Birthday Fun

Nick has a birthday coming up soon (March 13). I really love celebrating birthdays. This love may have begun with my very best girlfriends in high school. For each of our birthdays, we would plan something really fun and surprise each other, blindfold and all. They even decorated the inside of my locker once (with perishable meat items that I left in there WAY too long as a reminder of how much my friends loved me). Needless to say, this love of celebrating birthdays continues for me, although they are a bit less exciting than they used to be.

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I'm going to let you in on a little secret of how Nick and I celebrate birthdays in our house: for FREE. See, a few years ago, I learned that many places, including restaurants and shops, want you to know your birthday is special to them, too! (Yes, I realize this is likely more of a sale ploy than anything, but not the way we play). Nick and I have signed up (really read: Kelly has signed Nick and herself up) for a lot of birthday clubs. Starting a few days ago, these perks starting rolling in through e-mail.

So far, Nick has racked up a free meal at IHOP, free Noodles 'n Company, free ice cream AND...this is the best one...a $30 gift certificate for Benihana. Yes, seriously, no strings attached (except that it's only honored Mon-Thurs). On our budget, there's not a lot of room for error. Free works, though, and allows me to still feel like we're doing something special. Go sign up for Chef's Table on the Benihana website and send me a text while you're sitting enjoying your free birthday dinner :)

Here's the best part...our anniversary tradition is now celebrating at Benihana because my birthday and our anniversary are less then two weeks apart. A win for me, less for Nick who has to think about two big celebrations so close together :)