Most of us – men especially – view Valentine’s Day as a “Hallmark Holiday.”

For those of you who have never heard this term, it means that Valentine’s Day is pretty much just a corporate sponsored holiday created to force us to spend money on our significant others.

We go along with it because – let’s be honest – if we didn’t, we’d never hear the end of it. This being the case, here are some simple and inexpensive ways for you to get the most of the “holiday” and show your girlfriend or wife that you actually spent a little time thinking about what you ultimately give them.

1) Write your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, or wife a sincere love letter, explaining why and how much you love them, and why they’re the best thing in your life. Taking the time to write a letter like this will mean a lot and melt their heart!

2) Give him or her something other than the cliche gifts like teddy bears or roses, especially if roses aren’t her favorite flower and he has no need for a new stuffed animal. This will help to save you money, and it shows that you care enough to know what her favorite flowers are.

3) Plan out and cook a dinner at home, and, if possible, make it your significant other their favorite meal. As stated above, it’s cheaper to make a meal at home than it is to go out and eat, plus it will show you’ve listened when he or she has talked.

4) End the night by offering to giving your partner a full body massage. Don’t act like you’re offering this based on alterior motives, and it just might work out in your favor!

Follow this advice and you can have an inexpensive but still very sweet and thoughtful Valentine’s Day.

If you’re anything like me, you really enjoy going out to the movies. It just feels like more of an experience to see a movie on a big screen with amazing surround sound as opposed to just watching it on your TV, even if you have a nice widescreen LCD.

That being said, you’re certainly paying for the experience, since going to a show now costs $12 or more, depending on where you live. That’s a lot of money to fork out for a two hour flick!

Thankfully, there’s a simple way to enjoy going out to the movies and spend a portion of what you would for a “regular” movie ticket: go to a matinee.

The average matinee ticket is usually about 25% less than full priced adult ticket, so going to see matinees can end up saving you a lot of money if you go to the movies frequently. And the best part is that while you’re saving money, you’re still seeing the exact same movie and the theater is probably less crowded!

Let’s look at a real world example: you and your significant other like to go out every Friday night and see the latest blockbuster. Based on an average price of $12 ticket, over the course of a year, you’ll have paid $1,248 to go to the movies – not including snacks or drinks.

However, if you simply wait just 12 hours and go to a Saturday matinee showing instead, you will have pay roughly $9 per ticket, or $936 for an entire year. That’s a savings of $312 for watching the exact same movie, just going to see it at a different time.

If you ask me, that $312 is definitely worth waiting a couple of extra hours to see a movie.

Before you read this post, go look at your bookshelf, or, if you’re not at home, think about all of the books you currently own. 

How many books have you opened only once or twice and never actually bothered reading them cover to cover?  How many books have you read just once or twice and haven’t touched them since?

Now compare the number of books you’ve barely touched to the number of books that you’ve read multiple times or frequently use as a reference. 

It’s probably safe to say you have a lot more books collecting dust than books you read or use relatively often.

I’m sure at the time you bought each of these books, you figured it was money well spent; you wouldn’t have bothered buying them if you didn’t think you’d read them a couple of times or reference them often.  Unfortunately, with a little bit of hindsight, you’d probably be willing to say that in most instances you’d have been better off saving the money.

So, next time you find yourself getting ready to buy something from the bookstore, put down the book, save your $15 to $30, head over to the library, and pick up a free copy of the book.

Let’s take a real world example: you enjoy reading and spend $50 each month on books, which over the course of a year adds up to $600.  Even if you end up reading or using half of those books on a regular basis, you’ll still $300 worth of books doing nothing but collecting dust.

Instead of wasting money the next time you want to buy a book, go to your local public library and see if it has a copy.  If you decide you like the book after checking it out from the library and know it’s something you continue to read or use, consider purchasing it at that point.

But, if you decide that maybe the book wasn’t as good as you’d hoped or you you realize you’re probably never going to read it again, you’ve saved yourself some money and some space on your bookshelves.