Shelling out hundreds of dollars on holidays is to be expected, but have you ever wondered how much people spend on Valentine’s Day? Gift givers just got done spending boatloads of money on Christmas and New Year’s, and now they can’t even catch a break in February.

There are many gifts that are given during the love holiday: chocolates, flowers, cards, a nice dinner, maybe even a new outfit. Jewelry is another big ticket spending item on Valentine’s Day. According to US News and World Report, Americans are estimated to spend $4 million this February on jewelry alone. Around $2 million on clothes will be spent, $3.7 million on dinner out, and about $1.75 million on candy.

The big spenders come out around this holiday, especially if it is to show their sweetheart how much they care about them. You may wonder which gender dishes out more cash, and the guys take the trophy on that one. “Men spend nearly twice as much as women, shelling out around $175.61 compared to $88.78 for women,” said a report compiled by the National Retail Federation.

Businesses benefit big from V-Day as well. Hershey’s makes more than eight million pounds of chocolate and sells more than 800 million individual kisses for Valentine’s Day, according to Bruce Kennedy, writing on nasdaq.com. According to CNN, 224 million flowers are grown and sold during this time of the year, with people spending $1.9 billion on them. The jewelry company Tiffany & Co. is expected to make $4.4 billion overall, according to Mike Sauter, writing for 24/7 Wall Street.

Why are people so willing to burn through copious amounts of money for this holiday especially? Brebeuf Principal Greg VanSlambrook, who teaches both Micro- and Macroeconomics, offered some context:  

“Demand and economic theory is very subjective. People have a willingness to pay for a certain good if it’ll help them reach a certain goal with the gift,” he said. He went on to explain, “Marketing from the big companies helps to put the idea in someone’s mind that they ‘have to’ spend that much, and consumers buy into that sort of guilt trip.” The only tangible way for people to show they love one another, it would seem, is to buy gifts for them.

Senior Daniella Kelley said, “It’s like tradition to spend money on your significant other. Society makes it normal for people to expect gifts on Valentine’s Day, and it’s almost not normal if you don’t get a present.”

All holidays inevitably call for spending money on presents, flowers, and cards, but Valentine’s Day, the “holiday of love,” seems to takes the cake.