By Toni Husbands
February is upon us and one of the most popular celebrations of love – Valentine’s Day – is coming soon. Americans spend on average $133 each year to emote affection.
The Debt Free Divas are huge advocates of enjoying life while fixing finances. You’re more likely to stick with a debt free plan when you can find frugal ways to build in the fun. Enjoy 14 frugal ways to show you care when cash is scarce.
- Dust off the gift cards: If Valentine’s Day must involve a restaurant, put those gift cards to work and conserve your cash.
- Dine in at Chez Le Home: Transform your home into an exclusive affair for two. Dress the children as a maître d’ and wait staff to serve a delicious, home cooked meal. For fun, have them bring the bill and clean up too!
- Volunteer: Spend time together blessing a group or organization in need. Now that’s love.
- Make it a movie night: Catch up on the latest romantic comedy and butter your own popcorn for a fraction of the theatre prices.
- Build a snowman: This forgotten family fun is a great way to shake off the norm, spend time with love ones, and involve the entire family. Decorate the face with hearts to show you care.
- Picnic in the park (for those in warm weather locations): Post the picnic photos and make your friends in cold climates jealous!
- Lace up ice skates: Don’t knock it – try it. Ice skating is easier than you think. Outdoor rinks generally just charge for skate rentals and the cold is great incentive to cuddle.
- Host a family or couple’s game night: Valentine’s Day is on the weekend so stay out late. You won’t need babysitters.
- Open up with art: Art gallery openings are a great excuse to get fabulous, take in great art, and keep expenses for the evening to a minimum. Combine this with gift card sponsored dinners and you’ll have a fabulously frugal night on the town.
- Look for love and learning: Libraries, colleges, and the few remaining book stores host talks, seminars, and workshops. Tie in a topic on romance and you can hit a home run on the frugal fun meter.
- Have a party over there: You don’t need a crowd to boogie down. Turn your living room into coolest club in town and dance the night away.
- Take a compatibility survey: This can be fun for couples at all stages. The results can spark interesting conversation over dinner at Chez Le Home.
- Recreate a scene: Act out scenes from your favorite romantic comedies. Keep it PG so the whole family can join in! Record and cast the clips to the TV to enjoy a good laugh.
- Write your own poetry: Who needs Hallmark? Pen a few verses to express how you feel. Exchange them and save them. That’s true love – that’s real!
Toni Husbands is a financial coach with the Debt Free Divas on a mission to help 1 million families dump consumer debt. My family dumped over $100K in debt and you can too. Download our free book, “Give Yourself a Raise in 21 Days”, for money saving tips! Blog: https://www.debtfreedivas.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/debtfree4life