How painful to even write about this, but my son is going to be…
*gulp*
…eleven years old next week.
*sniffle*
ELEVEN YEARS. Eleven years we’ve had him. Eleven years since I was pregnant.
Not ten, but eleven. Everyone says this, but I can hardly believe it.
*snaps back into reality*
As if it’s not enough that he is reminding me every, single day – the emails are coming. Oh, these aren’t junk emails by any means; they are birthday emails filled with FREEBIES!
Periodically through the year, I sign each of us up for restaurant birthday clubs. When your special day comes around, you start getting flooded with free goodies…it’s fun.
So far, he has received:
- A card in the mail from Bob Evans for a free kid’s meal
- Email coupon from Culver’s for a free sundae
- Email coupon from Baskin Robbins for a free scoop
- Email coupon from Red Robin for a free Birthday Burger or Kid’s meal
So many programs, like these, are available. Try googling Birthday Freebies. Surprise, surprise, there is even a site dedicated to the subject called…you guessed it…Birthday Freebies. As with any program, you will want to make sure your local site is participating.
Psstt…Here’s the “secret” to benefiting from these Freebie Deebies. Unless you are going to that particular store anyway, ONLY GET THE ITEM THAT IS OFFERED FOR FREE.
For example, we rarely ever go to Baskin Robbins for ice cream (it’s not exactly close to our house.) If the coupon draws us in and we spend $8 on other cones…did the coupon really save us money? No…it forced us to spend eight bucks that we normally would not spend.
Now, if going out for ice cream was a regular family activity of ours, the coupon WOULD save us the money we would have spent on our son’s treat.
Does that make sense?
I understand, you may feel silly (at first) for going into a shop for only a free item. But remember, it’s YOUR hard earned money that you are blowing.
Don’t let others decide how YOU spend it.
*sigh…eleven years…*
I can hardly believe he’s turning 11 either!!
One other tip regarding Red Robin… in addition to the free kids meal with the coupon, they offer a free ice cream sundae for birthday celebrations – no coupon required.
AND, if you are celebrating two birthdays within two weeks of each other (as is the case for my two girls), they will let you use a coupon for both of them, thus not requiring you to dine twice just to use both coupons.