Frugal Friday – Frugal Valentine’s Ideas

Although I like to show my husband and boys love all year around, we do celebrate Valentine’s Day at our house. I like to make them feel special, but it doesn’t need to break the bank. Here are some of my frugal Valentine’s Day ideas.

Make Chocolates for Hubby (and kids)

When I was growing up, my sister and I would wake up on Valentine’s morning, and we’d have a box of chocolates waiting for us…homemade by my mom. Those chocolates were more special than any bought candy could be, because we knew that our mom took the time to make them for us…plus, she only made chocolates we liked (maybe I’m just picky, but I don’t like every flavor of filling that comes in a box of chocolate).

I have written a tutorial on how to make homemade chocolates (pictures included), and I show you how to make plain chocolates and ones with peanut butter filling. Here are some items that you’ll need to make chocolates:

• Chocolate molds – I usually do some plain chocolate heart chocolates and then some peanut butter filled chocolates. You’ll need a deeper mold (like this one, as an example) for any filling that you want to do. You can find some molds at Michaels or if you have a local cake or candy supply shop, you could try there. Another option, if you can’t find what you want is to search on Ebay for some molds. Don’t forget to shop through a cash-back site like Big Crumbs (up to 36% back), Ebates (3% back) or Upromise (1% college earnings).
• Candy Melts – can be found at Michael’s or JoAnn’s – don’t forget to use 40% off coupons if they’re not on sale.
• If you want to get fancy, you can buy a chocolates box. I bought one several years ago in the shape of a heart, and I reuse it every year.

Make a Card Yourself for the Family

• If you have scrapbooking supplies, use some paper, a picture, and some embellishments to make a homemade card for your husband and your kids.
• Have the kids make their dad a card themselves with art supplies
• Use a digital scrapbook kit to make a card. Some of my favorite kits are this one and this one from the Shabby Princess. I add my picture in Photoshop Elements (you can use any photo program that has layers) and print it out.
• Here are some really cute “Love Coupons” you could use.
• Or, if you are handy at a photo editing program like Photoshop, you could create the card yourself using a free digital scrapbooking kit. The IKEA Goddess compiles a list of digital freebies that you can download each day.

Valentine’s for Classmates and Friends

• Your kids’ classmates won’t care if all the Valentine’s match, so use up any leftover Valentine’s from previous years.
• After Valentine’s Day is over, check out the sales to purchase Valentines for the next year (if you don’t have enough left over).
• You could make your own valentines also. I just got this great space-themed Valentine’s kit. Rather than wasting ink, you can print them as 4×6 prints for pennies.

Valentine Food Ideas

• To make the day special for the kids, keep the theme “red”. For example, serve strawberries, spaghetti, strawberry milk, red Jello, red velvet cake, etc.
• Cut up sandwiches in the shape of a heart.

How do you save money on Valentine’s Day? For more frugal ideas, visit Biblical Womanhood.

Photo courtesy of Plattmunk at stock.xchng.