Valentines Day is upon us again and Americans are expected to spend a collective $17.3 billion on Valentines Day celebrations and gifts. According to the National Retail Foundation, the average person will spend approximately $133.91 this year on Valentines Day, much of it going to romantic dinners, flowers, jewelry and greeting cards.
Men are expected to spend an average $108.38 for Valentine's Day on their significant others this year, more than twice as much as women will spend ($49.41). The rest is spent on other family members, teachers, friends and colleagues.
Some is also spent on on for significant others. For that special ex-Valentine, there's Dirty Rotten Flowers, a company which will happily send a special Valentine's Day decomposing bouquet or broken carnations. Alternatively, jilted lovers can have a voodoo doll made in the images of their exes.
More than half (51.2 percent) of those celebrating will give Valentine's Day greeting cards and nearly half (48.7 percent) will will give candy. More than 37 percent will give flowers while an equivalent number will dine out. Far fewer (19 percent) will buy jewelry, but total spending on gems and adornments will still total nearly $4 billion.
If Valentine's Day jewelry is too rich or a nice restaurant might break the bank, there are cheaper alternatives, such as a candlelight dinner at McDonalds in Southport, South Carolina, which also features "music selections by Ron."
Valentine's Day gift givers can also give a piece of themselves - quite literally. Romantics simply send a tooth to Australian jeweler Polly van der Glas and he will set it on a ring or pendant. Another Valentine Day body part-themed gift giving, there's heart-shaped gelatine dessert.
For the single woman in one's life, there's always the boyfriend pillow, but single men won't be left alone with the Grow A Girlfriend.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
