February 14th is coming up fast. Since I'm male, the holiday is known as: Procrastination Day.
Retailers are well aware of this. They've been taunting us with displays of heart-shaped boxes of everything since December 26th. And during the fifty-one days in between Christmas and Procrastination Day, we purchase: nothing.
Then, in an enormous fit of opportunism, retailers jack up the price on anything remotely related to Procrastination Day. A $5 bouquet of flowers suddenly becomes $10 on February 14th. They might as well write “HA HA LOSER” under the price.
So guys, here are a few ideas for those who don't want to get skinned by retailers. It's up to you to decide if you're going to get skinned by your mate for trying them!
- If flowers are a must then try to negotiate giving them the day before or the day after — or say that you'll surprise her sometime later. This works fine for me since my wife thinks that prices on the 14th are ridiculous too.
- Look for something else that is luvvy-duvvy but not explicitly “Valentine's Day” stuff. It probably won't be marked up. I got my wife a box of Cheerios with a heart-shaped bowl on the front. (I'm not making this up!)
- Plan for something a little different that doesn't involve lots of expensive purchases. This emphasizes the time spent together rather than the money spent.
