5 Cheap Gift Ideas for Your Wife

February 02, 2011, By PJ Mullen 5 comments

I know that Valentine’s Day is rapidly approaching when my inbox becomes swelled with pitches that want to do everything they can to help me avoid being remanded to the “doghouse”. Their pathetic attempts at humor that come at the expense of my gender makes me want to bust out the brown liquor and hit the reply button.

Realistically, however, I know that it would be useless to do so as these emails likely emanate from interns that are being paid next to nothing to spam every blogger in their database that sport testicles. At least I hope that is the case.

You wouldn’t know it from this rant, but my contempt for this Hallmark holiday gone bad developed long before I began blogging. And while these condescending pitches really grind my gears, revenge will be mine.

This year, like every year for the past seven, I will not be contributing to the Valentine’s Day machine beyond purchasing my wife a card. No flowers, no heart shaped boxes of chocolates and certainly no baubles from Jared.

We keep Valentine’s Day pretty basic with a simple tradition of a home-cooked meal that in and of itself is low key. Each year for the past few years I whip up a batch of tomato bisque, grill some panini and spend some time together.

Somehow this holiday got away from the spirit for which it was intended, but you don’t have to buy into the hype. This year is a perfect opportunity to leave conspicuous consumption at the door and still have a memorable Valentine’s Day with your wife.

These ideas may sound basic, but consider this like training camp for the romantic season and a refresher course to help build a solid foundation. Surely you could ignore them and venture off into more exotic territory, but that’s how you end up fumbling in the end zone after your defense held on to a fourth and goal.

Clean the House

I’m no Johnny Homemaker, but I know that the easiest way to make my wife happy is to fold the laundry. Whether it’s emptying the dryer, mopping the floor, scrubbing a toilet or loading the dishwasher, one less household chore means more time you can spend together.

Take Her Shopping

Not sure what to buy her? Then don’t. Take her shopping instead and let her pick out something she wants. It’ll be the right size and color so you won’t have to waste any time sitting in the returns department.

Check Off Something on Your Honey-Do list

This year, Valentine’s Day came early in our house when I installed a new kitchen faucet. My wife never liked the one we got on clearance when we were renovating our home and I’ve been dragging my feet in replacing it as it was still working fine. Well, as luck would have it, another can’t miss deal came around on the one she wanted and I moved quickly to make it happen.

Make a Home-cooked Meal

I love to cook and, more importantly, my wife loves that I do the cooking. It is also quite convenient that she would prefer that I make our meal for special occasions rather than going out to a restaurant. This certainly makes our holidays much more budget friendly.

Bake Something

So, you opted to stay in your comfort zone and made your valentine a steak for dinner. That’s cool, but now man up and go bake something for dessert.

Want something ridiculously easy that will look ten times more complicated? Then make a cream puff. Heat up 1 cup of water and melt one stick of butter in it, stir in 1 cup of flour until completely incorporated and then mix in 1 cup of eggs (about 5 large) one at a time.

In five minutes you’ve just made pate a choux dough. Drop it in a zip top plastic bag, cut off the tip and squirt it out into little piles on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Dip your finger in cold water and gently push down any peaks on your unbaked puffs, toss them in the oven for 10 minutes at 425 degrees, then reduce the heat to 350 and bake for 15 more.

Let them cool and just before you’re ready to serve, fill them with whipped cream from a can, sprinkle some powdered sugar on top and serve your beloved a homemade treat she’ll think took you all day to make.

Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be an all consuming (and wallet emptying) experience. A little thought and some advance planning can make the day memorable with some personal touches.

How do you celebrate Valentine's Day without buying into the hype?

Comments (5):

Pj M. @Courtney - Thanks for your comment, but I will respectfully disagree with you. We have the chores split pretty evenly in our household. For example, I'm the cook and my wife handles the laundry. If I surprised her by handling the growing mountain of laundry that two kids produce in addition getting dinner on the table, then I have just given her the gift of time. Time she can spend with our children rather than washing, drying and folding their clothes, which since she works outside of the home means a great deal to her. You can't put a price on that. - 02/12/2011

Courtney S. These are really sweet gestures, but helping clean the house and tending to broken faucets should not be considered gifts. I agree that simple gifts are the best ones. The other three ideas on your list are simple and thoughtful, but household chores and repairs should be done (by both parties) and not passed off as gifts. - 02/09/2011

Ron M. Good ideas, PJ. sometimes it's the simple things that are more sincere than the over the top gestures. I'm going to skip the cooking one though. Toasted cheese and tomato soup probably would put me in the negative. - 02/03/2011

Rob M. I like your thinking, man! I am only doing something because I got a deal that basically netted me money. We gave up on stuff like Valentine's Day long ago when we realized that we could show affection as often as we wanted without prompting by Hallmark. - 02/03/2011

Otter T. I hate Valentines Day too. I haven't figure out yet where I'm going to fit into the spending fray this year. Got to get something though. - 02/02/2011