Frugal Valentine's Cards For Kids
Edit: since writing this, I've received so many messages saying that people found Valentine's day cards for $3 or $5. I honestly must have been looking at the creme de la creme of Valentine's day cards and I'm so glad to hear that people have found cards for the fraction of the price of the ones I saw. Lesson learned: shop around!
Starting our frugal family journey right before a holiday was not exactly something I thought about. Shortly after writing our first blog post, it hit me.
What do we do for the kids' Valentine's cards?!
Kid's Valentine's day cards are on average around $10-$15 a box. We have two kids in school, and we're also excited to have been invited to a party on Friday, to which I am bringing three kids. If we buy store-bought cards for each school class and for this party, we would need to spend anywhere between $40-$60. And these days, Valentine's cards aren't even enough anymore! You need to add a bag of treats or some little toys to the loot if you really want to be doing Valentine's Day right and keep up with the Jones'. Am I right or am I right? So, add an extra $20-$30 for treats and toys from my 3 kids, and suddenly we're spending close to $100 on cute little pieces of paper that will end up in someone's recycling bin as soon as ninja-parently possible (unless you enjoy having every square foot of your house littered with Valentines), tiny toys (that, let's be honest, also quickly make their way to the bin) and candy. It's easy for things to start getting out of hand from a financial standpoint.
The bottom line is, buying kid's Valentine's cards is not a frugal move. Do I judge you for spending money on them? NO! Everyone has different budgets and priorities and spending money on Valentine's cards doesn't fit in with either of ours. We have bought them in the past, but things are different now. It doesn't make sense to our family to spend money on something we consider extremely overpriced and temporary.
So, what did we do? We made them, of course!
And that's it! For the small cost of some printer paper and black printer ink (using the old black and white printer my parents gifted to us this summer!), we have some Valentine's cards!
Do our kids care they didn't get Frozen II or Avengers Valentines this year? NO! They LOVED getting to choose, colour and cut out their very own cards. Plus, they'll be receiving tons of store-bought cards from their friends by the end of the week. We hope their friends and teachers enjoy these homemade cards as much as our kids enjoyed making them!
If pricey store-bought Valentine's don't make sense for your family, head over to our Pinterest account to print them out for yourselves! Also, remember, if people judge you for it, they're missing the point.
On that note, we have been using this time to have intentional conversations with our children about the meaning of love:
And let me just say that although we did not spend money on Valentine's day cards this year, they were certainly made with love!
Starting our frugal family journey right before a holiday was not exactly something I thought about. Shortly after writing our first blog post, it hit me.
What do we do for the kids' Valentine's cards?!
Kid's Valentine's day cards are on average around $10-$15 a box. We have two kids in school, and we're also excited to have been invited to a party on Friday, to which I am bringing three kids. If we buy store-bought cards for each school class and for this party, we would need to spend anywhere between $40-$60. And these days, Valentine's cards aren't even enough anymore! You need to add a bag of treats or some little toys to the loot if you really want to be doing Valentine's Day right and keep up with the Jones'. Am I right or am I right? So, add an extra $20-$30 for treats and toys from my 3 kids, and suddenly we're spending close to $100 on cute little pieces of paper that will end up in someone's recycling bin as soon as ninja-parently possible (unless you enjoy having every square foot of your house littered with Valentines), tiny toys (that, let's be honest, also quickly make their way to the bin) and candy. It's easy for things to start getting out of hand from a financial standpoint.
The bottom line is, buying kid's Valentine's cards is not a frugal move. Do I judge you for spending money on them? NO! Everyone has different budgets and priorities and spending money on Valentine's cards doesn't fit in with either of ours. We have bought them in the past, but things are different now. It doesn't make sense to our family to spend money on something we consider extremely overpriced and temporary.
So, what did we do? We made them, of course!
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| Juliet, colouring her Valentine's Day cards for Kindergarten |
I did what any mom these days would do and headed over to Pinterest. It took me a while to find some printable Valentine's cards that didn't involve us having to buy additional craft supplies, but we found some! Juliet chose some Llama Valentines, Thaddeus chose some Valentine's with sweet little phrases, and we are bringing some adorable I Spy Valentine's printables to th party on Friday morning in lieu of traditional cards!
And that's it! For the small cost of some printer paper and black printer ink (using the old black and white printer my parents gifted to us this summer!), we have some Valentine's cards!Do our kids care they didn't get Frozen II or Avengers Valentines this year? NO! They LOVED getting to choose, colour and cut out their very own cards. Plus, they'll be receiving tons of store-bought cards from their friends by the end of the week. We hope their friends and teachers enjoy these homemade cards as much as our kids enjoyed making them!
If pricey store-bought Valentine's don't make sense for your family, head over to our Pinterest account to print them out for yourselves! Also, remember, if people judge you for it, they're missing the point.
On that note, we have been using this time to have intentional conversations with our children about the meaning of love:
"Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?" Jesus replied, "'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments."
Matthew 22:36-40
And let me just say that although we did not spend money on Valentine's day cards this year, they were certainly made with love!
*I hope it's clear that this is OUR family's choice, and that we love and respect and hold no judgement over anyone who spends money on the things WE choose not to. We do, however, think it's important to remind others that they don't HAVE to spend money on things just because everyone else does.*
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