$2 Tater Thursdays - Daddy's Birthday!

Today (Thursday, 9/18) is Daddy's birthday! But since we are going to a Cubs game, we had our "Tater Thursday" yesterday. We decided to have a nice birthday party for him, created by Tater!

Back in July, I found a great deal from American Express (Buy 2 GCs and get a $25 GC for Best Buy for FREE!) I did the deal twice, as allowed, and saved the $50 in GCs for this special occasion! It's been awhile since Rich bought a new Wii game and he was excited about the new Star Wars one that came out Tuesday. Tater and I went early and got the free t-shirt deal with it. I also had a GC from a return so in the end, we didn't spend anything! And a few months back, I had used a $10 Toys R Us coupon to get the book Let's Go Cubs for Rich and Nathan to read together. So the presents were bought. We wrapped the presents in newspaper and added stickers we had received for free in the mail. Tater had a fun time putting those on himself!

Yesterday, we went out to buy some balloons to decorate with. Since we had a red tablecloth, we picked up some Dark Blue balloons and went with a Cubs theme. We made a Happy Birthday, Daddy sign using Word on the computer. And we whipped up a batch of brownies for the cake. (Rich isn't a cake fan.) We used up the leftover frosting from last week and added a "Happy B-day Daddy" with decorator's gel.

In the end, Daddy was surprised and it was a nice way to spend our "outing." Our end total was $1.19 for the balloons, which we only used half of. (Saving the rest for Nathan's birthday!) We get to roll over another $.81.

Birthday parties don't have to be expensive. They just have to be done with love and thought. There are actually several sites out there for throwing a "frugal birthday party." So before you throw out lots of dough on your kid's party, do a Google search and see what great ideas are out there. A lot of times, the homemade parties are the best!

Happy Birthday, Rich/Daddy!