12 roses: £30; Meal out: £80; Gift: £50 (all prices plucked out of the air)
The soon to be Mrs TitanLX doesn't want flowers, a meal in a restaurant, chocolates or a present for Valentines day. That's one in the eye for the greedy companies flooding the market with overpriced crap they try to force us to buy to 'prove' our love for our partners one night a year.
(TitanLX, Mon 14 Feb 2011, 17:19, 7 replies)

Mrs Moon Monkey has the opposite problem:
Having grown up an impoverished peasant in a third-world country, she didn't have much in the way of birthday / xmas presents or parties. So she has some unresolved issues about such things.

At the start of our relationship, I tried to deal with that. But gradually I realised that, no matter what I did or how much I spent, I could never compete with her neuroses.

So now I don't bother. Yes, I'm in trouble every time, but I'd be in trouble whatever I did, so it makes no difference.

Win!
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Mon 14 Feb 2011, 17:46, closed)

make her a voucher booklet
with vouchers in it for such things as foot rub, back rub, bubble bath, doing the dishes, stuff like that. she can redeem them whenever she wants, which will give her the feeling that she's won one over you when you say you don't want to do the dishes, then she pulls out a voucher.
it's a good idea to include a "wild card" voucher, which she can use for absolutely anything(short of getting you to commit murder, of course) at any time. that way, when she says you've got her the wrong thing, you just tell her to use the voucher to get exactly what she wants. then, if it's still wrong, it's her own fault and not yours.
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Mon 14 Feb 2011, 18:02, closed)

So, you're saying that
a woman's place is in the kitchen, washing up but, if she's lucky, she might be able to get out of it once in a while?
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Mon 14 Feb 2011, 19:31, closed)

not at all
i believe that couples should always share the household chores. if, however, it's her turn to wash the dishes and she's tired or just doesn't want to, she can use the voucher to get him to do it instead.
now, i know you may say that if they love each other e should be happy to do the dishes without complaint and vice versa, but come on, it never works like that. some of the worst arguments couples have are over the pettiest of things, dishwashing included.
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Mon 14 Feb 2011, 20:08, closed)

She also needs to hold down a full time job to buy beer.

(waxdart hello., Tue 15 Feb 2011, 9:50, closed)

That's great
My boyfriend made me the best card ever and that was enough - he'd thought about *me* and no amount of money could ever compare :) Yay for being non-materialistic!
(Petite chien is going to do science to it, Mon 14 Feb 2011, 19:52, closed)

Me too
I hope I show Mr Fluffles I love him every day of the year, not just Feb 14th, and also, if he wants to do any sort of grand romantic gesture, I'd rather it was on ANY other day, so that I know he actually means it and didn't just buy me stuff/take me somewhere "romantic" because he "has to".

However, my cynicism of all things Valentine-related didn't stop me sending him this link today: mathworld.wolfram.com/HeartCurve.html
(grandmasterfluffles Come to my Armageddon party on, Mon 14 Feb 2011, 20:51, closed)