Ah, birthdays. The four times of the year I love and dread all at the same time. My babies are growing up and I love watching them grow and mature.

I dread the birthday shopping.

This last year I started something new. Instead of a gift that could possibly end up in the giveaway box in a few years, I give them something they love.

That they can consume.

Without sharing with their siblings if they so desire.

I give them food as one of their gifts. Nothing fancy, but something I would not normally ever buy. Nothing that even remotely fits into the healthy, natural eating of our household, but they love and is their current favorite guilty pleasure.

The response to this has been very, very good! For Jordan’s birthday, she got a giant sized box of goldfish crackers. For Shali’s birthday, she got a 12 pack of Mountain Dew Code Red. (Yes I am cringing.) They laughed, they consumed, and they loved it. It was a treat that they would normally have to buy with their own money so they appreciated it even more.

The frugal upside to this is that it costs me between $4.00-$7.00 for this gift. Pretty cheap in my opinion and it is not wasted in any way by them. My limit for birthdays is usually $75.00 for each kid, but I try really hard to bring under $50.00. Something I have learned to accept is that the older they get sometimes the amounts/costs change. I usually give four gifts for each birthday because I do not care to go overboard with the expectations of many gifts. But I try for quality gifts that will appreciate for years while trying to get the best deal.

With consumable gifts, I can easily make budget for the birthdays while giving them something they love and giggle about. That, my friends, makes them worth it!

Thanks for reading! Have a great day!
Erica

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