With Valentine’s Day only a fortnight away, it’s a good time to start thinking about a gift for your sweetie.

If you’re on a tight budget this year, these gift ideas will help you celebrate Valentine’s Day and save money.

Today, I’ll show you where to buy the classics — flowers, chocolate and champagne — cheaply. (Mostly in Australia, but with a few tips for overseas readers.)

Tomorrow, I’ve got some creative Valentine’s Day gift ideas for you.

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Where to find some great bargains — the sales I take the time to attend.

(This week, we’ve got sales for Sydney, Melbourne and U.S. readers.)

My favourite web articles this week:

DIY: Whiten your Teeth with Strawberries
A cheap way to make your pearly whites sparkle.

An oldie but a goodie
SRR raids the dark corners of her wardrobe for some new outfits. Check out the results.

Men, Valentine’s Day is not optional, and complaining about the blatant commercialism of the day will not make it go away.

That said, you don’t have to spend a fortune to show your appreciation for your partner. The five tips below will help you come up with some great ideas Valentine’s Day ideas that won’t break the budget.

(Of course, these tips aren’t just for men…)

This time of year, the post-Christmas sales are coming to an end, and stores really want to get rid of the last of this season’s stock to make room for all the new deliveries that are about to arrive.

It sounds like a great time to find bargains… but not everything that’s on sale will be a great buy. If you don’t need it or it isn’t quite right for you, it doesn’t become a bargain…

Valentines Day is less than a month away, so if you

Valentines Day is less than a month away, so if you’d like to treat your honey and save money, it’s a good idea to start planning now.

Here’s some ideas of Valentines Day dates that will cost you $20 or less, for both of you.

(Two ideas today; two more tomorrow.)

My favourite web articles for the last week:

Credit Controversy
Is it better to pay with cash or a credit card (paid off every month of course)?

Personal Stylist Series, Part 1: Color makes you slimmer
Tips for using colour in your outfits, from a professional stylist. (Not the usual ‘black is slimming’, either!)

The Budget Fashionista’s Second Annual Shopping Survey
Take the survey to help The Budget Fashionista learn more about people’s shopping habits.

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The Sydney blogger meet-up last night was a great event. Here’s what some other Sydney bloggers had to say about it:

• Sydney blogger meet-up
• Community-Minded
• To be noted, be noteworthy

(If any other bloggers write about the evening, send me an email and I’ll add your link.)

Once upon a time, fashion sample sales were strictly insider events. Now, there are ads for sample sales everywhere… except that a lot of those heavily promoted sales aren’t really sample sales at all. The real sample sales are barely advertised and rarely use the words ’sample sale’ in their ads, so only insiders can tell that they’re sample sales.

Sounds confusing? I’ll cut the confusion by explaining what a real sample sale is, how to…