Price of romance
Annual ‘Cost of Loving’ index shows you’ll pay about same in 2019 for gifts for your beloved
Fear not, Houston lovebirds. The cost of going all out to celebrate Valentine’s Day with your significant other won’t break the bank much more than it did last year.
The combined price of nine popular Valentine gifts in 2019 rose half a percent to $1,234.11, according to the annual “Cost of Loving Index” compiled by Houston Asset Management.
Most gifts — such as a bottle of Simi Chardonnay ($30), movie tickets for two ($25.86) and Chanel No. 5 perfume ($340) — remained the same as last year. A candlelight dinner for two at Cafe Annie, the priciest item on the list at $346, went up 1.2 percent.
There were two gifts that saw large year-over-year price swings: The delivery of a dozen long-stemmed red roses in a vase costs $151.55 this year, up 7.7 percent from last year; a silk nightie from Victoria’s Secret went the other way, dropping 12.5 percent to $59.50.
“Lingerie took a huge drop, something you don’t see very much,” said Bob Frater, chief executive of Houston Asset Management. “Maybe it’s a passé thing, something that older people did, but not something that millennials would buy for their sweetheart.”
The Cost of Loving Index, inspired by the federal government’s “cost of living” indicator known as the Consumer Price Index, has risen all but three years since Houston Asset Management began tracking its Valentinethemed basket of goods in 1990.
The Houston investment advisory firm began tracking the unscientific Cost of Loving Index to illustrate the impact of inflation on everything from the cost of everyday items to stock portfolios. Over the past two decades, the firm’s basket of Valentine gifts has more than doubled, up from about $600 in 1990.
“People tend to forget about inflation,” said Frater, a certified financial planner. “That’s the whole point of this Cost of Loving Index: To humanize the concept of inflation and make
you realize it has a material impact on our standard of living.”
The Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates over the past year to hold down inflation as the U.S. economy has slowly recovered from the 2008 recession. Nevertheless, Frater said he expected his Cost of Loving Index will rise slightly next year.
Over the past three decades, the cost of Chardonnay and a box of Godiva chocolates has remained fairly steady, while a candlelight dinner, a designer silk tie and the delivery of a dozen red roses have shot up. A Valentine’s Day card from Hallmark saw the biggest increase, jumping from $1.75 in 1990 to $6.25 in 2019.
“It’s ridiculous that a piece of cardboard with a picture on it would cost $6.25,” Frater said. “Talk about a good margin.”
Valentine’s Day spending is expected to total $20.7 billion this year, an increase of 6 percent from the previous year, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation.
About two-thirds of Americans plan to shower their partners with gifts to mark the holiday. Americans on average are expected to spend a record $161.96 this Valentine’s Day, up 13 percent from the past year, according to the retailer trade group.
Men tend to outspend women on Valentine’s Day by a factor of five, according to a recent study by Bankrate.com. Men will spend an average of $339 on their significant other, while women will spend $64 on average.
Millennials are likely to splurge the most, spending $266 on average, according to the financial website.
Despite all this talk about gifts, showing affection on Valentine’s Day should be priceless, Frater said.
“Recognizing the people you love is what’s important on Valentine’s Day,” Frater said. “The things you say and do are way more important to me than any of these gifts. But if you listen to Madonna, we are in a materialistic society. Words can’t do it all.”