This is how much Valentine's Day will cost you this year

The post below originally appeared on Bankrate.com

Valentine's Day can be a great opportunity to celebrate a partner, friends or family -- as long as you don't let it blow up your budget.

To try and gauge the cost of the holiday, Bankrate put together the Be My Valentine Index, incorporating all the usual Valentine's staples: a dozen red roses, chocolates, a nice dinner for two, jewelry and champagne. This year's Be My Valentine Index, drawn from our own price surveys, as well as market research companies NPD Group and Nielsen, is $512.02, and we'll keep tabs on it in future years to see where the price goes. While it's not like Christmas, where going overboard can mean months of credit card bills to contend with, Valentine's Day does exert considerable pressure to spend, says Ron Hill, Naclerio Chair at the Villanova University School of Business in Villanova, Pennsylvania.

"For most couples, the expectation is there regardless of what the economic situation is," Hill says. "Love is one of the few things that we think has that infinite value," making it tough to scrimp on Valentine's Day celebrations even when they may not be in the budget. A boost during the lull That makes it a powerful tool for businesses to boost sales, says Priya Raghubir, a professor of marketing at New York University's Stern School of Business.

"Is it a gimmick? No. Is it a festival which marketers have leveraged relentlessly to make a dime? Yes," Raghubir says. "The winter is normally not an ideal time to go shopping because it's cold, it's rainy. People have just had a load of gifts, both that they have bought for others and that they have received. So it's something to try and get them to spend a little more."

Check out the video above for a look at where prices are for some of the most commonly purchased Valentine's Day items.