Valentine’s Day is coming, and you want to make it special for your significant other. Preparation prevents poor performance or worse, a no-show. But with all the pricey flowers, dinners, and heart-shaped boxes of candy on the market today, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by how much everything costs. The good news is there are plenty of ways to be creative and fun instead of draining your wallet.

We’ve come up with five fairly inexpensive and unique ways of showing someone special that you love and care for them. Here’s a small guide to saving on Valentine’s Day without sacrificing romance:

  1. Home-baked carry-to-work lunch bites

There’s an old saying “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” It applies to women as well. Chocolate is the favourite flavour of love in Ireland. It also improves metabolism, cognitive capabilities, and mood by enabling the brain to release endorphins. So why not make your loved ones some home-baked brownies and pack it with their lunch?

There are plenty of simple brownies recipes you can find on the internet. You can make them heart-shaped to bring in Valentine’s vibes. This is a really subtle but effective message and will surely work a treat.

  1. Give their car a surprise service

Cars are very convenient, but they are hard to maintain sometimes. We don’t always have the time to clean our cars ourselves. It would be a pleasant surprise for your loved one to get into their car on the morning of Valentine’s Day to find it’s been lovingly blitzed.

Simply borrow their car, drive it to a fuel station and have it vacuumed. Then take it to a carwash and have it thoroughly cleaned and the dashboard and steering wheel wiped using biodegradable wet wipes. Thereafter, purchase a heart-shaped car air freshener before driving the car back into their garage. Let them discover the following morning when they are leaving for work. It will drive them crazy for sure.

  1. Try love notes

While this can be done on a minimal budget, it will require a bit of planning. You can write a series of notes with the first note leading to the next note. Then place them strategically depending on her morning routine.

For example, if she checks her phone first thing when she wakes up, you can stick a note on her screen after she sleeps instructing her to check the bathroom cabinet for the next note. The final note can read, “will you be my Valentine? Dinner date at home, 7 pm. Chef on duty: Me. I love you.” Remember to prepare her favourite dish.

  1. Make them a playlist

Music is the food of love. It is a love language. According to studies, music has a powerful influence on human beings and helps to boost memory, improve task performance, stave off fatigue, lighten the mood, and improve response to pain. If you are going through a rough patch financially, you can still make February 14th special for your loved one with a well-thought playlist.

Make a playlist of their favourite love songs and share it with them. They’ll enjoy listening to the songs on their way to work, during breaks, and when driving back home. You can even include a voice note with a heartfelt message of how much you cherish them as a surprise.

  1. Get them a horseshoe gift

For centuries, horseshoes have been considered a good luck charm not only in Ireland but across the world. People believe that they bring good luck and protection. In Ireland, good luck horseshoes are gifted to loved ones for special occasions such as Valentines, weddings, anniversaries, and birthdays among others.

This Valentine’s, the perfect gift to get your loved one on a budget is a good luck horseshoe. Biddys Good Luck Horse Shoes has a wide range of good luck horseshoes you can gift your significant other. These include horseshoe jewellery, Valentines Gifts with Good Luck, good luck horseshoe with sparkle, and soulmates with love among others. You can get a thoughtful Valentine’s gift for as low as €42.

We sell genuine good luck horseshoes from horseshoes that have travelled the length and breadth of Ireland, been so close to the nature of the Irish countryside, and are really a little piece of Irish heritage for your loved one to enjoy.

Get in touch to have Valentine’s gift customized for your loved one.