Birthday Freebies

After talking to a few friends I decided if would be fun to post some random tips and ideas I use in my day-to-day life. These tips are just things that work for me and my family - they are not expert advice, so use at your own risk:). Hopefully they will be of use though. If nothing else they will give you a glimpse into the workings our crazy home.

The first installment will be fun for all of you who enjoy freebies. Ricky and I are still living the cash-stripped college student life. We don't have lots of extra money to put into fancy dates, but we do enjoy a night on the town every once in awhile. Here's how we do it. We have signed up for a number of free birthday offers. Most of these sites email you a coupon that you can print and use within a two week period surrounding your birthday. Ricky's b-day is in September and mine is in January so it works nicely for us.

Here's the list:

http://www.baskinrobbins.com/BDayClub/ They give you a free single scoop of ice-cream. They only email the coupon before your b-day - no extra spam unless you specifically request it.

http://www.coldstonecreamery.com/birthday/birthday_club.aspx They give you a free creation.

http://apps.fishbowl.com/a/redrobin/join/agegate.asp They give you a coupon for one free hamburger meal. They DON'T require you to buy another meal. For Ricky's birthday he got his free meal and I ordered a cup of soup (about $2.50). We split his hamburger, shared the bottomless fries and my soup, and went away with happy stomachs. If you request it, a lot of locations will have their waiters come sing happy birthday to you and bring a complimentary dessert. So even if you leave a generous tip you can get the whole meal for about $5. The other nice thing about them is that you can sign up your whole family on the same email account. We even signed up our little boys. About once a month you might recieve an email advertising a new burger they have or a coupon for a few dollars off.

http://www.fishbowl.com/clt/ndls/lp/join/join.asp They give you a free birthday meal. We haven't used it yet, but are excited to use it for my birthday.

http://www.fishbowl.com/clt/bdscrp/lp/wb/join.asp They give you a free birthday meal. We haven't used this one yet either, but it is a fun restaurant. They have an island with various meats and veggies. You can fill your bowl with whatever you want (you are allowed to eat as much food as you can stuff in your bowl). Then you get to mix your own spices and sauce. Next you bring your concoction to a chef and he cooks it on a huge grill right in front of you. He is usally quite a performer. When we went he even made me an origami rose while he cooked our food.

Hollywood Video: They let you have a free rental on your birthday (including new releases). You have to use this one on your actual birthday. We discovered this one on accident when we went to rent a DVD on Ricky's birthday.

I'm sure there are other freebies, but these are the ones we know about. If you have other good ones let me know and I'll post them for all to see. We prefer ones where you don't have to buy an entree to get a free entree. We've found it's really fun to share a meal and then go home and have fun making a yummy dessert together.

So Happy Birthday whenever it may and enjoy a few freebies!