Today I’m celebrating the anniversary of my 29th birthday, and I’m so excited that I have so many birthday freebies to choose from including:

• Noodles & Company – FREE bowl of noodles
• bd’s Mongolian Grill – FREE Stir-fry Meal
• Famous Dave’s – B1G1 FREE Entree
• Baskin Robbins – FREE 2 oz. scoop of ice cream
• Texas Roadhouse – FREE appetizer or sidekick of ribs
• Ruby Tuesday – FREE birthday burger
• Buffalo Wild Wings – FREE dessert
• Champps – FREE dessert
• Chili’s – FREE brownie sundae

Check out some additional birthday freebies.  It’s free to sign up, and then you’ll have lots of choices for an inexpensive birthday meal or some additional freebies.

If you haven’t checked out the cost of hosting a birthday party for your child, you may very well be in for a shock. It can be simply alarming at what goes into a child’s birthday party in terms of planning, and then add the costs, and it’s just shocking. It never used to be that way, as most kids grew up with rather simple birthday parties and loved every minute of them.

Somewhere along the way, the birthday parties got more elaborate and the celebrations became almost competitive and out of control. So how can you plan a great birthday party without going broke?

Fortunately there are some wonderful options in terms of venues where you can host a birthday that’s fit for children and adults alike. You can create a great time, ensure that they eat good food, and enjoy a celebration that your child will love. These also happen to be able to fit into just about any budget, and that’s why they are so popular and will surely continue to be for years to come.

Your Local Park

If the weather cooperates, the park can be the perfect venue for a birthday party. Not only do you have built-in entertainment here for the kids with a park setting and probably a playground, but you also happen to have plenty of space for them to run around in without the worry of breaking anything. Many parks have a shelter or covered area where you can set up food, and this can work well if the weather gets a little iffy as well. Consider grilling up burgers and hot dogs along with some simple and delicious side dishes such as potato salad and chips. Bring the cake and a few simple decorations, and you’ve got a perfect setting for a cheap and enjoyable birthday celebration. The kids will love it!

Community Centers

Depending upon the community that you live in, there can be some excellent facilities within the city itself. Most often you see this show up as a community center where they may have a recreation area or just a room that you can rent out for the kids. If at all possible, see about bringing games or getting the kids involved in whatever activities are open to them within the facility. There is usually a play area or some sort of sports option that the kids can engage in that is covered with your cost of renting the room. Keep it simple and go for either cake and ice cream or just pizza for the food, because they are bound to be too entertained to eat much anyhow. Perfect and inexpensive!

Second Run Movie Theater

With ticket costs always rising, it’s great to know you can still get into a movie theater for only a buck or two. The entertainment is already there, and many theaters will have special packages and a birthday room for the kids to congregate before and after the movie. Some theaters will also let you bring in your own snacks to the movie; else just the cake and the theater provides the rest. This is a great way to celebrate a birthday and to see a good movie on the cheap!

The Fire or Police Station

Phone your local fire or police station to see if they offer an open house for a birthday party. While police and fire officers often go to schools to teach kids about safety, they may also encourage visits to their department! At the very least, the local department may send a cruiser or fire truck to your house where the kids can be entertained.

Ice Cream or Pizza Parlor

What kid doesn’t love sweets? There are some great ice cream and pizza parlors out there that specialize in birthday parties — and every kid is sure to love it. The beauty of this is that they can often see how the ice cream is made or witness what goes on at an ice cream parlor. For pizza, kids will likely get a dough-rolling session and get to add the toppings themselves. Even more attractive than that is that they get to eat what they make, and this makes it a memorable occasion in and of itself. Serve up cake afterwards and you have an inexpensive and enjoyable birthday party! Same kind of thing works for bakeries — just check into which ones in your area are willing to host a birthday party and let the kids feast.

Community Pool

Kids love swimming, it’s just that simple! They love to frolic around in the pool and they could do it for hours. So there’s nothing better than hosting a birthday party at a local pool. If the weather is nice, you can do this at an outdoor community-based pool or water pad. If the weather is iffy, you can host it at a local YMCA or community center indoor pool. Just bring in a few snacks and a cake as there is usually a room that you can get access to when you pay for the kid’s entrance. This is usually pretty cost effective and yet lets the kids do what they love to do.

Article by Chris Molnar, editor of Themeaparty.com, a site geared towards ideas, decor, games and recipes for a particular birthday theme. Click to read more articles, entertaining and money-saving tips on hosting birthdays. Though he tried hard to convince his eldest daughter that plain white plates were fine for her latest birthday in the park, he broke down and got some Yo Gabba Gabba party supplies in honor of her favorite show. Luckily they came to less than $25, his daughter was ecstatic and the location was free!

photo credit: wwskies

If you know me in real life, you would know that I love to make birthday cakes for my kids. Growing up, my mom always made us some of the best cakes, so I wanted to do the same for my kids. It started with an elaborate Winnie the Pooh cake when my 6 year old turned 1.

Jessica at Life as Mom is having a birthday cake round up today, so I thought I would show off (again) some of my cakes from the last year. She is really creative with her cakes (and has lots of experience, since she makes cakes for her 6 kids). Life as Mom has also compiled an e-book of her cakes called Pretty.Cool.Cakes, and the e-book is on sale now through Sunday night for only $2.00.

On to the cakes. This year, my 3 year old was obsessed with Curious George and my 6 year old loves WallE. The 6 year old does not like cake (only the frosting), so he requested a cookie cake.
As you can see, the WallE cake has some imperfections. The cookie cake fell apart when I pulled it from the pan (I probably should have let it cool another day), and the WallE buttercream transfer had a bit of a mishap when it fell out of my freezer and broke the glass. But, I patched things up, and I knew that my son would still think it was great (and he did). Don’t worry about being perfect when you make cakes for your family. Just try for your best…and you’ll learn over time.

Both of these cakes were made using a Buttercream transfer. It’s actually really simple and it can be done ahead of time and placed on the cake right before you serve it.

All you need is a picture (printed in mirror image) from a coloring book or printed from online (I found mine on PBS Kids), a piece of glass, some chocolate, some frosting, and some decorator bags/tips.

Here are some other birthday cakes I’ve made over the years and here’s a link to a post with my buttercream frosting recipe.

Additional resources for homemade birthday cakes:

• Coolest Birthday Cakes
• Wiltons’ site – thanks Sabrina

Last night we had a 6th birthday party for my son.

Although many of his friends over the past year have had great parties at places like Chuck E. Cheese, bowling, a gynmastics center, and bounce places, I couldn’t bring myself to pay for the steep cost associated with such a party. I worried about setting a precedent for the party and then being expected to have a party like that every year (and for his brother too).

So, I wanted a frugal birthday party, but I wanted to try to avoid having it at my house again. We decided on a party at the park. With a summer birthday, you can do things like that . We decided on a Thursday evening to allow time to cool off a little (it didn’t really), and we hoped the park wouldn’t be so busy as on a Saturday.

Food – We ordered $5 Little Caesar’s pizzas, since we had the party during dinnertime. If I had the party on a Saturday, I would have had the party between 2-4 and just served cake. We also had juice packets that I had purchased on major sale a couple of months ago and bottled water (although I should have just brought our big camping water dispenser to have lots of water available).

Cake – My son doesn’t like cake (just the frosting), so I made him a WallE cookie cake…easy to make and very low cost

Entertainment – The boys played on the play structure at the park, ate pizza and cookie cake, opened presents, and threw water balloons at my husband.

Party Favors – Since WallE is apparently not very popular anymore, all the WallE stuff at the party store was on clearance. I purchased some WallE noise makers, stickers (gave each child a page of stickers), and I visited the dollar store. I splurged on WallE bubbles that I found ($1 for each child), and purchased other items with multiple items per package (dinosaurs and card games).

I think the boys (and my son) had just as much fun as if it were at a party place. I just had to do a little more work myself to pull it off .

What have you done to save money on birthday parties? For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom.

Today my baby turned 3 years old. He insisted on having a Curious George cake, so that’s what he got (since I aim to please).

Rather than purchase a cake at the store (which doesn’t taste as good anyway), I made his cake using a Buttercream transfer. It’s actually really simple and it can be done ahead of time and placed on the cake right before you serve it.

All you need is a picture (printed in mirror image) from a coloring book or printed from online (I found mine on PBS Kids), a piece of glass, some chocolate, some frosting, and some decorator bags/tips.

Here are some other birthday cakes I’ve made over the years and here’s a link to a post with my buttercream frosting recipe.

Additional resources for homemade birthday cakes:

• Coolest Birthday Cakes
• Wiltons’ site – thanks Sabrina

Do you make your own cakes? How do you come up with ideas to decorate them? For more frugal ideas, please visit Life As Mom (who also happens to be great at making cakes).

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about making your own birthday cakes to save money. Well, the FishMama at Life as Mom is hosting a Birthday Cake Roundup. If you’re interested in seeing some really cute cakes for future ideas, visit her site. Here are some of the cakes that I’ve made over the years…

Let’s face it, birthdays can be expensive. Not only do you have gifts to purchase, but you have to have a cake, too. If you buy your cake, it can be really expensive ($15.00 or more).

Or, you could make your own cake. I can usually purchase box cake mixes for $1.00 or less, when I find it on sale and use a coupon. I also make my own frosting, which is another big cost savings there.

Think Simple

But, you’re worried that you have to have fancy cake pans, or you have to have all kinds of cake decorating experience. That’s not true. I’ve made my share of cakes with fancy car-shaped cake pans, etc, but you don’t have to have that.

With a little creativity, you can turn a cake made in different-sized glass bowls into a turtle Here’s where I got my idea.

Or, you could print a coloring page off the internet and trace it into a Batman (or a Boz). It’s called a Buttercream transfer and here are directions on how to do it. As far as having cake decorating experience, all you need is a little practice making stars (the most basic cake decorating stroke).

Have Your Kids Help

For even more fun, you can involve your kids in making and decorating their own cake. Not only do they have a delicious (and frugal) cake for their birthday, but they probably had a blast helping you out in the kitchen. The cake may not turn out perfect, but what’s more important – the perfect cake picture or the fun your child had with you in the kitchen? Besides, pictures of cakes are always quite forgiving . Mine always look better in pictures than they did in real life.

Buttercream Frosting Recipe

To help you get started, here’s my recipe for buttercream frosting (made with the new trans fat free Crisco).

1 cup shortening (trans fat free)
1 cup butter
2 tsp. clear vanilla (if you want the frosting to be white) – Wilton sells the clear vanilla
2 lbs. powdered sugar
4 tbsp. milk

Mix the shortening and butter, then add the vanilla and milk. Slowly add the powdered sugar. Then blend for about 5 minutes.

If you’re interested, you can see pictures of many of the cakes that I’ve baked for my kids over the years.

Each year for my birthday, I’m excited as the birthday freebie e-mails roll in.  I could get a free meal at Noodles & Co, a free scoop of ice cream from Baskin Robbins, and much more.

Tara at Deal Seeking Mom has a great list of companies where you can get freebies for your birthday.  It’s free to sign up, and then you’ll have lots of choices for an inexpensive birthday meal or some additional freebies.

My older son is only 5, so he hasn’t been invited to too many birthday parties so far…but I know it’s coming. For the birthday parties that he was invited to last year, I struggled with what to buy for the birthday boy. I didn’t really know them very well, and I didn’t really know what they had or didn’t have (and neither did my son). I really hated to spend more on a birthday present for a relative stranger than I budgeted for my own nieces and nephews. For some of the birthdays, the birthday happened to coincide with a toy sale, but not always.

My solution this year was to start shopping for toys during the periods of time when toys are on clearance. I bought some toys for nieces and nephews during the after Christmas sales for birthdays this year. And this summer and fall I’ve been stocking up on the clearanced toys that retailers are trying to get rid of in order to stock their toy department for Christmas.

My son has a July birthday, so I was in Toys R Us for his birthday gift and noticed that the whole store had tons of clearance, plus you got an additional percentage off the clearance price (20%?). Then, I shopped Target during August when they had a huge clearance sale. Now, KMart has lots of toys (including board games, like Pictionary) on clearance with an additional 20% off. I’ve bought Christmas presents for most of my younger nieces and nephews, as well as random birthday presents for the future at huge bargains!

Next week, I plan on talking about how I save on cards by making them myself. What works for you when saving money on birthday and Christmas presents?