Americans to spend $14.6 billion on Valentine’s Day, report finds
Love is up in the air and so is spending. Spending it up point 4 billion from the past year. National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics. The survey polled 8,020 people in early January about their Valentine’s Day shopping. Unsurprisingly inflation has played a part in this. Inflation is up 3% as of January 2025. However many consumers are more willing to spend their money on meaningful experiences, especially for ones they love. In the article, there were alternative options because gifts have gotten so expensive. The first option was to shift your Valentine’s Day. It was suggested if you can’t make plans on Valentine’s Day to consider celebrating the holiday on a different day a certified financial planner Carolyn McClanahan and the founder of Life Planning Partners in Jacksonville Florida suggests. if you’re willing to go out the night before or after it can be a way to save. The second idea the article has to save money is to make a special meal at home. This way, it can be more flexible for you and your date and can be homemade. This can even be seen as more thoughtful. Another idea is because roses are so expensive on Valentine’s Day. You could get a different type of flower. The third suggestion article has is a meaningful gift. McClanahan says “The more expensive the jewelry doesn’t mean the more love you’re giving.” so instead of buying super expensive gifts you could buy more thoughtful gifts that could perhaps be cheaper. You could also make a homemade card or homemade gift therefore saving on money. There is a much better idea to get something special that may not be as expensive and something that the person would really want rather than just an expensive gift because it’s expensive and nice.
SchrieberBE23 
FrenchJA21 
andersonsa22
Honestly, the whole Valentine’s Day thing has just been about spending a whole bunch of money rather than just spending time with a person with more sentiment. I agree that people should start to celebrate the holiday in a more meaningful way.
I totally agree with you Mae. For valentine’s this year, my boyfriend and I didn’t go out and we put a budget on what we were spending for each other because we are college students and everything is so expensive. The day is not supposed to be about how great of a gift one can get another, it’s about spending time with the ones you love, and unfortunately, our society doesn’t market it like that.
Unfortunately, it does seem that in today’s culture, people view Valentine’s Day as a way to one-up each other on social media instead of doing something because they genuinely care about the person. While I don’t think the goal should be to save money, I agree that we should refocus towards meaningful gifts that are valuable because of what they mean, not because of a price tag. I think cooking a meal is a great way to do this because it shows that you are investing time into making something for the other person.