Valentine's Day Spending Estimates, $815 million on pets and more

Another Valentine's Day is upon us, and though feelings about this "manufactured holiday" are mixed, there's not doubt as a country, we will spend money on it. This morning Advertising Age posted their estimates of how much Americans will spend this holiday, broken down by category. Here are some of the ones we thought were interesting.

- $18.6 billion total spent by U.S. consumers today
- $4.4 billion on diamonds, gold and silver
- $1.9 billion on flowers
- $1.6 billion on candy
- $815 million on pets (alright, raise your hand if you're guilty of this one.)
- The average woman will spend $88.78 today, whereas the average man will spend $175.61 (those advertisements to pressure men to buy a good gift so they don't end up in the doghouse apparently are working)
- 6 million people getting engaged today (may sound cliche, but it still is a big surprise to those that have experienced it.)