Budget gifts for your love

Valentine's Day, the day of love, is only four days away.

Did you procrastinate and wait until the last minute? If so, you still have time to get creative while being thoughtful and not blowing your budget.

Here are some affordable ideas to show your sweetheart you care (even though it's last-minute):

Give lottery tickets. You can choose ones such as "Lucky in Love" to get your romantic message across.

Make a gift basket. Put together a fun basket with the ingredients to make S'Mores and include a card that says, "Every day I love you S'More!"

Create a handmade card. If you need inspiration, borrow a poem from poemslovers.com. But even something simple from the heart would be sure to impress.

Fun with conversation hearts. Cut out at least 100 hearts from different colors of construction paper. Stick them up all over his or her room, car or office. Write cute, silly or romantic sayings on some of them.

Really say it with flowers. Don't just pick up the nearest rose bouquet at the grocery store -- flowers have meanings and you'll look really smart and thoughtful if you can explain why you chose the flowers you did. For example, dandelions represent being faithful. Gloxinas mean love at first sight. Heliotropes mean enduring love and devotion. Pink flowers mean friendship. And red, of course, represents love.

Dinner ideas. An indoor picnic for two (get a picnic basket and dine on a tablecloth on the floor). Make spaghetti and meatballs and eat while listening to "Bella Notte" (like "Lady and the Tramp").

Give a magazine subscription. There are great deals at tanga.com and magazineline.com.

If you have a last-minute Valentine's Day idea, share it with me. You can comment on the online Savvy Shopper column or connect via email at CharlestonSavvyShopper@postandcourier.com. You also can follow us on Twitter at @chssavvyshopper and on Facebook.Be sure to check out the latest deals, giveaways and freebies at the Charleston Savvy Shopper blog.