Now that Christmas has come and gone, many of us have probably been sitting around thinking about how we can finally save some money. Because let’s face it, the festive period has pretty much bankrupt us.

However, for those of us in relationships this isn’t the case, because as soon as Christmas and New Year ends, there’s another holiday for us to save for – Valentine’s Day.

Yes, the day of love celebrated throughout the world to honour Saint Valentine is probably filling some of us with dread. This isn’t just on the money front, but will also have many wondering what to buy and where to buy it. It can also be a pricey and time-consuming exercise getting the right Valentine’s gift.

Below we’ll look at how you can save time and money when buying Valentine’s Day cards and gifts this year.

Save time

You may not automatically think of it as being time-consuming, but just think about it for a moment. Those weekend trips spent to the shops will often see you walking around for hours on end looking for lovely little keepsakes. But, more often than not you’ll end up going home disappointed. That’s not even taking into consideration the time spent on your precious work lunch break sneaking into the shops.  I’m sure the last thing you want to do is to go shopping in the middle of your working day. So, why don’t you just do it online?

Whether you’re at home or on the train to work, load up the laptop or your phone and start looking. You’ll find gifts you won’t find on the High Street, and get inspiration that you wouldn’t have before, all the while sitting down, chilling and saving on that otherwise stressfully wasted time.

The best way to save time is to know exactly what you are looking for.  That way you won’t waste hours wandering around stores or browsing online.  Have a good think and come up with some ideas instead of aimlessly browsing not knowing what to buy.  If you’re stuck for your own ideas then search for gift guides online to help you out.

If you’ve a man who says he wants nothing, then check out this huge list of unique gift ideas for him.

A woman who has everything?  Check out these gift ideas for her.

If you've left it to the last minute, or don't want to spend much time thinking about the gift anymore, here are some great ideas for last minute Valentine's Gifts.

Save money

Although you will spend money (unless you go for my gift guide idea of nothing) you can usually save money by doing your shopping online.  There are so many tricks and tips to make a saving online that you never have to pay full price.  I wrote this blog post about 6 ways to save money when Christmas shopping, but it totally applies to any online shopping, even for Valentine’s Day.   

Shopping online means you get to compare prices to get the best price possible.  You can also check out discount sites and search for promo codes that you’d not get when shopping in-person in a store.  To maximise discounts you can often get cash back on your online purchases if shopping with well-known retailers and you can even find sites that sell discounted gift cards to make your purchase and save even more!  Phew!

Here's a list of the best UK cashback sites to get started!

Final word 

Now that you know how to save both your time and money this Valentine’s Day, why not make yourself a cuppa, sit down and casually get the gifts sorted at your own pace.