How to Celebrate a Frugal Birthday

N.B: Another way to save money if you are celebrating your birthday (that is not mentioned in the guest contribution below) is by celebrating it with someone who has the same birth date as you.  (In my case I will be celebrating my birthday with “soulmate” later this month.)  You can save money if you do it this way because you can split the expenses between the two celebrants.  The celebration will also become more meaningful and more memorable because you are celebrating it with someone who was also born on the date that you were born.  Double celebration!  (Advance Happy Birthday, Soulmate!) – EOD

Birthdays are often associated with a sense of having to spend money. There is birthday party planning that takes place, cakes and sweets and then the costly tradition of presents for the person celebrating their birthday.

What are some of the ways that you can cut down the expenses of birthdays and create a frugal celebration?

Use what you have on hand to create a birthday meal. If you follow proper food storage ideas, you can celebrate with a birthday dinner featuring your favorite dishes without having to make a trip to the supermarket. Keeping things on hand like sugar and sweets can help to make the special occasion just a bit sweeter.

In addition to making the dinner with food that is already on hand, you can choose to host a pot luck dinner. Inviting friends and family members to join in the celebration and bringing something that they also made at-home can be a great way to make the special occasion even more special without causing people to spend money on the presents.

Skip the store-bought presents. Skipping the store bought presents can help you to celebrate the birthday without breaking the bank. Rather than traditional presents and cards, consider making presents at-home. Presents that are made are more heartfelt and they are more likely to create memories that the person is going to look back on fondly.

If you are going to celebrate the birthday outside of the home, there are some things that you can do to reduce the celebration expense. Check local restaurants and entertainment venues. There are many places that offer free foods and services on your birthday, just make sure you have identification with you to prove that it’s indeed your birthday.

Checking the local community pages or online classified advertisements, you can find free and cheap events that are happening in the city or town. Planning the birthday around one of these events can be a great way to reduce the cost of the party and help to explore something new in your own backyard.

For children’s birthday parties, there is often the expectation to spend more money. Having a simple birthday party at-home and inviting only family or friends to celebrate the occasion can be a great way to tone down expenses. For presents (from the child’s godmothers or godfathers), you may consider asking books as gifts (it doesn’t matter if it’s brand new or 2nd hand). Books can last for a very long period of time and are good souvenirs the child can keep.

You don’t need to splurge money during birthdays. The most important thing is you celebrate it with meaning and with the people that matter the most to you.

Photo above is used under Creative Commons License | Credit

About the Guest Author

This is a guest contribution from our friends from DailyBread.com.  You may follow them in Twitter.

About Empress

Empress is a tech enthusiast who loves to read and write. She founded Empress Content Writing & Digital Marketing Services to help small entrepreneurs grow their business.

6 thoughts on “How to Celebrate a Frugal Birthday

  1. I love that you used the word “frugal”. I thought I was the only person that used that word.
    This is a point I try to get across to my kids, birthdays aren’t about spending cash, they are about celebrating someone’s birth. An I would much rather have a card that they had taken the time to make than a present they had store bought. Nice article, thanks for sharing

  2. Sometimes in life out of the blue an article hits like a ton of bricks. I have two birthdays coming in a few days from both my adult children. Being retired and in a different state getting a present is not always the easiest thing in the world. However what is important more than anything else is that phone call to them letting them know I am thinking of them and their special day. Call it frugal, call it bad, but the reality is my kids think the world of that call from me.

  3. What an idea to celebrate birthday economically! I wish I would have come across this article when I was in college since at that time I wasn’t having much money to spend for my friend’s birthday. Nevertheless, I loved the entire concept of choosing to host a pot luck dinner and checking local cheap restaurants for celebration. I love the way you ended the article since I too believe that birthday goes well if you spend it with people who matter to you the most. Thanks for sharing this article!

  4. I am so happy to tell you that I have had the joy of celebrating my birthday with my soul mate since childhood. We are best friends as well as neighbours since we were born. Later we became soul mates and have been contributing in equally to celebrate this special day. It actually saves a lot of money as we have common friends to treat.

  5. wow nice sharing. what a great idea to celebrate two friends or soulmates birthday on same day and time. But I must say, the birthday which you forget and someone special arrange your birthday a surprised one is of great fun.

  6. Yup a surprised birthday is of great fun. And if that one is arranged by someone means very special to you then it becomes awesome and unforgetable.

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