Love is possibly blind, but it is definitely pretty stupid - particularly at this time of year. You don't have to have a heart of stone to recognise that St Valentine's Day is an expensive business and one in which people are prone to losing the run of themselves.

Despite their sky-high prices, roses sell by the shedload and costly chocolates in heart-shaped boxes fly off the shelves. The lucky couples who have been organised enough get shoe-horned into dimly-lit restaurants where they will be asked to pay a for-one-night-only love tax to enjoy "special romantic dinners".

And then there are the cards. Approximately a quarter of a million cards will be handled by An Post this year and when cards that are hand delivered are taken into account we will have spent around €10m on expressing our love for each other in the cheesiest of ways. It's not called the Hallmark Holiday for nothing.

Many of those cards will be bought in Eason's. Martin Black, the general manager of the branch on Dublin's O'Connell St says that while text messaging and e-cards have taken a small slice of the St Valentine's pie, sending the real deal remains "hugely popular". Although Eason's has also started selling flowers, cuddly toys and chocolates, the cards "are still the backbone of the business".

He doesn't believe retailers can be blamed for ripping people off in the run up to the day. "From a retailer's point of view, St Valentine's Day is obviously very good but it is the consumers who are driving it," he says. "It is up to them, at the end of the day, and what they are willing to pay for."

While women are more likely to buy and send (comparatively cheap) cards, it is left to men to buy the considerably pricier items such as flowers, chocolates, cuddly toys, dinners and diamonds.

In the US this year, more than 36 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolates will be sold and more than $2.5 billion (€1.9 billion) worth of St Valentine's Day-related jewellery is likely to change hands. Close to 200 million roses will be delivered, with the vast majority being bought by men, according to the Society of American Florists.

"I have just ordered 12 red roses including delivery for St Valentine's Day at a cost of €90 - is that a good price or not?" wondered one man who posted on the askaboutmoney.com website last week. The responses were plentiful and almost entirely negative. "Not good value in my books, but then I don't go in for the whole Valentine's thing," came one - possibly male - response. "Sounds like they've come up with a new breed of flower, the rip-off rose," said another. "I think €90 is crazy money to spend - I bought a gorgeous bunch of roses last week in Lidl for €3.99, I'd much prefer the hubbie to spend €3.99 on those and have €86.01 to spend on some cheap Ryanair flights for a weekend break," suggested a practical-sounding woman.

A fourth person offered a grimly realistic take. Flowers "always end up in the bin", they said. "So would you throw away €90?" While there is certainly some truth to what this person says, it does, perhaps, miss the point somewhat.

Such negativity must make Maurice Wynn of Mad Flowers in Dublin wince. He describes St Valentine's Day as "very, very important" to his business and estimates that he will do at least two weeks' worth of trade on the day.

He accepts that the price of roses does climb significantly on St Valentine's Day - a dozen Grand Prix roses (regarded by experts as the finest rose on the market) from Mad Flowers will climb from €80 today to €120 on St Valentine's Day. Wynn says that the perception that this is because the florists are ripping people off is wrong.

Heavy demand on world markets sees every link in the international flower chain upping prices to cover the increased costs, Wynn says.

Growers have to employ extra staff, freight costs skyrocket and florists have to pay higher wages to staff working overtime to cater for demand. While a normal-sized flower shop can expect to shift a couple of hundred roses on a normal day, that number rises closer to 5,000 on February 14th.

"The public are the ones who are driving this demand. I don't think it is the florists or the chocolate makers who are creating it. It is coming from the public," argues Wynn.

He says business has increased "hugely, dramatically" in the last 10 years and he expects to sell close to 100,000 roses by the close of business on Wednesday.

"January is a very long and lean month for all florists so we look forward to St Valentine's Day," he says.

The price of 12 Grand Prix roses from the shop has actually fallen by €5 since St Valentine's Day 2005 when PriceWatch last did a nationwide comparison on the cost of St Valentine's Day bouquets.

Canny romantics can save themselves a further 20 per cent if they order their flowers online at www.madflowers.com before midday tomorrow.

It might well be the only saving they make all day.