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The singleton's guide to surviving Valentine's Day

If you're loved up, Valentine's Day means 24 hours of romance and pressies. If you're not, Valentine's Day means 24 hours of despair, bitterness and stuffing your face with carbs to dull the pain

Everyone knows that V-Day is a commercial invention, but it can still feel very lonely if you're unhappily single. Here are seven ways to get through mid-February without going mad.

1. Do what you like

The day really is your own. Get up when you want, go where you want, eat what you want and go to bed when you want. Savour it!

2. Treat yourself

Go to your local greetings card shop and see how much they're charging for V-Day cards, pink teddy bears and other tat. Add up what you've saved, and spend it on yourself. Buy things that a boyfriend would moan about: big comfy knickers, a Mad Men box set or a trolleyful of chocolate. Your money, your choice.

3. Get your friends together

Gather up your single friends of both sexes and party the night away. Parties full of single people are infinitely more fun than parties crammed with couples, because the guests mingle freely rather than sticking to their other half.

4. Flirt like there's no tomorrow

One of the best things about being single is that you're free to flirt with anything that moves.

Many clubs hold special Valentine's Day singles nights, so there's plenty of opportunity to pull. If you're shy, get online. Dating sites will be buzzing with men wanting a piece of the V-Day action.

5. See what you're missing

Sit outside a local florist (or garage forecourt) and watch hundreds of blokes stress out over buying flowers for their wives and girlfriends. Also check out the faces of cash-strapped couples as they leave restaurants whose prices were doubled for V-Day.

Wish you were them? Thought not.

6. Munch on Bittersweets

You can order these 'Valentine's Candies for the Rest of Us' from US website Despair.com. In place of Love Hearts mottos like 'For Ever' and 'Be Mine', these sweets say things like 'Awful In Laws' and 'I Want Half'. They'll make you glad to be single.

7. Ignore it

Don't torture yourself by partying or flirting if you've recently been dumped and you're still mourning your ex. Treat Feb 14 like any other day. Go to the cinema, go shopping with a friend or hit the gym. Activities like these are guaranteed slush-free, and you'll feel infinitely better for it.

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