It's the month of love again and what do have planned on that special day? Forget about expensive gifts! Love isn't about that. Here are nine *cheap* but equally effective things you can do on Valentine's Day for your partner, your family, or anyone you want to express your love to:

1. Put together a compilation of twelve of the most romantic songs you and your partner both enjoy and love to hear into a cassette tape of a CD. Go through your CDs and tapes of love songs and pick those you think are the most romantic for you and your loved one. If you can't record any of these, you can go to your nearest music store and find a CD of love instrumentals. For as little as P250 per CD, this is pretty cheap! If you want to give your parents something, why not look for that CD or tape your mom or pop has always wanted but has never gotten around to buying? That Platters or Beatles CD or tape could very well be the thing your parents would need to cheer them up on Valentine's.

    

2. Prepare a special candlelight dinner for two. Nothing fancy, and the food could be your partner's favorite. So what if it's paella? Or that beef nilaga that he or she likes? The important thing is you have prepared something special for the two of you.

    

3. Call into action those trusty romantics -- Byron, Shakespeare, and Frost, to name a few. They have written some of the world's most romantic poems. You can go to your local library, copy several of their poems. Using one of those artsy computer programs like Paintshop Pro, add little hearts and some graphics and use fancy fonts. Print the poems on good quality paper, add a hard cover, bind it and you now have a collection of love poems you can give your loved one.

    

4. If you'd rather take the plunge to love without the help of the poets mentioned above, then by all means write your own love poem, print it out, sign it, personalize it, have it framed (inexpensive frame, of course!) and give it to your loved one on V-day.

    

5. Put together a collection of those cheap inspirational or motivational books (those soft cover ones you can buy in Christian bookstores), wrap it in one package. With this gift, you'll give your loved one not only love itself, but the God who is the ultimate source of love.

    

6. If your partner love to listen to a particular radio station, why not call the station and give a special request? Most radio stations welcome caller requests. You can request you and your partner's love song to be played, along with a short dedication from you. Make sure though that your loved one gets to hear this.

    

7. On the morning of Valentine's Day, get up early and write "I love you" on the bathroom mirror using a red lipstick. When your partner wakes up, this will be the first thing he or she will get to see and this will surely put a smile on his or her face. An alternative to the red lipstick is to write the words using a shaving cream; or you can cut out letters and tape them on the mirror (if you don't like getting messy with the lipstick or shaving cream).

    

8. Make up a three-day Valentine marathon. Depending on when you want to start it, you can start stuffing surprises in places where your loved one will be most likely to see it. Let's say on February 12, you hide some heart-shaped chocolates on his/her drawer. When he finds it, he'll read the note you stuck saying that there'll be another surprise the next day. On February 13, stuff a valentine card on his attache or her hand bag. Then on the big day, why not let him wake up in a room decorated with hearts or any other Valentine motif?

    

9. On Valentine's Day, why not bring your loved one breakfast in bed? Oh, and while you're at it, why not put a single red rose to go with that? This Valentine's Day, express your love to the people who matter to you. You don't have to spend a lot of money to be able to do that. Just the simple things we enumerated to you would suffice and are just the things to do to top any expensive gifts!