The Non-Economist’s guide to Valentine’s Day
By the non-economist
With Valentine’s Day around the corner, everybody is starting to showcase their crazy emotional human-nature desires. People are shopping for their loved ones, people are going anti-love mood and all these articles about love and shit are popping out.
Well that’s great, another year of falling into society’s marketing scheme to make money. Yes, I’m being one of those anti “the Man” type people. And yes, I sound like a total douche but somebody’s got to point out the logic we all choose to ignore.
We all know that Valentine’s Day is a corporate marketing scheme; I mean, what started out as a religious day to honour saints eventually got turned into a way for people to make money, because well, we love money. So, as your resident non-economist and since we’re celebrating Economy Month, I’m here to talk about just that.
The fact that we spend all this money on a freakin fictional day!
Look, I don’t want to hate, if you like Valentine’s Day than do your thing, but let’s get smart about the whole thing. So here are my tips to save some money on this shitty day.
Don’t celebrate it
I know, too blunt, but yeah, why bother.
February 14 is just like any other day, it’s not even a holiday, why should you spend extra money on this day? Wake up, go to work (or whatever it is you do), go home and sleep; simple daily rituals should be what you think about. Be thankful that you’re alive that day and focus on not being a dick, I think that’s more than enough to keep your mind preoccupied.
No extra spending for a day can already help a lot in saving extra cash.
Try the DIY stuff
I’m sure you guys have heard this before. Just do this whole, make your own gift thing. You can save much more money or even not spend any money at all by making a gift. Just grab a bunch of crayons and a piece of paper and write “thank you for being less of an asshole than I can take”. Done. No money needed and you can just use whatever you have lying around.
And if you’re a romantic, you can just make up some shit about how a DIY gift is more special and personal – which it is by the way. If you’re actually going to succumb society, at least don’t waste cash on it.
Second-hand and thrift stores
So this one will still require you to spend money but hopefully less than the usual. They always have fun second-hand items lying around. Bets are that they’re even better than the expensive stuff. So think minimal. Why you gotta have branded or new shit? Old ones work, in fact, if you have hand me downs, that’ll do.
Go digital
Listen, most of you are probably millennials and “in with technology.” You want to not spend money, go digital. Give your loved ones something fully digital, like a meme or something, or just post on Facebook – something most of you would have done anyways.
Just make the digital part really special and heartfelt and avoid the real-life stuff. It’s fine, we are in the tech generation, let’s all just admit it and accept it.
Some truth!
Look I might sound cynical with all of this, but I don’t hate love. If you have somebody special you want to celebrate your time with, than do it, but Valentine’s Day just seems to be a really stupid day to do it.
Not only does this day have no significance, it actually encourages you to waste your money. All the ads, discounts and promos, NO! You could just not spend anything! People complain all the time about not having money, you are not going to waste more just for a day.
I mean, what’s one day compared to just being with your partner, or if you guys are married and looking to grow old together, everyday should already be good enough. You loved each other without the gifts, why bother now? (Yes, I can actually be sweet). What I’m saying is, just be broke together, I think that more than suffice your love to each other.
