Photo by Ivan Samkov
It’s time to plan for the kid’s birthday! While you may already plan to spend quite a fortune on the birthday parties, we hope to make your life a bit easier with some free or discounted birthday offers we found across Canada. As parents, our ultimate goal is to make the day extra special for the little guy and princess while it doesn’t hurt our wallet. So, we are here to help!
Birthday bear
This is definitely my favourite! It’s not free, but it’ll only cost the same dollar amount as the birthday boy or girl. The Build-A-Bear Workshop has a “Count your candles” offer to let you pay your age for the birthday bear, which at a regular price of CA$14. If your kiddo is turning 4, bring them to one of their stores, pick the birthday bear, get it stuffed, and only pay CA$4 for it! They let your kiddo pick their own softness of the bear, make a spell to its heart, and put the heart inside the bear by themselves. The whole process makes the bear extra special, especially as a birthday gift for them. Needless to say, it is only a few bucks to make it happen!
Another good thing about this is that they change the bear every year, we have had a dark brown one and a light brown the next year. If you want some accessories for the bear, remember to check your email before heading to the store because they would usually send you a CA$5 off coupon (with a minimum purchase of CA$25) for your kid’s birthday month. Remember, you don’t have to go on the actual birthday as the offer is good for the whole birthday month.
Photo by TUBARONES PHOTOGRAPHY
Free birthday tile
If you have a Crock A Doodle around your area, you can get a free 6” birthday tile every year for your kids until they are 12. You only have to sign up at the store with your phone number and email, providing your kid(s) birthdays, and you can get a free 6” tile to paint on every year, with NO purchase required. I have been doing this since my kids were 1 year old and using the tiles to do footprints and handprints. It’s definitely cute to see how their hands and feet have grown over the years.
From the time that I had to do all the painting to now that they can actually paint on it by themselves. It’s definitely a good birthday activity. Just to note that the tile will need to be glazed and kiln-fired after painting, so you will have to go back to the studio and pick it up after around a week.
Free toy
What is happier than a free toy? Join the “R” club with ToysRus and receive a $5 coupon to use during the birthday month of your kids. What I love about this offer is that it doesn’t have a minimum spend attached to it, so you can use the $5 on almost anything in store. We have used it to purchase hot wheels cars, which we only needed to pay for the tax. Of course, you can see it as a $5 discount on the birthday gift you are buying for your kids anyways, so don’t miss out the deal and make sure to sign up and check your email for the coupon!
Mastermind also offers a little surprise gift to the birthday boy or girl during the month of their birthdays. Join their Perks member program and you’ll receive email on exclusive discounts at any time and special birthday gifts.
Discount on ice cream
We know the kid’s favourite is ice-cream, so let’s find some deals on it! Baskin-Robbin’s Club 31 offers birthday coupons for BOGO on a scoop of ice-cream and a CA$5 off for a CA$20+ cake. This offer definitely helps if you are planning to get an ice-cream cake for the birthday, even if ice-cream cake may not be in the plan, we can always pamper the kids with an extra scoop of ice-cream.
Just a side-note, you can always join the club, but if you don’t want to do it, these coupons are easily found on some deal sites too.
Photo by RDNE Stock project
For the older kids
If your kids are a bit older and into video games, GameStop also has this EDGE program that is free to sign up. They offer birthday coupon with a different buy one, get one percentage (%) off based on your membership level. You can collect points by buying new products, trading in used products, and completing bonus steps. So it’s better to sign up early and enjoy the birthday coupon at a higher membership level to receive as high as buy one, get one 50% off Playd Games or Recharged Accessories. There are also other member benefits that are at all times, so feel free to check them out and see if it’s the place for your kid’s stop for games.
There are other birthday offers we think it’s cool, but may not be as exciting for the kids as the ones listed above. There are other birthday perks that are more for us, the parents to save money with loyalty programs during birthday months, like H&M 20% discount, TheShoeCompany extra 20% off discount. If you want to save some money, you can look into signing up for free membership to get the birthday perks for yourself too.
Note: Please note that these offers are accurate to the best of our knowledge but are subject to change.
