Treat your UE-bae this Valentine’s for under a tenner

If you’ve got a bae, then Valentine’s Day can actually be quite nice. But, as a student, the chances are that you’re skint and your boo is expecting more than you can really scrape together. Here are some cheap ways to make your number one feel like a million bucks, for under a tenner.

Candle-lit dinner

As cliché as this may be, it never fails to please. After all, who doesn’t love food, dished up amidst the soft hazy glow of flickering tea lights? Paying for this ensemble at a restaurant on the 14th February can cost you dearly though, not to mention having got book months in advance, which is why opting for a night in is a much cheaper and in some ways more romantic option.

You could be sat in a noisy and overly crowded dining area, or at a cosy table for two in your living room. Just usher your housemates outside, and then you can get the sparks going with a spanking Spotify playlist, and a virtual, crackling fireplace on your laptop. Very suggestive.

Champagne showers

Invest in a champagne bucket or wine cooler for the table centerpiece. This will help set the mood and all that jazz. You could follow up by sprinkling fake rose petals, some love balloons, or red diamanté beads all around. Amazingly, these can all be sourced from Poundland in the Valentine’s section.

As for the candles, most places sell tea lights for 50p, and LED lights are perfect if your halls doesn’t allow fire hazards. There you go. Décor is sorted, and your darling will be highly impressed.

Dinner wise, you could go all out Jamie Oliver style and cook up a blinder. BBC Good Food have some fantastic recipes available online at the moment, many dishes being Italian themed. I tried making the Spaghetti Carbonara and it wasn’t too shabby. Sourcing the food from Aldi, since it’s just around the corner and the cheapest possible option, all the necessary ingredients can be gathered three quid,  leaving a cheeky amount behind for a bottle of bubbly.

It tastes as good as it looks

If cooking isn’t your thing, lots of supermarkets offer an amazing ‘two dine in for ten’ offer. This consists of a three course pre-packaged and prepped meal, complete with your choice of drinks: alcoholic beverages, or exotic fruit juices. Nothing screams tantalising more than Mango and Guava Cordial… mm mmm.

Gifts

My boyfriend got me this really ‘lovey-dovey’ frame for our Anniversary a couple of years ago with our names printed on the inside and little memories written in love hearts. I was so pleased with it that I thought I’d steal his idea and try and recreate my own for him. He paid £19.99 for his frame, whereas mine cost me £1.50 and some nifty work on Microsoft Word.

So thoughtful

I wrote a poem for him (being a Lit student I felt I might just be able to manage this). Typed it out and made the font fancy, hit print and the inside of my present was sorted. Next was to source a wooden frame to make my masterpiece stand out. Turns out that Wilko sell Black A4 Poster Frames for £1.50. Bargain.

If poetry is  a bit too gushy for you, you could make a photo collage of the pair of you and you and your friends. Collect and frame tickets from past holidays or train trips to happy destinations, or compose a song if you are musician. Anything requiring your time and effort is heartfelt, and it doesn’t cost a penny.

Extras

Valentine’s is all about showing how much you love someone. This can be through simple acts of kindness, like buying someone flowers. They are beautiful, and not as expensive as you think. Tesco, Morrisons, Aldi and Lidl all sell basic bouquets of Roses for £2.99. Failing that you can almost always buy individual flowers for about £2.50. These again are available singularly wrapped up in store, or from the Norwich market. All sorts of colours are available, even Rainbow ones. Buzzing.

If your lover’s a foodie, make them a hamper of all their favourite treats. For the base you can literally get an old cardboard fruit box from a supermarket. These are typically by the doors for free for customers to use to carry their shopping to the car. Fill this with some old crumpled up newspaper or tissue paper lying around the house. Then you can prop up the goodies inside. We made a chocolate hamper for our single friend at work (he was gutted about not being able to join in with the treats). By trying to be savvy by hitting up Lidl and B&M, we managed to get 2 kilos of chocolate and biscuits for around £9.25.

If you want to impress then be confident in yourself. Go all out to make yourself look and feel good for your sweetheart. Shower. Neaten up your face and bod. Guys, press a nice shirt, and shine up your shoes. Ladies, you could pull out the little black dress you’ve been dying to wear again since New Years. Finish that look with some classic red lippy. After all, if Valentine’s isn’t an appropriate occasion to get fully dolled up for your significant other then when is?

All glammed up and ready for date night

If you are planning on getting frisky in the bedroom, then treat yourself to some new underwear. It’s offers galore everywhere right now, especially for students. You’ll find some sexy boxers and lace panties somewhere in the city. Even Boux-Avenue and Ann Summers have sales with sets for under £10. Failing that, we all know good old Primark is reliable for its lingerie.

Whatever you choose to do, have a wonderful time with your Valentine. I hope that it is as magical as can be, and that you are able to pull out all the stops without rinsing your student loan.