Valentine’s Day Coupon – Reader’s Creative Gift Idea

This month, I am publishing a description of a creative Valentine’s Day gift submitted by one of our readers – Zawieruszka.  I would like to congratulate the giver on his great idea for a Valentine’s Day coupon and its rendition, and Zawieruszka – on a creative husband!

Zawieruszka wrote:

I received the most interesting present I have ever encountered on my first Valentine’s Day with my husband – who was still my boyfriend back then. It was a Valentine’s Day coupon written in pink ink on A4 paper, decorated with pictures of animals that represented our pet names. What is more, these pictures were arranged in the shape of a heart (my husband searched the Internet and found an appropriate design!). To top it all, there were tear-away coupons attached to all four sides!

According to this voucher, I won the “Bear of the Year” competition and could enjoy the prize in the form of various entertainments listed on the coupons. These included e.g.: “Visit to a sushi restaurant or a restaurant with other strange food”, “Day without grumbling = penalty kiss for every attempt at complaints” etc. Although I didn’t remember cutting off the coupons, I referred to my gift throughout the year to remind my Loved One that I was the one who dictated the rules 🙂

Advantages of the Valentine’s Day coupon

The advantages of the Valentine’s Day coupon, which may also be given for anniversary, birthday, name day or Christmas, make it one of the best examples of creative gifts. Firstly, the making of a Valentine’s Day coupon costs next to nothing. Secondly, the things offered may be much more valuable than the most expensive presents (who wouldn’t enjoy a “day without grumbling”?). Thirdly, if you put some effort into it and use your creativity, like Zawieruszka’s husband did, your Valentine’s Day coupon will bring joy due to both its content and its form – different for each couple!

My Valentine’s Day coupon

I have once given such a voucher to my Husband, too. It was his Christmas present, and had a slightly different story. First of all, it didn’t occur to me that I could offer him something intangible. For over a month, I had been listening to his quandaries concerning the purchase of a LED tape. I thought I would help him decide by giving him a voucher representing a specific amount. This way I wanted him to know that I supported his idea, but I didn’t want to make the decision for him. I didn’t spend money on a real voucher, which might eventually be wasted if he changed his mind. Instead, I created an appropriate voucher on my own, modelling it on an authentic group buying coupon.

The effect may not be as cute as the animals forming a heart on Zawieruszka’s Valentine’s Day coupon, but I had also put a lot of time and effort in personalising my gift. In the “service provider” field, I wrote the real address data of Santa Claus; I wrote an encouraging product description and pasted a photo found on the Internet. As regards the resemblance of my voucher to group buying coupons, it was a wink at my Husband, who was once related to this kind of merchandise.

This is what it looked like:

What can you offer on a Valentine’s Day Coupon?

Here are some of the things I wrote on Christmas coupons for my Husband:

• 10 kisses
• a day without grumbling
• breakfast prepared by your partner
• supper prepared by your partner
• a day without waking up in the morning
• ducking out of house cleaning
• ducking out of washing the dishes
• ducking out of changing baby’s diaper
• winning a row without valid arguments
• irresponsible spending of $50.

Has any of you ever given your loved ones a similar Valentine’s Day coupon? Or perhaps you would like to be promised a relaxing massage, an evening together, a day without chores or a breakfast in bed? Possibilities are endless! Share your ideas, and show this post to your second half. Who knows, maybe the Valentine’s Day coupon will soon become your favourite creative gift!

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Specially for the Valentine’s Day, I created three designs of printable coupons for you to download!

Each set contains one Valentine’s Day Coupon for 10 kisses, one empty Valentine’s Day Coupon to be printed and filled by hand, and one empty Valentine’s Day Coupon that may be filled on the computer in a graphic editor.

Set 1 – Red Valentine’s Day Coupons

Set 2 – Pink Valentine’s Day Coupons

Set 3 – Violet Valentine’s Day Coupons

My advice:

– I encourage you to personalise your coupons. In my opinion, the idea is as important as the final result, and your loved ones will appreciate it no matter if you are a professional computer graphic designer or have drawn them with crayons on an ordinary piece of paper.

– However, if you have good ideas for the content of your coupons, but are not so keen on creating their graphic design, you may like one of the free printable vouchers presented on: http://freebies.about.com/od/valentines-day-freebies/tp/printable-love-coupons.htm