How to spend under $20 on a perfect romantic Valentines dinner

Funny thing about holidays like Valentines day it is a holiday created by retailers to sell their products and we accept it as a social norm to treat it as the day we celebrate the ones we love.  Now don't get me wrong, I think it is wonderful to set aside a day to celebrate those we love.  I just think it is silly that we buy into this strange list of rules that says we must do it on this day and we must do it in a particular way.  Buying your significant other a gift, or telling them that you love them with a card shouldn't be limited to one holiday in the year.  My husband and I have never celebrated Valentines day and as I am reading more about how much people spend every year I must say we will probably continue not celebrating it.  Retailers and restaurants push for higher sales on this day through almost guilt like advertisements.  And restaurants, well don't expect that to be the highlight of your night if you don't like waiting.  The average restaurant sees its dinner rush swell to over double and will leave you and your significant other waiting a long time to even just sit down.  Again I will say there is nothing wrong if you want to choose to celebrate Valentines day, I think it is just also important to not get so caught up in the marketing that you feel you have to spend a lot of money.  Instead of an expensive dinner try cooking up a private romantic dinner at home.  If you have kids arrange with either a family member to watch them or if you have friends with kids arrange to watch their kids for one evening in exchange for them to watch yours.  This will give you both the opportunity to have a quiet moment alone.  For my husband and myself we choose a day last week to celebrate, we just found out that we are going to be having a little girl so our day was a celebration of our love and what that love created.  For under $20 we had an incredible dinner that we would have had to pay at least $40 dollars for at a restaurant.  Just remember saying I love you doesn't have to be through spending a lot of money, it is those quiet unexpected moments that speak the loudest.  Offer to be the one that cleans up the kitchen while your spouse sits down with a glass of wine.  Or secretly arranging for a kid free evening just with the two of you.  And don't forget the other 364 days of the year.