worth the extra dollar or two. If you and your significant other prefer meat balls or sausage, then replace to taste-and don't worry, because your wallet won't be adversely affected. Chop meat and sausage both go on sale quite often for $2/lb or less.

A bag of shredded cheese, store brand, can usually be had on sale for under $2. Two jars of sauce, also usually on sale, can be had for about a total of $3. Alternatively you can make your own sauce-chances are someone in the family has a secret recipe passed down through the generations. Boil the desired amount of pasta-under a dollar-and the bare bones of the meal is ready. Add salad, bread, and wine to taste and cost.

Counting the entire 5lb bag of chicken (and chances are you won't use more than 1lb for a single meal, but let's just say), the cost of the bare bones of the meal is around $19. I'm no wine connoisseur and unless you are you can probably get an acceptable bottle of wine for this meal for $10 or less. So, and remember this is counting the entire bag of chicken, with wine you're at roughly $29-still $11 less than the reference $40. A much more reasonable number, using only 1/5 the cost of the bag of chicken is $18.60-less than half the price of going out to a restaurant.

Another potential meal to make is the classic chicken dinner-this might not scream romantic, but it's a good meal that you can make for cheap. The secondary foods to the meal-stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy, and veggies can all be had for cheap. Instant stuffing is regularly on sale for $1 a box, as are mashed potatoes. Canned vegetables are usually less than $1 a can. Gravy and cranberry sauce might cost a little more, but together I cannot imagine them topping $4. That leaves the cost of the chicken-using the bag from my previous example that's $2.60 per pound. If whole chickens are on sale in your area they can be had for less than that-but for the sake of uniformity let's say the chicken will cost $5.

The cost of the meal will be less than $15 dollars. Again, adding a bottle of reasonable wine won't push this meal anywhere near the cost of going out.

Going in another direction, you can also consider breakfast for dinner. The possibilities here are quite large-it all depends on what the two of you like-as most breakfast food tends to be quite cheap. A dozen eggs, at worst, will cost $3. A pound of bacon, again at worst, will cost about $4 (though it's much more likely to be on sale for less). Breakfast sausages tend to be very cheap; you can buy a box of them for usually a $1.50 or so.

If you want omelets add in a few dollars worth of vegetable costs on top of the breakfast meat and egg cost. If you want French toast add in the cost of a loaf of bread and sugar or cinnamon. If you want pancakes add in the cost of pancake mix and syrup-as an added Valentine's bonus, make the pancakes heart shaped and add some red food dye. If you decided to make all of these things I doubt you would spend the $40 that going out for one meal would cost.