Valentine's Day Alternatives for the Too-Tired-to-Celebrate

Agree to spend money you might have allocated for each other's gifts this Valentine's Day on something that will make your life easier for at least one week. Hire someone to clean your bathrooms and dust your shelves. Hire a sitter for a day and meet girlfriends for lunch and shopping—or go by yourself and enjoy some quiet alone time.

Present your husband with a list of five tasks you've been asking him to complete, but have yet to be accomplished. Ask him to complete them—or hire someone to do so—by the end of Valentine's Day week. This might sound boring, but any woman who has been asking her husband to complete this and that around the house seemingly for years knows what a wonderful gift it would be to actually check them off the list. Your husband may complain that with this type of gift request, you are turning Valentine's Day into a women-only occasion, but truly, what better aphrodisiac is there than your husband arranging to have some of your daily work taken off of your plate (or finally completing some of his own)? Mention this fact, and I can just about guarantee he'll be scouring the yellow pages in search of a good cleaning or handyman service.