Cheap valentines day ideas on a budget

Posted byDaniel Tannenbaum | Category Blog | Date 08 February 2016

Valentines Day is only a few days away and for a lot of nervous boyfriends and husbands this is a frantic time of year to get your significant other the perfect gift. From flowers, chocolates, cards, weekend aways, dinners and more – every guy is under pressure to organise something special. In this blog post, we consider the different things you can buy on Valentines Day on different budgets.

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How much is the Valentines Day Industry Worth In The UK?

According to Ladbrokes (don’t know why they conducted the study), the Valentines Day Industry in Great Britain is worth £1.6 billion – and there has been a year upon year increase from £880m in 2012, £978m in 2013 and £1.3 bn in 2014.

Men are expected to spend more, with the average man spend £50 on his spouse, compared the woman spending £32 on average. Or according to Business Life, men will spend £622m between them, compared to the £354m spent by woman.

What Are The Standard Things To Buy On Valentine’s Day?

  • Romantic card – £4
  • Bouquet of flowers – £20
  • Box of chocolates – £20
  • Cuddly toy – £15

Total: £59 (which is about average in the UK)

A nice meal on top with wine could cost £50 extra minimum.

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According to The Telegraph, Sheffield and Yorkshire in particular seems to be the most romantic as guys spent the most in 2013. Little can be said for the Scottish, especially Aberdeen where the average man only spent a £5 – that won’t even get you a card in London!

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Our Budget Valentines Day Idea

For the cheapest man alive, we have some suggestions that you might get away with. Start by running a romantic hot bubble bath, using fairy liquid. OK, its a bit rough on the skin, but it will certainly create bubbles! Create a mood with tea candles costing £1 for 12 candles and throw in a massage whilst you’re using your own bit of elbow grease.

Add some flair with some rose petals on the floor, but rather than real roses, just cut up a sainsbury’s shopping bar and throw the bits all over the floor like confetti (used to be free but now will only cost 5p!) We used to have it too easy I tell you …

Rather than splash out on an expensive meal, Marks & Spencer are offering an amazing 3 course meal and wine for £20 including your choice of smoked salmon, lobster, sirloin steak, chunky chips, profiteroles and cabernet savignon.

And enjoy your evening with a nice Valentine’s Day movie. Sadly not much on this year or chick-flicks starring Ashton Kutcher where it takes 90 minutes to realise that he loves his best female friend. But there are other rom-coms you can watch together.

Also, don’t forget to dim the lights but that makes everything sexier.

Total cost: £20.05 (meal + sainsbury’s bag)

Free Things To Do On Valentine’s Day

There are lots of free things to do which are very romantic including:

  • bubble baths
  • massages
  • making a card, scrapbook or photo album
  • walks in the park
  • write a poem or song (if you can …)
  • walking around Covent Garden (always very festive!)
  • clean the house (your partner might appreciate it!)

Valentines Day Ideas & Offers

Afternoon tea: Red letter days are currently promoting an offer of afternoon tea for 2 costing only £28 at a number of posh hotels across the UK.

Personalised Mug: Gifts seem to be getting more and more personalised these days and now you can get a personalised mug with you and your partner’s name on it from notonthehighstreet.

Nutella anyone? If your partner is crazy about Nutella, you can get a personalised jar from Selfridges for just £5.

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Some Of The Worse Things To Do On Valentine’s Day

Whatever you do, do not let your partner pay. No one wants to go out for a Valentine’s treat and expect to have to cough up.

Limit the amount of exercise. Unless your partner is a health freak, no one really wants to go hiking on the most romantic day of the year, especially in the UK’s February climate.

Don’t do the same thing two years in a row! For the very least, keep a record of what you gave last year so you keep your partner on their toes. You don’t want your romantic gesture to have the opposite effect.

Be personable! Write a personal message or go to some kind of effort, whether its with a restaurant, cuddly toy, flowers or personalised chocolate. Avoid the Lord Sugar fiasco when his wife’s birthday card was written by someone else and he signed it at the bottom!

Using Our site

Whilst we allow users to compare guarantor loans in the UK, we do not want being using the loans we feature for Valentine’s Day. As constantly mentioned through out our site, guarantor products should be used for emergency purposes only like car repairs, home repairs or medical bills and not for social or material reasons such as buying presents, holidays or fancy dining.

The reason we are providing different Valentine’s Day Ideas is so that you can get a bargain and hopefully use your money wisely, and not spend beyond your means. For more information, read our recent blog post on when you should and should not use guarantor loans.