Happy Valentine's Day 2009 - Love & Money

Hello lovestruck readers and Happy Valentine's Day 2009! Today's the day when people profess their love for each other or in some cases their love for money. Whichever your situation may be, The Monetizer wants to spread some love on this sweet, sweet holiday...

You may have already noticed that the big G has a red-inspired Google logo theme today, and clicking that theme will take you to Valentine's Day search results. There you can read about the history of Valentine's Day, which many know is based on Saint Valentine and is mainly a holiday for lovers to express their love for one another...

There's also an interesting article within those search results from San Francisco Chronicle regarding Valentine's day and lovers spending less on each other. One individual in the articles notes that he's changed his 2 day Valentine's day holiday into a 1 day celebration. Basically he can't justify buying $100 worth of roses when his neighbor recently lost his job. According to the article V-day spending will drop about 4.8% this year, going down to $28.6 billion. Some of those who will be feeling the tightening budgets will be hotels, restaurants and flower services. Read the full article here at SFGate.com

But you can still share the love this Valentine's day and weekend. The Monetizer has found some cool deals online you may want to utilize. One is the Free Breakfast that IKEA is serving customers from February 13-16th each morning until 10:30AM. It may be too late to take your sweety to a V-Day breakfast, but Sunday and Monday could be your Valentine's day breakfast celebration. There's also several compelling restaurant deals so you can still take your sweetheart to a great meal. One example is TGI Friday's Buy One Get One Free Entree deal, just print the coupon out here. If you have Texas Roadhouse in your vicinity, they are offering a Valentine's Day deal of 2 entrees for $29.99 complete with 2 made-from-scratch sides! The choices include Baby Blossom, BBQ Chicken & Ribs, 12oz. Ribeye Steak and 12oz. Prime Rib. John Chow eat your heart out! (not literally) But nothing says I love you like a good plate of ribs or a nice hunk of steak. Texas Roadhouse's deal extends through Sunday February 15th with details and pictures here.

Now how about some mood music for today's lovefest? Amazon.com is offering Dean Martin Love Songs MP3 Album for just $2.99 today only! Even better, Let's Get It On by Marvin Gaye is FREE!. So you could technically just loop that track all day long if you really want to save money, however The Monetizer doesn't recommend it! You may want to purchase your lover a sweet iPod Nano to go with the music as well...

No matter how you choose to spend Valentine's day whether it be wining and dining your sweetie, watching romantic movies, or counting your money made online, The Monetizer wishes you nothing but love for Valentine's Day 2009!