The X spot: my funny valentine
Myles Peterman
Welcome to Valentines Week here at Young Free Alberta. Where we’ll be counting down the days till Valentines Day.
Today’s X Spot will talk about this expensive day and how all of you Casanova’s and Juliet’s can save a few dollars, while not sacrificing fun, romance, or even appearing to be a cheapskate.
10. Dinner – Get Creative. Okay so you can go and spend $250 on that “nice little place that just opened up”, but what’s wrong with an at home candle-lit dinner? Make it more romantic by throwing on your finest attire. Or, if you’re too tired to cook either order in or call ahead somewhere and get them to prepare something for you that you can pick up on the way home from work. Either way it’s still cheaper than fine dining.
9. Paint the town red (kind of). If you REALLY want to get out of the house for Valentines, why not just have coffee and dessert, or a drink at an expensive restaurant. If you just have two coffees and desert, it’ll probably cost around $20 – $30, which is about the same as ordering in. This way you still get to go out, enjoy the ambience, and one another’s company.
8. Call in “sick.” Listen, sometimes you have to let your heart lead you, even if you know it’s something that you shouldn’t be doing. If you can manage to call in sick without screwing over a coworker or getting fired, take a chance. Maybe you have some personal days, or even vacation days racked up? If you’re “sick” you can’t leave your house unless you want to have a Ferris Bueller situation on your hands, so you’ll be forced to come up with a creative, home-based Valentines.
7. See if there are any free local venues. There are always Universities or parks having concerts or art shows, see if anything’s happening on Feb. 14th. If not free, usually these events will be a small price.
6. Shopping Spree. Go to a local library, or any store with various items and then get a basket or cart. Go around and pick out books that remind you of certain points in your relationship. Or at the store, split up and fill a cart with things you WOULD have bought for one another. Then put the items back, or just ditch the cart and let the poor V-Day workers take care of it. (But don’t).
5. Bake. Bake sweet treats together using cookie cutters to make heart shapes or little terms of endearment. Fun and tasty.
4. Give something thoughtful. Usually, thoughtful gifts are much less expensive while being more meaningful. For example, if your person likes going to the movies, make them a short film about your relationship from beginning to now using your friends as actors.
3. Roses? For real? This year if you still MUST buy flowers, why not try one of the other million beautiful flowers that are less expensive than roses. You’ll probably save a lot of money just by choosing a different flower. Or you can make paper roses, and on each pedal have reasons why you love them. Multi-purpose flowers.
2. Kindergarten route. Make two little heart shaped mailboxes for each of you out of paper. Then buy some inexpensive Valentines cards (preferably Spider-Man in theme) and write on each card a different reason why you want the other person to be your Valentine. Then break them out next Valentines Day.
1. PLAN AHEAD. Think of things you can do or ways to save money for the day in advance. This way you won’t be breaking out your credit card and racking up any debt. Plus, the longer you think about something romantic, the longer you have to realize that it is lame and you have to completely re-plan it.
Oh, and for those people who are not celebrating Valentines Day, throw an Anti-Valentines Day party, or set up an online dating profile. OR go trick-or-treating and say that you are practicing for Halloween.
Save that money, spread that love.
Myles 'Candy Hearts' Petez
