The Birthday Party Shopping Spree

I read this tip years ago and at the time I thought it was totally ridiculous. Then my daughter was turning eight and our budget was tighter than tight. We agreed to her having five friends over for pizza and ice-cream and a scrapbooking afternoon to make paper bag scrapbooks. I had a ton of paper and glue but not a lot in the way of embellishments they could use. That's when I remembered that ridiculous tip. My husband and I ferried the girls to our local $2 shop. When we arrived I gave each girl $5 and told them they could buy whatever embellishments they wanted for their scrapbooks with the money. The girls had a ball, it was cheaper than lolly/goody bags and while I'm not sure the poor man in the shop has recovered the girls are still talking about their birthday money shopping trip three weeks later.
Contributed by Robyn Marshall