Valentine’s Day Shopping Habits: Survey Results

It’s that time of year again, when kids bring valentines to school, romantics make grand gestures and the flower and chocolate businesses boom. We’ve polled Shopkick users to find out what kind of gift giving they are planning this year, and how gender, family, and age come into play.

According to our survey, men are spending more than twice as much as women: an average of $207.60 on their significant other and $70.24 on their children. On the other half of the heart, women plan to spend $89.54 on their sweeties and $40.30 on the little ones.

Some more key insights on Valentine’s day shopper behavior include:

  • Guys are more giving: More men (40 percent) than women (31 percent) believe it’s “very important” to give a Valentine’s Day gift
  • But most don’t care about getting in return: Fifty-five percent of men don’t find it at all important to receive a gift, and not many of either gender find it very important; only 17 percent of women and 11 percent of men
  • Getting crafty: Women are more likely than men to make a gift (15 percent vs. 7 percent) or give experiences (16 percent vs. 10 percent)
  • Tried and true: The most popular gifts are the traditional dinner out (27 percent) or flowers and chocolate (21 percent)

And finally, despite the reports that having children kills romance, mom and dad still plan to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Seventy-six percent of parents consider themselves romantic and 38 percent start planning the big day a month in advance; 55 percent are more excited about Valentine’s Day since becoming a parent.

Wishing all of our partners and friends a very happy V-day!

How to earn money by downloading apps—for free

I was recently in the market for a new piece of art, so I set out to find a bit of extra money in my budget. I love to buy new art, pick it out, and then take my time (usually with a glass of red wine) finding the perfect place to put it. But, of course, I love it all the more when I can buy art with money that I’ve managed to get for free.

earn money downloading appsSo, I went into savings mode, which in this case consisted of me mentioning to my girls at spin class that I’m trying to find the money in my budget to get some new art. One of my friends, Lety, told me she had just the idea: I could earn money by downloading apps—for free. I was enthralled. I mean, for a long time I’ve been using shopping rewards apps that let me get paid to shop, but the idea that there are other apps out there I could also download to save money? Well, it seemed to me like this was one way to get my painting in no time!

Lety and I started swapping ideas, and by the end of our little brainstorming session we’d come up with quite the list! Here are just a few of the best ways we landed on to earn money by downloading apps for free.   

Earn Money by Downloading Apps for Surveys

Lety started things off by asking me how I felt about taking surveys. I told her I wasn’t opposed to them, even though I really hadn’t taken very many. She nodded and told me that she had found a way to earn money by downloading apps that simply pays users to take surveys. Lety had started using an app called iPoll, and I too was immediately on board. I was thrilled at how simple iPoll was! With iPoll, you download the app—which is, of course, free—and then you fill out some brief information about yourself so it can match you to surveys that are relevant to you. Each survey takes 15 to 20 minutes, and you can take as many or as few as you’d like. Most surveys pay a few dollars, and once you get $35 in your account, you can cash out! It’s super easy.

Earn Money by Downloading Apps and Swiping on Ads

The next app that Lety told me about is ideal for people like me who sometimes have weeks where they are beyond busy. In fact, to use this app, you don’t have to do much at all. It’s called SlideJoy and it actually pays you just for putting ads on your Android device.

When you use Slidejoy, every time you check your Android phone, you’ll see a card that has a news story on it or an advertisement. From there, you either slide right to ignore the ad and return to using your phone as normal; slide up to see another card; or slide left to learn a bit more, although you don’t get any extra money for clicking on an ad. In other words, you could slide right every single time and still get paid the same as if you slid left or up. In my early experience, using this app has paid between $5 and $15 each month. It’s not that much, but combined with the other apps on our list, it can really add up!

Earn Money by Downloading Apps – Shopkick

After Lety so generously shared her recommendations with me, it was time for me to return the favor. So, I told her about my personal favorite way to earn money by downloading apps: Shopkick! I absolutely love Shopkick, for a few different reasons. How Shopkick works is that it gives you points for all things you do when you’re out shopping already—things like just walking into stores, scanning the barcodes of certain items to learn more about them, and, of course, making purchases. When you’ve accumulated your points, you can trade them in for gift cards to all your favorite stores and start to save serious money!

At this point, Lety had a great question: what about shopping online? Well, with Shopkick you can earn points shopping online, too! You get the points for visiting online stores, watching videos about products, or making purchases.

With Shopkick you can earn points shopping online, too! You get the points for visiting online stores, watching videos about products, or making purchases.

Anyway, between the two of us, we came up with this nice little list, and we both set off to reap our savings. While I’m getting much closer to being able to splurge on some new art for my home, to be totally honest I think I’ll keep using all three of these apps long after I’ve found and framed and hung up my new painting.

Why wouldn’t I? I mean, I’ve already been using Shopkick for a pretty long time now, and the savings just keep piling up! I don’t think I’ll ever go back to the way shopping was before. This way is just too much fun.

Learn more about the best ways to earn money by downloading a free app today. Download Shopkick’s free app and get ready to be wowed. Welcome to the fun!

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Image courtesy Kasia Bialasiewicz.