For the first time in a long time I didn't get my gf anything. We're saving our money because we may have a move coming soon.
If anyone wants any tips on how to do it right especially for under 100 bucks, my first 2 years were pretty much spot on.
First year I got her a Scottie Dog Stuffed Animal (my first name is Scott) with a silver pendant type of thing, and I tried to order flowers, but if you lived in the area and remembered that year, there was a huge snow storm and she lived in Philly, if you know anything about Philly, they don't plow side steets ever so my 1800Flowers order never came. Got a refund and used that to get different flowers later. We didn't go out Valentine's Night because I had to work and we went out the night before and dropped about 200 bucks on food and beer. I have no clue why they kept serving us. We got into a fight over what songs to play on the Jukebox. She also did great that year, got me an Ommegang Chalice (which is still my only drinking vessel for big belgians) and an Ommegang Hoodie which though it has some holes, I still wear.
The following year we had less money because she didn't have a full time job and I wasn't in sales anymore (and the economy was in the crapper to boot) so I got her a nice flower arrangement and baked her cupcakes. Which I'll discuss after the setup. Because of the year before and not gettnig her flowers she was worried about not getting them again, and was interviewing for a job in New York. Long story short her interview went terrible and I kept texting her that I didn't think the Flowers would come (they did thankfully or I would have felt bad) and she walked in the door sad and I had laid out nearly on our coffee table her roses and this cupcake.
even though I didn't succeed in making a great looking strawberry heart, it worked out well. BTW I don't have the recipe on hand but that's one of the best cupcakes I've ever had (certainly the best I've made) base is a simple chocolate with the middle scooped out and filled with a strawberry whipped cream, and topped with a chocolate cream cheese frosting. It's so fatty but so good.