Purchase a heart-shaped cake pan and bake an "I Love You Cake" that you decorate yourself. This can be easier than you think with pre-made tubes and cans of specialty icing you can find at cookware stores.

Take some time and recall fun memories that you and your love have had over the years. Compose the list into a card or letter that you can give as a way for both of you to continue remembering the good times for years to come. Shannon gave me one a few years ago, and I still have it setting on our mantle and read it several times a year.

Instead of buying a $4 fancy card, buy a $2 box of 30 student cards (the kind the kids give at school). Then on the back of each card write something you love about your spouse. Seal each one in its own individual envelop and find a clever way to give to your love. I've tried this idea with Shannon two different times. Once I mailed them all in a big envelop to her work, and she was the talk of the building (her coworkers loved the idea). Another time I hid them all over the house and she had to hunt for them. This was also a big hit!

If you want to give roses and your love is money-wise and wouldn't take offense, go to a large grocery store that has a flower case on the day after Valentine's Day. If they have any roses left they will likely be 50% or 75% off! Shannon won't let me buy roses at high prices, but she loves them if I can get them at a reasonable price...even if they are a day late.

Finally, if you have the opportunity and live in a town with a lot of musical talent you can arrange for your wife to be serenaded while out to dinner. Your town might have a barbershop quartet and they would probably get a kick out of such an idea. Also, if you live near a college that has a chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (a professional music fraternity) they would likely serenade your sweetheart with their own sweetheart song, "A Serenade to a Girl at Evening."