Valentine's Day Ideas on a Budget

These days the effects of the bad economy are felt everywhere, but they make themselves painfully present when a special gift giving time comes around. With Valentine's Day just around the corner we find ourselves in just on one of those dreaded times. It doesn't have to be that daunting, though, not if we can think out of the box and use a little innovation. With some creativity and time you can have a great gift for your loved one without completely exhausting your wallet.

Here are a few ideas that should make your Valentine's Day a bit easier, but still a success with your loved one.

One of the favorite Valentine's Day affairs is the time-tested dinner. Of course the ultimate in dining is to go out to a fancy and expensive restaurant, but a more budget friendly idea is to cook dinner at home yourself, which can be just as effective if done the right way. There are tons of wonderful easy recipes that you can amaze your loved one with. A simple Google search will put hundreds of recipes at your hands. A great one I found is from southernfood.about.com for 'Tilapia Filets with Mustard-Pecan Topping', it's easy to make and the ingredients are quite basic plus tilapia is a great tasting fish at a very reasonable price.

If fish is not your favorite, there are lots of other recipes with chicken, meat, etc... that you can pick from. In a short visit to Whole Foods or your local supermarket you can get all the ingredients you need for a lot less than you'd spend at an expensive restaurant and it is probably much healthier too!

Can't boil water you say? No problem, most supermarkets these days have wonderfully delicious prepared foods. Whole Foods has a great selection of ready-made food and they have a lot of ethnic dishes that can come very useful for a romantic dinner. Pick a few for a multiple course dinner, just a little of each is enough, because remember that either if you are cooking or not you will still need dessert!

Once you have dinner whipped up, or picked up if you didn't cook, the idea is to serve it with a romantic ambiance. Set the table with a nice tablecloth, a red one adds zeal, put a couple of long candles in the middle and a red rose in a vase. (You can pick up the rose when you are at the supermarket, one will suffice, you don't need a dozen.) Serve the food with a nice bottle of wine, there are plenty of good wines at very reasonable prices at the supermarket, Spanish wines are my favorite, they are quite flavorful and many are wallet friendly. You don't have to spend a bundle on a fancy French wine to impress your loved one. Lastly, put some romantic soft music in the background and place a few candles all around the house.

Next, we can look into that dessert. You can serve this after your dinner or all in itself if you are not going into the whole dinner issue. The first idea, of course, is the beloved chocolate cake! If you are an avid baker, by all means go all out, but if you're like most of us, a cake made from a mix can be comparatively good as well. The trick with the cake is to decorate it personally. Write your loved one's name in the middle of the cake with pink icing, for example and sprinkle a few chocolate kisses around the name.

Since chocolate is a big hit for Valentine's Day, let's explore another option for a great dessert, or, as with the cake, a gift all in itself. Instead of blowing it all on expensive Chocolatiers, you can create a yummy chocolate treat for a lot less. While you're at the supermarket, or at Whole Foods (I apologize to keep plugging Whole Foods, but they have excellent food!) pick up a few bars of your loved one's favorite chocolate. Then get a small Valentine's themed gift bag and line it with some tissue paper. Place the chocolate bars in the bag (you can wrap them individually if you like) then, in the middle, place a little box of jewelry. You don't have to get diamonds or gold, just get a simple sterling silver bracelet, ring or necklace, or even a set. You can find nice silver pieces in large department stores, where they have vast assortments of silver jewelry, or also in discount department stores as well.

Another alternative to eating in a fancy restaurant is to have dinner at the park; you can substitute the park for your back yard or balcony if you don't have one nearby, or simply don't feel safe being out in the open at night. This can be fun and romantic if you set it up nicely. First get some soft blankets and cushy pillows for you to sit on. Then prepare a basket - a cooler also works - with your food items. Include some dinner and dessert, maybe an after dinner liqueur and I also recommend taking some sparkling wine along. A nice toast, even on those plastic champagne flutes, is a great touch when eating outside. For the food, just bring something good, but easy to pack. That ready-made food from the supermarket we mentioned earlier will work great. For dessert bring any sweets you like, maybe that chocolate gift bag with the silver bracelet, for instance, or some pastries from the supermarket bakery. For the sparkling wine a couple of fine but inexpensive picks are Argyle 2000 Brut Sparkling Wine, for about $19 and Freixenet Brut Nature Cava, approximately $10.

If you are one of those hopeless romantics and plan on proposing to your sweetheart this Valentine's, then here are some suggestions. The dinner at a park, backyard or balcony setting is a great one to do this, although any other setting will work fine as well, I mean you are proposing after all! Once you are done with dinner, offer her some chocolate kisses. Give them out of a small bag in which you will have placed the ring strategically at the top in between the kisses. When the chocolates splay out in her hand the ring will be sitting n all its glory right there among them. Once she sees it... you know what to do!

A different approach is to get some roses and make sure they are still not opened all the way. Place the ring inside one of the roses towards the middle of the bouquet, just so that the diamond is peeking out enough to see a small sparkle. Offer her the flowers making sure she sees the diamond and then... you guessed it, do your thing!

I hope this guide has helped to relieve some of the anxiety most of us are feeling as Valentine's Day approaches and our funds remain in a tight budget hiatus. Go out and enjoy yourselves! A nice romantic evening is good for the soul and knowing that you don't have to blow your whole savings to make a good impression is not a bad feeling either. Happy Valentine's Day!