Romancing the Budget

We have always wanted to show to our loved ones that we love them right? Failure to express our love to them is somehow a "sin of omission". There are simple ways of showing our love to them. We don't need to mortgage our futures for jewelry, charter a jet to a secluded beach, or book a room in a posh hotel to live out that biblical command which is to love and respect our spouse. Here are simple activities that can keep the sizzle in romance and warmth in expressions of our love:

Outwit Hallmark. Give your spouse a homemade love card. Make it on the computer or cut out magazine pictures for the artwork. Extra points: Write an original poem. Unless you're an English teacher, don't worry about the meter and rhyme.

Note your affection. Dot the house with sticky notes expressing your appreciation of each other. Put them in odd places like in the baby's diaper stack ("I love you from the bottom of my heart"), by the toothpaste ("Thinking of you makes me smile"), or the sock drawer ("I'm glad you're my mate").

Send love for lunch. Decorate a spouse's lunch sack or write a sweet note on the paper napkin. Cut a heart out of the orange rind. Use a marking pen to apply your love message to a banana.

Come up with codes. One couple knows that "1-4-3," whether written or spoken, means "I Love You". (The numbers are the number of letters in each word.)

Make it a game. A husband came home to a love message spelled out on a Scrabble board on the living room floor. But be sure to pick it up before the kids awaken.

Leave love reminders. Let absence make the heart grow fonder. I know a wife who before leaving for a weekend conference created a "dummy" for their bed bu stuffing her silky black nightie with her husbands underwear and adding a note-"Can't wait to come home!" A husband leaves his wife notes to open each morning while he's away.

Dim the lights. Gather several small candles in a tray, light them, add some mugs of his/her favorite juice and lead your spouse to a special cuddle-and-talk- place.

Mark "monthiversaries". Grab the calendar and, each month, draw a big heart around the day of the month you were married. Celebrate simply, with a moonlight walk or romantic music on the stereo instead of TV news as dinner background.

Count up your love. Eight anniversary? Give your spouse something with 8 in it and something more original than 8 roses. She might just get excited over a note offering 8 hours away from the kids. He might appreciate 8 tokens for the automatic car wash.

Bag the nag. Do something your spouse has repeatedly asked you to do and you haven't done such as clean up the workbench or deep-clean you clothes closet. Make a big deal of this being your "love job" and be sure to do it cheerfully.