Celebrating husband's birthday for £50!

Firemunchkin

[FONT=&quot]My husband’s birthday is coming up and – to put it bluntly – we’re skint. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]This year is the year I have the goal of paying off my debts and he’s got £15k to clear. We’ve been putting in place good habits to avoid overspending which means we have been getting creative with our various budgets, piggy-banking etc. We’re both determined to live within our means but the reality is that I don’t have a great deal of money to spend on his birthday. In fact, he’s given me a budget of £20 for his present!! This is unheard of for me because I normally spend £200+ on him for his birthday!! :eek: I also have a small budget for the day itself, so I will limit myself to £30 for that. So – total budget: £50. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]However, I am certain there is a way I can both celebrate my husband’s birthday, give him a really special day, and get him more than one gift – all for a budget of £50. :A[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]My ideas are below, but I know this Forum is great so I want to know what else you can all think of! (Keep it clean though please!) [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Celebrating the Day[/FONT][FONT=&quot] (it will be a weekday):
[/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot]Start the day off with croissants and jam in bed – we have a breadmaker which can make the dough for croissants so this won’t cost me very much, and I can have a go at making jam (or get some from his mum!) Failing that I could do a big English breakfast, but the reason this is my second choice is it will involve me buying in extra food and thus extra spend. [/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]If the weather is nice (it will be April) I could put together a nice picnic for a day out - by making muffins, sandwiches with leftover food fillings and fresh fruit – and combine with one of the below... [/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]We still have our tickets for Bletchley Park (they’re valid for a whole year). [/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]We could use our Art Pass to get half price entry to the Viking exhibition at the British Museum – that would be £8.50 (I’m not counting cost for myself in the budget). [/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]A trip to the Science Museum – we will get 2-4-1 entry to the exhibitions with our train tickets (I have a season ticket and we can use our railcard for his ticket to make it only £8).[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]I will shortly have 5000 points on Toptable so I could redeem those and use them for a nice lunch or dinner.[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]I could cook him a special birthday meal (or I could give him this at a later date as part of the ‘voucher’ pressie below)[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Give him a massage (or as part of the ‘voucher’ pressie).[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Have 2-4-1 martinis in our local cocktail bar.[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Take him to one of our (many, excellent) local pubs for a couple of drinks and some live music.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]As a present: [/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot]Exchange some DVDs for a pre-loved XBox game – cost should be nil;[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]A subscription to a magazine – that I can pay for quarterly, i.e. the cost is not so much of an impact this month, but can be spread out hopefully no more than £7 - £10 this month; [/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Use my cashback to add to my £20 budget (I am hoping to have £24 cleared in a few weeks, which would be just in the nick of time!); [/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Bake him a birthday cake;[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]‘Vouchers’ booklet containing vouchers for massages, dinners, etc (I really will need ideas for this one!) [/FONT]

springdreams

This is a very thoughtful gift.

Re the magazine subscription, you could use Tesco clubcard vouchers for it if it is one that is covered by those vouchers :money:

As for the vouchers booklet, maybe you could give him one that lets him have uninterrupted Xbox time for half a day?

Spendless

Hi

It's my Nan's 90th birthday today. She has dementia and we've had to veteo some previous ideas we had, such as afternoon tea at a hotel and a party at home as she's just not up to it.

This morning I called in a local independant bakers/tea-room and asked if they could do 'high tea' for lunch today. Nan, Mum and myself went and they'd done finger sandiwches, savoury items (sausage rolls, quiche, pork pie) and cakes plus 2 pots of tea and charged me £20. :money: There was so much we've fetched the leftovers home for when my kids call to see their great gran after school.

Just an idea to throw in the mix and if not suitable, then someone else might be able to use it.

Have a great day whatever you do.#

Firemunchkin

So I've got the day more or less planned:

I got a refund on some boots from Topshop so I spent £18 buying the Viking Exhibition tickets (half price, using the Art Pass);
I'm taking him for a couple of £5 cocktails in our local award winning cocktail bar during happy hour;
I'm using my Toptable cheque to take him to dinner;
I've booked a table at the local pub for a popular live music night.

As a gift I'm exchanging my DVDs for a used XBox game he's after and giving him the gift chequebook to include massage, special dinner, full cooked breakfast, picnic in our local bluebell wood, big long hug, my honest opinion, movie night & favour of your choice (although I'm dreading that one!), and I'm going to bake him a cake.

I'm quite chuffed!

:T

Katiehound

Sounds like it is all planned.........hope he has a wonderful birthday. You can congratulate yourself on creating a great day without spending an absolute fortune by putting in a huge amount of your thought..... which is free.
Enjoy!

paddyrg

That sounds like a wonderful birthday and the fact you're not spending a mint is actually going to be nicer for him than worrying about being £200+ further in debt! Your Mr will love you for it

LouisePollit

Is the birthday over, or yet to come? Anyways happy birthday wishes to your husband, not sure whether it should be an advance wish or belated one. Lol! I loved your plans, it will be really good if you can execute it properly. All the best with that. Go for a couple massage, it was something that I would never have treated myself to and was great to receive as a present from my friends for our first anniversary. It was a pleasing experience. It was from physiomed clinic in Toronto, but it was a part of treatment. After a year we recreated that at our home and trust me it was damn romantic. We arranged the room with fragranced candles and rose petals scattered on the massage table. I also arranged a bottle of champagne to boost the mood. I have had ordered imported chocolate for my baking session and got it the day before our second anniversary.

Firemunchkin

LouisePollit wrote: »

Is the birthday over, or yet to come?

It's now been and gone - and it was really good. I didn't do the love vouchers in the end, I'll save those for another gift occasion. I didn't do the croissants, I went with a full english breakfast instead. The day was great, the museum was excellent and we got properly sloshed with cocktails, dinner and music that evening.

The games voucher went down ok, but he did seem a little underwhelmed with it. I have decided to set up a savings account putting a tenner a month away so that next year I've got a little more to put towards a gift for him.

Overall I spent more than anticipated - but not on the birthday itself. On that day I was more or less on target. The voucher for dinner worked and so cost less than twenty quid. The trouble was the next day we had celebrations with friends, and the following week we did too. I ended up spending over 100 pounds in all. I am hoping my squirreling away savings for the next year will help pay for that!