Happy Birthday, Thomas!

Yesterday was my fiance's 24th birthday. Even though I am currently unemployed, I still wanted to make his birthday special because he always goes out of his way to make sure I am happy, safe, and taken care of. I did have a small amount of money that I had been saving for his birthday. Here is how a little budgeting and planning ahead allowed me to still make Thomas' birthday enjoyable. 

I had $75 saved up that I could use to celebrate Thomas' birthday. I started out planning his birthday about a month ago by signing him up for birthday freebies online. Even though I felt tacky doing this, he assured me that the fact that I spent a great deal of time trying to plan a special day regardless of my financial situation made him feel special and that all he wanted for his birthday was to spend the day with me. 

We started out the day by going to Denny's for breakfast. With a valid I.D., the birthday guest receives a free Grand Slam breakfast. I ordered water (my beverage of choice) and breakfast off of their $2 menu (surprisingly, I got a lot of food for $2). Breakfast cost me less than $5. 

 After breakfast, I took Thomas to the movies. If you go to the theater before 12pm, movies at our local AMC theater cost only $6 per person. Thomas loves Greek mythology, and it just so happened that The Legend of Hercules came out in theaters yesterday and there was a 10am showing. 

 By the time we got out of the movie theater, it was early afternoon so I took Thomas out to a late lunch at his favorite restaurant. It just so happens that his favorite restaurant, Texas Roadhouse, offers birthday guests a free appetizer. We typically get an appetizer each time we visit TR because Thomas loves the fried pickles. Dinner was the biggest splurge of the day, costing about $45 with tip. However, we had a great time, it is Thomas' favorite restaurant, and that price is not bad at all considering we got an appetizer, the entree he always orders is steak, and he ordered a Jack and Coke. Not to mention Thomas' entree was large enough to provide him with lunch today at work.

 My sister, Jen, loves to bake so she offered to make Thomas' birthday cake. He ended up choosing a hamburger cake, which turned out looking great as well as tasting great. 

 Thomas and I finished out the night by cuddling on the couch and watching a marathon of his favorite TV show together (and another behind-closed-doors activity for adults only). He could not stop thanking me for the awesome birthday and, although most people would find my use of coupons appalling, I got a big 'ol kiss for being so frugal because when we got home there was still money left over to place into savings.