Feeling challenged by the prospect of celebrating Valentine’s Day on a tight budget? The big gesture doesn’t have to come with a big price tag. Here are some suggestions for cheap but charming dates for the financially challenged.

If music is the food of love, as Shakespeare claimed, feast for free at South Shore Conservatory’s Duxbury campus Sunday, Feb. 12, at 4 p.m. Members of the music school’s voice faculty will perform love songs in a variety of musical styles in a free concert appropriately entitled “Matters of Love.’’

Or you can head to Andover Memorial Hall Library that afternoon from 2:30 to 4 p.m. for a free concert by the New England String Quartet. The Somerville-based, award-winning group will present classical and contemporary selections, all with the theme of love.

For those looking to bond in a more challenging atmosphere, consider the winter hiking clinic at Fruitlands Museum in Harvard on Feb. 18 from 1 to 4 p.m. The program run by Just Understand My Potential, free with admission to the museum and for members, promises to impart critical cold weather hiking and survival skills while sharing the joys of nature. Waterproof footwear, gloves, and hats are strongly recommended.

A less arduous outdoor experience is available at the Merrimack River Eagle Festival on Saturday, Feb. 18, in Amesbury and Newburyport. The program celebrating the return of the bald eagle includes guided tours of the area along the Merrimack River where the big birds feed. The suggested donation is $5; those who prefer to drive can pick up maps highlighting likely eagle spots. The festival is sponsored by Mass Audubon’s Joppa Flats Education Center and the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge. For more, go to www.massaudubon.org.

What could be more economical than a visit to scenic Rockport in the offseason? Halibut Point State Park is open year-round from sunrise to sunset (parking $5 for Massachusetts vehicles and $6 for out-of-staters). The former granite quarry has coastal views stretching from Ipswich to Maine.

While many shops in Rockport’s business district close for the winter or during the week, Tuck’s Candy and Gifts on Main Street will be selling its sweets, as it has since 1929.

Feeling a tad overemotional this Valentine’s season? Consider taking in life coach Lauren Mackler’s lecture, “Transforming Toxic Emotions,’’ Thursday, Feb. 16, at Brookline High. “Whether your emotional addiction is to anger, resentment, frustration, insecurity, or jealousy, or whatever,’’ she says, “you’ll leave . . . with greater understanding of your own emotional patterns and how to transform them to ones that create a more joyful inner and outer environment.’’ Sponsored by Brookline Adult and Community Education, Mackler will speak at 7 p.m.; tickets are $6.

The Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky declared that the best way to know someone is to watch him laugh: “If he laughs well, he’s a good man.’’ You can test your valentine at “Women in Jeopardy,’’ a romantic murder mystery comedy that opens Wednesday, Feb. 15, and runs through March 12, at the Merrimack Repertory Theater in Lowell. Tickets are generally $26, with discounts for students, seniors, and others, but a limited number will sell for $5 on opening night, cash only, starting at 4:30 p.m. at the box office.

The deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln is having a “date night with clay’’ on Sunday, Feb. 12, from 4 to 6 p.m. and again on Valentine’s Day, from 6 to 8 p.m., at which couples 21 and older can bond over pottery wheels. For those unable to muster the $80 per couple price tag ($70 for members), the museum is giving free guided tours Feb 12 at 2 p.m. of the current biennial exhibition featuring 16 artists. (Museum admission is $14 for adults, $12 for seniors, $10 for students, and free to anyone who rides a bike there, all Lincoln residents, and active-duty military personnel and their families.)

There’s a free Valentine’s Party in Weymouth on Sunday, Feb. 12, from 2 to 5 p.m., at Immaculate Conception Parish Center, 1199 Commercial St. The family-friendly event is sponsored by the town and will include a dance contest, inflatable rides, games, karate demonstrations, and card and cookie decorating. Donations of nonperishable items for the Weymouth Food Pantry will be appreciated.

You and your date can catch Hollywood on the cheap on Valentine’s Day. Every Tuesday, for that matter, all seats at the Mill Wharf Cinemas in Scituate Harbor and East Bridgewater Cinemas on Route 18 are $6; at the Cameo in Weymouth’s Columbian Square, they’re $4.50. Tickets at Patriot Cinemas in downtown Hingham, the Hingham Shipyard, and the Hanover Mall are $5 for all Tuesday shows.

If your Valentine can wait a day, the Bridgewater State University Observatory is open to the public on Wednesday, Feb. 15, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Multiple telescopes will be available and, weather permitting, viewers should be able to see Mars, the Andromeda Galaxy, and the Heart and Soul Nebulae, according to Jamie Kern, the facility’s manager. The observatory is located on the fifth floor of the DMF Science and Mathematics Center, 24 Park Ave., Bridgewater.

If you’re sure your true love is a keeper and you are thinking of future bouquets, the Bradley Estate, 2468 Washington St. in Canton, is having a brainstorming session Wednesday, Feb. 15, from 1 to 3 p.m. about what to plant in your garden this spring and summer. It’s free for members of the Trustees, which owns the property, and $5 for nonmembers.

Johanna Seltz can be reached at seltzjohanna@gmail.com.