This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Dollar General for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Saying I love you (or just “Hey happy Valentine’s Day”) really shouldn’t cost a ton of money.  It’s a holiday made exclusively to get you to spend money.  It doesn’t celebrate an anniversary or special event… in reality it doesn’t celebrate much at all.  I’m a firm believer that we should all show our love for others year round.  All that said, it doesn’t mean that I’m off the hook for my kids needing to take valentine’s cards to friends.  Nor am I off the hook on getting my husband something.

This year I decided to get a little creative with our valentine’s day gear and stay on a tight budget too.  My girls are mostly friends with boys, that’s part of being country girls I think.  So any old valentine wouldn’t do.  We needed boy things… what better than dinosaurs?

I grabbed a pack of 10 Dinos from our Dollar General for $2.  Then found some glitter ribbon in the Christmas clearance section for 25¢ (if you haven’t hit that section then run right now, everything is a quarter).  I already had index cards at home, so we used those for the back.  The girls thought up fun phrases and we got to work.

Fold the card where you want to cut a spot for the dino’s head or tail to fit through, make sure to cut two slits so that the head will pop back out to the front of the card.  Attach each dino in two places so it doesn’t fall off.  Then write your message.

A few ideas:

Have a T-Rex-rific Valentine’s Day!
You’re TriceraTOPS on my list.
You’re Dino-mite.
Be my Valentine-o-saurus.

I know our end result may not be gorgeous, but my girls wanted to do this themselves.  I made the first one and watched while they did all the rest.  In the end that is how projects should be, it’s not about having them be a gorgeous Pinterest picture, it’s about everyone getting to help and enjoying the moment!

For my husband I grabbed a nice 50¢ card (yep, cards at DG are 2 for $1) and then got some mugs to make him a personalized gift.  I have seen all over the place about baking mugs decorated with sharpie pens to make them permanent.  So I tried my hand at it.

While the mug turned out very cute… it didn’t turn over very permanent.  I baked it for 30 minutes at 400° and then let it cool, but the color does come off over time.  I decided to still give it to him and maybe turn it into a mug that is more like a chalk board… and I change the saying every week or so!  I also grabbed him a box of chocolate for $1.

For my girls I usually give them a Valentine’s Day box that they can share with stickers and other random goodies.  My DG has a wall of $1 items that were perfect for this!

In total I spent right at $10 for everything.  We have our group valentine’s day cards made, and family gifts covered!  More importantly everyone knows they are loved and we had a lot of fun doing it.