How to Celebrate Valentine’s Day As A Family On A Budget

Are you on a tight budget this Valentine’s Day? You can celebrate Valentine’s Day as a family on a budget, you just might have to get a bit creative. Here are 5 clever and frugal ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day with your family.

Valentine’s Day.

You can argue that it is a Hallmark holiday, a made up holiday, a day for suckers, etc.

Let’s be honest though, who doesn’t (even secretly) enjoy a being a bit more loved on from time to time?

If you have young children, chances are likely that you won’t be heading out to a fancy dinner with your significant other. Even if you could find a babysitter, the wait times at most restaurants are AWFUL on Valentine’s Day (hence my friend Katie making this tasty dish for her family a few years ago!).

We actually celebrate Valentine’s Day as a family by choice!

In addition, at least in our case, our anniversary is just 3 weeks after Valentine’s Day which makes us hesitant to go “big” on a holiday that is of national importance compared to our anniversary which is of our own personal importance.

Therefore, we celebrate Valentine’s Day as a family! I have referred to our Valentine’s Day celebrations as a family before here on Family Friendly Frugality, but I thought it would be worth it to share some more general ideas so that you can see how you might fit celebrating Valentine’s Day as a family into your Valentine’s Day celebrations (and budget!).

Make a Fancy Dinner (or Breakfast…or BOTH) at Home

This one is a given! One of the best ways to show love is to cook for someone! Cook something out of the ordinary. Go grab those steaks that you usually wouldn’t spend so much money on (it’s still cheaper than eating out!). Or, you could just make an ordinary dish, EXTRAordinary by making it heart shaped (think about it! Heart shaped Fathead Pizza! Or Celebration Pancakes!)!

Here are some ideas I have here on FFF that you might consider cooking for celebrating Valentine’s Day as a family:

Homemade Gifts

Encourage everyone in your family to make homemade gifts for each other. This can be as simple as drawing something for each other to as complex as going to your local craft store and picking out some pottery/wooden crafts to paint.

Pinterest has a wealth of ideas for homemade crafts.

Or you could make it a no spend challenge!

One year for Christmas, my daughter had placed so many handmade crafts under the tree, at least half of the presents everyone received that year were from her! She did not spend any money, she just went around the house and used items we already had, drew pictures, created coupon books, etc. Her creativity was so special and everyone was so touched by the sweetness and thoughtfulness that went into each and every gift.

Write Love Notes to Each Other!

Challenge your whole family to write letters to each other. Okay, you might not want to call them love notes if you have children over the age of 8. It’s unlikely my 9 and 11 year old would set pen to paper if I gave them the task of writing love notes to each other.

So maybe, call them notes of encouragement and thankfulness. Whatever you have to say to get your brood on board ;).

This has the added bonus of forcing, I mean encouraging, time spent in reflection over our relationships. Who knows, this small act of kindness between family members could mend fences and create a more harmonious household! (well, we can dream, right?!)

Help Your Kids Show Love To Others

This can be as simple as helping your children fill out Valentine’s Day cards for their class (did you know I have free printable Valentine’s Day cards available?).

Or, take this a step further and go volunteer together.

Find a shelter that needs help. Go through your house finding items to donate to someone in need. Go visit a nursing home with your children.

Do something that shows loves for others, but do it as a family. Model what love for others looks like outside the walls of your home. This can be a life changing opportunity for your children!

I always love when I hear the stories about the teen that buys “candy grams” or “carnations” for all of the girls/boys in the school. Valentine’s Day can be a very very lonely time for some people. Maybe your family can change that for somebody!

Take a Walk Down Memory Lane

This is my favorite! Do you upload your pictures for the year to Amazon Photo? (this is FREE if you have Amazon Prime) Maybe you back them up via Dropbox, Photobucket, Flickr, etc.

Either way, set that account to slideshow mode and sit with your family and reminisce!

Maybe print pictures out ahead of time and sit down with your family to scrapbook. Maybe watch old videos.

Spend sometime looking back on your journey so far as a family. Sometimes nostalgia is just what we need to really feel the love.

Regardless of how you plan to spend Valentine’s Day, I hope you will consider at least a few of these ideas to make Valentine’s Day special for your family this year regardless of how big or small your budget might be!

Comment below if you have any fun traditions you use to celebrate Valentine’s Day as a family!