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This Valentine's Day, we're buying more love

Here’s another sign Americans are feeling a bit better about the economy: We’re willing to spend a bit more on Valentine’s Day flowers, cards and trinkets.American adults are expected to spend an average of $116.21 for Valentine’s Day gifts this year, according to a poll conducted by BIGresearch for the National Retail Federation.That’s a nearly 13 percent increase over the $103 America

Here’s another sign Americans are feeling a bit better about the economy: We’re willing to spend a bit more on Valentine’s Day flowers, cards and trinkets.

American adults are expected to spend an average of $116.21 for Valentine’s Day gifts this year, according to a poll conducted by BIGresearch for the National Retail Federation.

That’s a nearly 13 percent increase over the $103 Americans said they were spending last year, on average, for loved ones, friends, co-workers and classmates, according to the retail trade group.

The financial crisis put a serious damper on American’s willingness to splurge on flowers, jewelry and candy hearts. Valentine’s Day spending fell from an average of $122.98 in February 2008 to $102.50 in 2009.

This year, BIGresearch said it expects total spending to hit $15.7 billion. The results were based on a survey of about 9,000 people conducted in early January.

About $3.5 billion of that will be spent on jewelry, according to the survey.

Other popular items include dining out ($3.4 billion), flowers ($1.7 billion), candy ($1.5 billion) and greeting cards ($1.1 billion).

Even though spending is up, we all know money can’t buy love, right?

It can only buy happiness.