Brendan & Lori O'Gara

I’ve started seeing advertisements for that money snatching made up holiday. You know the one that is all hearts and flowers. The ads offer cute coffee mugs, T-shirts, posters, throw blankets and key fobs with sweet words of endearment and love. None of it we need in our lives. My husband and I have more coffee cups than should be allowed for two people. Due to my husband’s blanket obsession and my pillow hoarding we have plenty of the comfy items. Our wall space is full of bookshelves, though I have fallen for a poster or two in the past. As far as cute couples’ T-shirts go, my favorite set says “I like his beard”, mine and his “I like her butt” which gets us funny looks and giggles when we wear them.

Since this year I have made a conscious decision to not impulse buy I am attempting to ignore all advertising. Instead of falling prey to the heart wrenching tactics of these love peddling snake oil salesmen, I simply let myself say, “Aw” when I see an adorable message and keep scrolling. If the sentiment is especially heart fluttering I copy it and send it to my love in a text. Sometimes I send him the ad and say imagine I got you this. He knows I love him and I smile. Same result without the spending.

Do yourself a favor, don’t let the pressure of purchasing such fodder for a made up ridiculous holiday make you waste money on things that you don’t need.

Instead, use the words or better yet your own words to tell your favorite human everyday day how important they are to you.

How do you resist the emotion induced gift buying?