Saving money while living life!

Friday, May 7, 2010

Presents For All Those Birthday Parties




It seems that at least once a month my son gets invited to a Birthday party.
He loves to go to them and since we moved to a new place I feel that it is good for him to get to know more kids. The only downside is that am left with the responsibility of getting a present for him to give. This can really be budget breaking. I mean have you seen the price of toys lately. It's insane!

So, my husband and I came up with a budget of spending no more than $5.00 per birthday party. This worked for awhile but then I thought "Hey Amanda you can do this for less". That's when I started to keep my eye out for things that we could give to kids that are deeply discounted and then saving them for a birthday party. I had a nice supply of birthday presents in my stash for awhile but slowly it got depleted faster than I could replenish it.

And before I realized it everything was gone and tomorrow my son has a boys birthday party to attend.

Well being as cheap as I am I came up with a very inexpensive solution. I decided that with summer coming up I would buy some water toys. So I combined water/summer toys into my Rite Aid deals this week to (see my post here) .


Here's what I got:

1 Large Squirt Gun
1 Water Balloon set
1 Football with Tail
1 pair Sunglasses


All the gifts only cost me .40 after coupons and rebates.
I am using red Christmas wrapping that I got on clearance for .50 to wrap it. Tape that I got for free, ribbon on sale for .25 a spool and a card that came in a clearanced box of assorted cards (it cost about .05).

So the total for this birthday gift is about $.60 (way under my old $5.00 budget).
And it is a unique gift that will most definitely get used.

My tip is that if you see something clearanced or discounted you can buy it and create a stockpile of gifts so you don't have to scramble to get a present like me.

So the next time your child has a birthday party to attend think outside the box, be creative, use coupons, and most definitely don't pay a lot for the gift.



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