• Redbox – FREE DVD rental on Valentine’s Day
• Qdoba – B1G1 FREE Entree when you kiss someone at the register
• Quiznos – FREE Cookie With printable coupon (2/14 ONLY)
• Lowe’s – FREE Valentine’s Day Card Creator at the Lowes Build And Grow Workshop on Saturday Feb. 11th.
• Ben And Jerry’s – FREE Americone Ice Cream On 2/14 From 5-8 pm
• Krispy Kreme – Buy 1 Dozen Donuts, Get 12 FREE Valentine’s Day Cards + 12 Free Donut Coupons
• Bath & Body Works – FREE Travel Size Signature Collection Item with printable coupon starting 2/14 (No Purchase Required)
• The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf – Buy 1 Get 1 Free Beverages on 2/14 Only
• Boston Market – Coupon for a FREE Dessert On 2/14 WYB An Individual Meal & Drink

Thanks Surviving the Stores!

• Subway – FREE, freshly baked cookie with any purchase on Valentine’s Day
• Redbox – FREE Redbox DVD rental on Valentine’s Day
• Qdoba – B1G1 FREE Entree when you kiss someone at the register – may just be a regional deal so call your store to confirm
• Auntie Anne’s – B1G1 FREE Signature Pretzel – through Valentine’s Day
• Marble Slab Creamery – FREE Mini Tiramisu Ice Cream Cups on 2/14 from 3-6 pm
• Denny’s - FREE Pancake Puppies Sundae with purchase of an entree
• Jamba Juice – Sweetheart Smoothie – 2/$5 – through 2/20 with coupon
• Papa Johns – now through 2/14, you can order a heart-shaped pizza

Valentine’s Music Deals – don’t forget about the $2 Amazon MP3 credit

• Dean Martin: Essential Love Songs [+digital booklet] – $4
• Norah Jones: Come Away With Me – $5.99
• Keith Urban: Greatest Hits – 18 Kids – $5.99
• Frank Sinatra: Romance: Songs From The Heart – $5
• Valentine’s Day Sampler – FREE

Fun Valentine’s Search Facts:

According to Bing.com users…

• Love is in the air! Nearly 80% of 16-35 year-olds plan to celebrate Valentine’s Day this year
• Most Popular Valentine’s Day Plans: A romantic candlelight dinner tops the list as the best way to spend Valentine’s Day; 50% of people also plan to see a movie this year.
• Men make (more than likely, last minute) plans on the go: More men than women wait until the day-of to schedule Valentine’s Day plans and twice as many men will use their mobile phone to find the perfect romantic restaurant compared to women. Men are also more likely to use their handheld to buy a Valentine’s Day gift.

Although I try to show my love to my family all year round, it’s still fun to celebrate Valentine’s Day…and it doesn’t have to cost a lot.  Here are a few ideas I found for a frugal celebration:

• Make homemade chocolates – never done it before?…I created a tutorial on how to make homemade chocolates (and filling) complete with pictures.  Plus, if you get the kids involved it can be a fun craft time.

• Create an easy Valentine Coupon book using this digital freebie

• Make your own Valentine’s card (or try to find a card freebie) – My favorite part of the cards that I receive from my husband are the heartfelt notes that he writes.  So, you could just make your own card with a message inside.  Plus, you can involve your kids in making cards for each other.

• Mix-n-Match Valentine’s Cards – do you have lots of different leftover Valentine’s cards from previous years?  Assuming they are still cards your child still likes (like not Thomas for a 10 year old ), use up the various cards for their classmates.  Do their friends care (or even know) if they all get the same cards.  I also will purchase cards for the next year in the after-Valentine’s sale.

• Create a Valentine’s Theme Day – create dinner with all red foods (like spaghetti, etc) or cut up sandwiches in the shape of a heart.

What do you do for Valentine’s Day?  Do you have any inexpensive ideas or traditions?  For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom.

Are you looking for a cute, but frugal Valentine’s gift?  Download a FREE Valentine’s coupon book and have fun creating a coupon book to give to your kids/hubby, etc.  Come up with creative coupons…such as 1 free hug…something special you can do for the recipient.

In my post last week, I gave some frugal ideas that we use at our house. One thing that I do each year, is make my own chocolates to give as a gift to my husband and boys.

Making homemade chocolates is really not that difficult…and they’re delicious (especially the ones with peanut butter filling). The picture on the left shows all the items that you’ll need to get started:

• Chocolate Melts (I’m using dark chocolate)
• Chocolate molds. If you want to have a filling in the chocolate (like pb or mint), you’ll need a deeper mold
• Paintbrush – you’ll need this for spreading the chocolate on the filled chocolates

Not Necessary:

• Chocolate Melting Pot – you can either use this, microwave the chocolate or use a double boiler on the stove
• Box for chocolates

Step One: I made my peanut butter filling.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 stick (2 tbsp) melted margarine or butter
• 1 cup powdered sugar

Mix together until it looks like the picture above.

Step Two: melt the chocolate. You can either purchase a Chocolate Melting Pro, like the one pictured (with a 40% off coupon at Michaels or JoAnns, of course), or you could melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a double boiler on the stove. It is very important that you do not get the chocolate wet or too hot (in the microwave) or you will ruin it.

Step Three: once the chocolate is melted, you can start spooning it into the molds.

Solid Chocolates – For solid chocolates (like the ones above), spoon some chocolate into the mold and then bang the mold on the table to level it. You will want to level the chocolate pretty quickly after spooning the chocolate in, so that it doesn’t solidify first. Once you have all the molds filled, stick it in the freezer in a level spot for about 10 minutes.

Filled Chocolates: In order to do a filling, you will need to spoon some chocolate into the mold and then use the paintbrush to spread the chocolate around the bottom and sides of the mold (to create a shell). You don’t want the chocolate to be too thick (or there’s not much room for filling and it will have a thick shell when you bite into it), and you don’t want it to be too thin. I usually pick up the mold and check for any thin spots where I can see the light through it. See the picture above for an example of the shell. Once you have all the shells complete, stick the mold into the freezer on a level spot for several minutes.
Step Four: pull the mold out of the freezer and add your filling. I usually take some peanut butter filling and roll it into a ball and pat into the shell. It’s easier to add more filling than it is to pull some filling out, so smaller is better. Once you have the filling in, add some more chocolate to the top, making sure that it touches the shell to completely enclose the filling. You can see an example of some chocolates with the pb filling and with the top on it in the picture above.

Step Five: arrange your chocolates in a container to give for Valentine’s Day. I reuse this box that I bought several years ago for my husband. You can see all the chocolates that I made in the picture above using only 1 bag of the candy melts.

The important thing to remember when you’re making chocolates is to have fun! It doesn’t matter if the chocolates turn out perfect…they’re homemade, right? It’s the thought that matters .

Have you ever made chocolates before? Any additional tips you’d like to add? Are you inspired to try making chocolates now?

For more frugal tips, visit Being Frugal and for more Sweetheart Treats, visit Life as Mom.

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.