Free Stuff on your Birthday

With my birthday rapidly approaching (it is now less than a week away,) I am now thinking not of how I will be dreadfully older, (ok, maybe I'm thinking of that a little bit, but not enough to really matter) but of all the fabulous freebies I'll be getting in the month of August, just because it's my birthday month!

Yesterday, I was going through my e-mail, and was delighted to see an e-mail from Coldstone Creamery. I had forgotten about signing up for their birthday club, so it was a nice pleasant surprise to see a coupon for a free ice cream! With Coldstone, you can sign-up everyone in your household to get a free ice cream for their birthday. The best part is: well, ok, the best part is that it's free, but the other best part is you don't have to get it on your birthday. They send the coupon by e-mail a week before your birthday, and it doesn't expire until a week after your birthday. Isn't that fabulous?! It's so easy! Now the hard part: which creation to choose. I'm thinking bananas, peanut butter & sweet cream ice cream. Yummy!

As a Beauty Insider for Sephora (their frequent shopper program, completely free to join) not only do I earn points on my purchases to be redeemed on deluxe samples throughout the year, but during my birthday month, I get a free birthday gift. Last year's free gift was a vanilla cupcake body wash; delightful! This year's freebie is a lip gloss trio. I can't wait!

While I'm at the mall getting my free lipgloss, I will also head over to Body Shop to collect my birthday gift. Body Shop is one of my favorite stores for skin care, and has one of my favorite rewards programs (and the only one, I've found worth paying for.) The Love Your Body card costs $10, but in return you get 10% off every purchase, earn points towards free products, (and ones you can actually use, since you choose the items) if you spend enough, you even get your card renewed for free, (I haven't paid for membership in 6 years!) and best of all, you get a $10 gift of your choice in your birthday month (so that's worth the cost of the card, itself.)

Normally, I would be heading down to the mall on my birthday, to celebrate with my free gifts, but this year "I'm going to Disney World!" (I've always wanted a reason to say that :o) Thanks to Disney for this year's fabulous freebie of park admission on your birthday! yippee! Splash mountain, here I come!