Birthday Freebies!!

Happy birthday to you! Whoever, wherever, happy birthday! I recently had the joy of celebrating a birthday myself this past weekend and thought it would be fun to share a few of my favorite birthday freebies. I will note right away that a few of these are specific to where I am located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (sorry guys!) but many of these are not dependent on a specific location. Hope you all can enjoy and get in on some of these free products in celebration of your big day!

First lets start with the best and most important meal of the day.... BREAKFAST! Many locations participate in birthday rewards, whether it's free coffee, a donut, or a full on breakfast. If you're a rewards member for Denny's you are eligible to receive a free grand slam breakfast on the day of your breakfast (unfortunately I had already eaten my breakfast before I was made aware of this offer, but seriously people take full advantage of this! Free breakfast! What could be better?? I chose to get a free beverage from Dunkin Donuts. You are "supposed" to be a member of the Dunkin Rewards, however for years I have tried to sign up and it won't let me because my "email is already being used for the rewards" but I never signed up.... so whoever you are out there please stop using my email to get free Dunkin! Luckily my local Dunkin has some of the nicest people I have ever met and are always understanding to these issues. With this reward you can get any size, any beverage you would like absolutely free. I chose my normal go-to drink of caramel iced latte with sugar and cream. Starbucks also participates in a free beverage or treat for your birthday, again you need to be signed up for their rewards program in order to do so. (Also please ignore my awkward claw like fingers in this picture... trying to be discrete about snapping a photo while my dad was pumping gas and this guy was staring at me while I'm awkwardly trying to take the most photogenic image of my iced coffee on my dashboard...weird).

Moving on! Ulta Beauty! I worked for Ulta for about a year and loved it! I unfortunately left because I needed more hours and landed a full time summer job elsewhere. Ulta has some amazing birthday rewards. First you need to sign up for their club card rewards. It's not a credit card and is completely free. You can either do so in store or online (here is hopefully a working link that will allow you to sign up online... but maybe not?) https://www.ulta.com/ulta/myaccount/learnmore_template.jsp?learnMoreAccordion=true&page=benefits When you sign up you will automatically get 2x the points for the month of your birthday. The way these points work: every time you purchase a product or service you receive points. $1 = 1 point. These points can then be used to purchase other products in the store or online. I have managed to and witnessed other people using over $150 worth of points to purchase some awesome products. During the month of your birthday though it goes from $1 = 1 point to $1 = 2 points (this helps add up your points much quicker). So if you're waiting to purchase a specific item wait until the month of your birthday. When you sign up for the rewards with Ulta make sure that you provide an email address. They will send a ton of emails, sorry in advance, BUT on the day of your birthday they will give you a coupon for a free product! These free products change up usually quarterly but are always high end product samples. Last year I received a 3 oz side of Big Sexy Hair which was awesome for my upcoming travels! I've seen other people receive Bare Minerals lipsticks/glosses and others receive Too Faced lip stains. This year I received a brand new product that hasn't even been released yet! SO EXCITING! It was the Lancôme Monsieur Big Mascara Deluxe Sample. This product won't hit the stores until this coming July. I'm not going to give a full review because I've only used it once so far, but guys I'm in love! If you're a platinum member with Ulta (which I am due to working there and spending way too much money) you will also receive a $10.00 off coupon on the day of your birthday. To become a platinum member you must spend $450 in a calendar year. Yes, when you work at Ulta it's pretty easy to do this haha. This $10.00 coupon can be used on absolutely any products, prestige brands included, which is super super rare! Sephora also participates in birthday freebies by giving away a free product, although I have not participated in this yet so I can't give it a full review. But I am sure their birthday freebies are just as awesome!!

My next birthday freebie unfortunately is area specific, but it does come with two other freebies! The Shady Maple Smorgasbord! This is one of my family's favorite places. It is buffet style, but tends to have your not so typical buffet style food. They do have different themed nights but a few we've been to are: steak nights, seafood, etc. The mashed potatoes are my absolute favorite! My entire family makes fun of how much I truly love their mashed potatoes. Anyways! On the day of your birthday you can eat here for free! If your birthday falls on a sunday or a holiday where they are closed you can only receive your free birthday dinner on the very next day. We made a small family trip on monday in order to celebrate this free meal deal. When you check in and show them your drivers license for your free birthday meal they will give you a little booklet of a few other birthday offers. My offers included free super whoopie pies with a $10.00 purchase and 20% off a non sale item in the gift shop (I came very close to using my 20% off on a bar/wine shelving unit, but sadly did not follow through on the purchase). There were a few other small offers in there but they involved going to an insurance company or meeting with someone else in the restaurant/store area. The Shady Maple is located in Lancaster, PA so it is about an hour or so drive for us. We travel there quite often because we adore their furniture, cooking, outdoor exploring, and I usually had a dance competition there during my younger years. This is definitely an amazing stop and my entire family highly recommends it, plus hey free food! Why not?!

This next one is also a local freebie that not many actually know about, which is surprising because it's another one of my favorites! Vegan Treats! Vegan Treats creates the most delicious sweet treats for those that obviously enjoy vegan friendly food along with other dietary restrictions such as treats that are gluten free (my sister personally loves these as she is allergic to gluten). Vegan treats will provide you with free ice cream on your birthday. And let me tell you it's absolutely delicious! They do change ice cream flavors every few days. On their website in the upper right hand corner they list their most current ice cream flavors and show what is to come in the next week or so. I personally have never had the same flavor twice, but it may happen. We have had the opportunity to taste the following flavors: blueberry cheesecake (possibly my favorite!), pumpkin, chocolate, vanilla, and this time I had a twist of vanilla and chocolate pudding pop! They only have one size when it comes to ice cream but trust me it is absolutely amazing and is quite large! They can be a little expensive depending on your taste but I personally think it's pretty reasonable when you think of the quality you're receiving. I believe the ice cream normally costs about $4.00 which isn't too bad considering it's completely vegan and is seriously a generous amount!! Here is their website: http://vegantreats.com/# I highly recommend checking them out if you ever find yourself in the Bethlehem or Lehigh Valley area!

I'm not going to lie to you guys these are the only freebies I personally took advantage of on my birthday due to working and spending time with family. Also, these are just truly my favorites and currently the only ones I choose to participate in. I did however receive a few birthday emails from places that I am currently subscribed to. First is Hand and Stone Massage, every year they send me a birthday email with a coupon for a free enhancement on any service. I'm sure I will be taking full advantage of this very soon as the stress of planning a wedding is beginning to get to me! Also I received an email from Old Navy giving me a 15% off coupon to use either in store or online. Normally I would take full advantage of this offer immediately but as stated above I am planning a wedding, and therefore attempting to save as much money as possible right now.

Well guys, these are my personal favorite birthday freebies! I hope that some of you will take advantage of these amazing offers! I'm also going to list a few links below that talk about other birthday rewards and offers, unfortunately most of them involve signing up for an email list, but guys its free stuff!! Plus you can also remove yourself from their email list after your birthday month is over. Again, sorry that some of these are location specific but if you decide to come to the Lehigh Valley, hit your girl up!

http://thefrugalgirls.com/birthday-freebies

http://www.allyou.com/free-on-birthday