Bah Humbug, Valentine's Day!

I was heartened by the headline to the National Retail Federation’s press release about Valentine's Day: "Consumers Opt for Quality Time with Loved Ones Over Traditional Gifts This Valentine's Day."

I thought, isn't that great? We're not even in an official recession yet, and people are already cutting back. But then I read below the headlline, only to discover that the total spending for Valentine's Day 2008 is expected to be a tad over $17 billion.

That's not a typo. The National Retail Federation (NRF) says we'll buy some 17 billion dollars worth of flowers, cards, chocolate, jewelry, and similar nonsense (nonsense being my word, not the NRF's). "Average consumers," whatever that means to the NRF, are expected to spend $122.98 on the holiday, up from last year's $119.67.

Most of it will be spent on our special someones, but we'll also spend $367 million on presents for our pets. Honestly, would your pooch know if you chose to skip her this year, and put the money into your emergency fund instead? My cats surely wouldn't.

According to the Greeting Card Association, we'll send out 190 million Valentine's Day cards. At $3 a pop, that's $570 million, just for fancy pieces of paper with someone else's words on them. Why not come up with something personal to say, and use the money to pay down your debts? Maybe some people may be doing exactly that. The number of people planning to buy a card is down to 57%, compared to 63% last year.

As for how consumers are opting for quality time with loved ones: 'Almost half (48.2%) of all consumers plan to celebrate Valentine's Day with a special night out, compared to 45.3 percent last year." Not much of a change there, imho, and it sure sounds pricey to me! I went through the NRF survey, and this is the only finding that comes close to quality time.

But then we're not "average consumers," right? With even tougher times coming, my advice for quality time on Valentine's Day is to tell your beloved why you think s/he's terrific, make a great dinner at home, and get to bed early.

This year, why not do something really meaningful with the money you would have spent? Feel free to blame me! If you both chip in, you'll have almost $250.

Would it give you more peace of mind to put the money in the bank for a rainy day, or would you rather pay down a credit card bill? Already have an emergency fund and no credit card bills? How's your retirement fund doing? 

Nancy Castleman – Co-author of "Invest in Yourself: Six Secrets to a Rich Life" and founder of Good Advice Press. Nancy has spent the last 23 years teaching people how to get out of debt, save money, and live better on less. She writes on all these subjects for CreditBloggers.com.

Comments

[Jim]

I hate having to go out and buy flowers and go out to dinner at the nicer place just because it's V day. One day has to cost me around $100 bucks. I would like to stay home, do something special, and get away from the template. I cannot believe that 17B will be spent just because of one day.

[Marie]

All men are idiots and about 30% of all women are as well. Relationships for these will be successful. For the other 70% of women a labotomy is needed for any happiness with a man. As soon as she figures out that he is selfish to the core and an ignorames, her happiness is doomed.
You disagree, look at the world. Men have ruled it for the pass milenia and look at the mess. you realy want to trust your heart and affections to them?

[marie]

All men are idiots and about 30% of all women are as well. Relationships for these will be successful. For the other 70% of women a lobotomy is needed for any happiness with a man. As soon as she figures out that he is selfish to the core and an ignoramus, her happiness is doomed.
You disagree? Look at the world. Men have ruled it for the pass milenia and look at the mess. You really want to trust your heart and affections to them?

[Mac]

Bah Humbug, Valentine's Day is right. It's just another day where they want you to spent your money on there worthless crap. No one should have to spent there hard earn money on flowers, greeting cards or dinners.

Maybe we need a "Festivus For The Rest Of Us" for Valentine's Day.