Valentine's Day

You’ve got less than 24 hours and your wallet is running on empty. In case you haven’t noticed the marketing blitz at your local shopping mall, Valentine’s Day is tomorrow. Unless you plan on sleeping on the couch (again), it may be in your best interest to do something for your significant other on V-Day, but this doesn’t mean that you need to break the bank nor does it mean that you need to spend hours on end concocting something completely unique.

Yes, it’s the thought that counts, but when you’re working on such a tight schedule, you don’t exactly have all that much time for thinking. Of the three hearts above, you don’t want to get impaled like the one on the right or hang yourself out to dry like the one in the middle. You want to be the one on the left. Make a run for it and go get something. What’s that something for Valentine’s Day? Let’s see what you can do.

Re-Framing the Gift to Yourself

This isn’t exactly the same concept as re-gifting, but it can be just as viable if you are able to pull it off. Is there something that you’ve been wanting to buy anyway? With a little creative framing, it may be possible to present that gift to yourself as a gift to your significant other.

Is this a cop-out? Absolutely! Will it work? That depends on you. For example, you may be trying to get your girlfriend into video games. It could be hard to talk your way out of Call of Duty, but you may be able to sweet-talk your way through Guitar Hero. “I bought this for you, honey, so that we could spend more quality time together. You like Oasis and Nirvana, right? You’re my wonderwall….”

“When I Saw This, I Thought of You!”

Beggars can’t be choosers. Don’t let yourself get bombarded with too much information, because you want to buy something and you want to buy it now. Waltzing into your local bookstore, you may be quickly reminded that she’s into vampires and teen fiction. You’re never too old for vampires, so The Twilight Saga Collection could be a good choice. If she likes cooking, grab a cookbook.

Go into (almost) any store with no preconceived notions, nabbing the first thing that can be remotely related to her interests. As with the first strategy, you may need to explain your “romantic” gift. “I know how much you like YouTube, so I got you this mouse to make it easier for you to watch those funny videos.”

Spa in a Basket

Forget about flowers and chocolates. On a last minute basis, there’s a good chance that you’re going to get ripped off. By contrast, if you go into one of those bath and beauty shops (like Fruits & Passion), they’ll have a lot of those gift baskets that are almost designed to be a spa in a box, basket, or bag.

In these tough economic times, it may not be all that affordable to treat her to a full day at the spa, but one of these gift baskets will surely be appreciated by the stressed-out girlfriend. “Baby, you need some time to just relax. Spoil yourself with these bath salts.”

The Last Resort

Have you found yourself stuck between a rock and a hard place? Or rather between a potentially enraged girlfriend and the increasing likelihood of sleeping on the couch? There’s always the strategy of saying that Valentine’s Day is a commercial holiday concocted by the greeting card industry. You express your loving devotion to her the other 364 days of the year, so you don’t need the overpriced industry to tell you what to do on February 14th, right?. Work up that rhetoric, son, because you’ll need to do some serious convincing. Seriously.