We celebrated Valentine’s Day with our best gals at home for under £15

V-Day doesn’t always have to be all pomp and show. There’s more than one way to spend it and for all the single ladies, what better way to do it than brunching with your besties? After all, where would we be without them? And because we’re still broke students, our low-key galentines celebration at home was kept in check with the £15 budget.

Do a quick refrigerator check

Georgia, our Social Media and News Editor at The Cardiff Tab had a massive Nutella jar, frozen sausages, and hash browns already all there, which was an economic life saver. It helped us plan the menu with stuff we already had instead of buying loads for the occasion and having to deal with too many leftovers. So gals and pals, take our advice and make a pitstop at your fridge before doing your big food shop, you’ll probably already have some brunch food hiding in the back.

A Lidl food shop is always a lifesaver

A Lidl 10 minutes away from your uni house is a blessing, and since brunch doesn’t really need to be a whole ordeal, we stuck to crisps and dips, plus the essential Lidl bakery goodies. Regular group chat updates ensured we weren’t buying something the other already had, which left us lucky with £5 to splurge on some wine.

As Editor-in-chief, I had to buy the best for our team, Tortilla chips and sour cream (£1.60), flavoured soda (from the fridge), and a pack of blueberry muffins (£1.00) were all added to my basket while Mollie, one of our Social Media Editor, brought jam (from the fridge), scones (£0.79), orange juice (£0.89) and mini choco-chip muffins (£1.19). Again, the trip to the fridge really does help with the budgeting, because how can it count if you’re not spending it on the day? Better than leaving it past its expiry date. Georgia also added some fancy beans (Yes, we got Heinz for a staggering £3.00) and then the spenny wine (£5.00).

If snacks and the Lidl bakery doesn’t cut it, a Lidl shop for a nice house-meal won’t cost much either. We realised that having a gals day can be a simple affair and doesn’t always need big preparations or a spenny day at bottomless brunch. Between us, we spent around £5 each which led to yummy treats for all without it being a burden on anyone (including our overdraft).

Have some wine and dive into a gossip-sesh

We are all normally quite busy during the week, so a glass of wine and an uninterrupted convo is a well-deserved blessing. Our theme for the day was pink (for galentines, obviously) hence rosé was the only choice. With wine in hand, we dived deep into the much required, very therapeutic, gossip-sesh. Constituting of all our shitty dates, bitching about coursework we cannot cope with, and stalking all of our mutual connections online. Didn’t even cost a penny.

A movie or a board game is essential

We chose ‘movie’ because all we had were drinking card games, as is the life of the regular uni student. We couldn’t find Bridesmaids on Netflix (bummer!) but we went for another classic choice: Legally Blonde. After all, G-day is incomplete without some Reese Witherspoon.

We switched the lights off, wrapped ourselves in comfy throws and felt empowered in our single-ness. It was truly the most amazing day and we couldn’t have asked for better. Who wants to spend an outrageous amount of money on an overrated holiday? Not us (crying in single).

We hope you and your besties have the best Galentines celebration. Hit us up on our Instagram to tell us all about it.

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