If you haven't been introduced to birthday e-clubs yet, then stop what you're doing and sign up now. Birthday is so much better when I get to go to Starbucks, Red Robin, Noodles & Co., HuHot, and Coldstone all for free! The coupons are usually emailed a week or two before your actual birthday and usually don't expire until a week or two after, so that can lead to a full month of celebrating!
My Favorite Birthday Clubs
Noodles & Company
Sign up for their eclub ("Noodlegram") to receive occasional updates and, of course, a yearly coupon for a free main course for your birthday.Red Robin
They've switched from emailing a coupon to putting it on your Royalty Rewards card. It's free to sign up, your birthday burger is available the whole month of your birthday, every 10th burger is free, and they're pretty good about adding other discounts for appetizers, drinks, desserts, etc. throughout the year.HuHot
HuHot has also transitioned to a Rewards setup where you get every 12th meal free in addition to your yearly birthday meal. And you get a free appetizer for joining.Starbucks
Register a gift card on their website to join their loyalty program, and they'll e-mail you a free coffee on your birthday. Reload the card and keep using for future purchases, and you'll also receive other rewards throughout the year.Coldstone
Join their eClub and you get a yearly coupon for free ice cream, as well as $3 off an ice cream birthday cake. You'll also receive notices when they have "the largest ice cream social" giving free ice cream for a donation to the Make-a-Wish foundation.Keeping Your Birthday Club Sanity
Okay, so birthday clubs are a little bit of a marketing gimmick to draw in business, otherwise why would so many companies do it, AmIRight? Here are a few things to keep in mind to get the most out of birthday clubs.
Only sign up for the places you normally go.
Sure, it's nice to get so many freebies to "all the places"! But they're often not straight up free. They often are more of a BOGO set up, which means you'll be spending some money. If you stick to places you'd normally go anyway, then getting your birthday meal free could still save your family some money.Plan on a birthday budget.
That said, we don't always go to places like Coldstone and HuHot (because of the prices, and, hello, we're a family of 5 now). We save those for special occasions like our birthdays which of course can add up. So each of our birthday months usually get a birthday budget. Just a little extra money to put toward these fun birthday outings. I must be getting old if some free ice cream or a free burger is my idea of a good time ;)Sign up for unroll.me to wrangle the emails.
Most of these birthday freebies are actually provided as part of their e-clubs. That means you subscribe to their emails. If you unsubscribe, then you likely won't be getting your birthday freebies. You could sign up the month before your birthday and unsubscribe the month after, but that just seems like a lot of extra work. I use unroll.me which lets me put promotional emails (or any emails I choose) into one daily update. So instead of an inbox full of promotional emails from the above mentioned companies, I get no more than one email a day containing several emails. It simplifies things for me, saves me time going through it, and helps me not miss the more important emails in my inbox.Sign up the whole family.
Especially for those places you really do eat all the time. If you can get a discount every now and then, why not? Some sites let you add kids birthday info under your account, or family members can use their own emails to sign up separate.Google your go-to stores and restaurants.
The above are my favorites and go-to places. Google "birthday clubs" or checkout the website of your favorite places to see what they offer. Some retail stores also provide birthday discounts or freebies. Think outside of the box.Happy celebrating!
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