Sale days, clearance racks and bargain bins are all great, but none come close to the feeling of getting something for free, especially on your birthday.
Birthday freebies are a great way to have a fun shopping spree, all while causing businesses minimal strife and effort. It can be a lot of fun to see how many you can collect, and it’s beneficial since the only thing you’ll have to pay for is gas. Smaller businesses may have a harder time affording to give away free products, but larger companies are great to go to for a sweet treat or cute sweater.
But what’s really worth your time and email space when deciding on what birthday freebies you want to indulge in?
While birthday freebies are still new to me, here are some highlights based solely on the great deals these businesses provide and the practicality of them. Here’s a more in-depth list of other birthday freebies to check out.
Food Freebies
For those who enjoy a sweet treat on their special day, there are several great places to grab freebies. Pinkbox Doughnuts, Crumbl Cookies and Godiva Chocolates are all places for you to satisfy that sweet tooth. For something cold and sweet, check out Baskin-Robbins and Cold Stone Creamery for a scoop of ice cream. And for those who like a little bit more savory fixings, nothing hits the spot better than Einstein Bros. Bagels, Olive Garden, Jersey Mike’s Subs , or Denny’s.
With food freebies, it’s hard to justify going out of your way to get a simple scoop of ice cream when you could easily drive yourself to the store and buy a pint for $6 more. The same goes with Pinkbox, Crumbl and Godiva since the majority of the time you’re picking up an order of multiple doughnuts or cookies for coworkers and friends. Practically speaking, savory birthday freebies seem to be the most worth your time since when you go out to eat, it’s always good to save a few bucks.
Drink Freebies
As far as birthday drinks go, it’s pretty hard to top Starbucks and Dutch Bros Coffee for their free drinks. If you prefer smoothies to coffee, Jamba Juice and Tropical Smoothie Cafe are great choices to get a good start to your day. Some food restaurants, like Del Taco and Taco Bell, also offer free drinks for your birthday.
For drink freebies, it’s always the best idea to go to places that specialize in drinks. While there’s nothing wrong with getting free drinks from Del Taco or Taco Bell, places like Starbucks and Dutch Bros are notoriously expensive. And when you’re in college, there’s nothing quite like getting a Starbucks pink drink or Dutch Bros iced coconut mocha for free.
Clothing Freebies
Several clothing stores also offer great deals for birthdays which can be a relief when a majority of us are already shopping online. Aerie offers up to 25% off while Target gives 5% off for single items. If you’re looking for something a bit more professional, check out Eddie Bauer Outlet and H&M who give birthday discounts for customers.
While clothing freebies are fun, hypothetically, you spend way too much shopping and looking for clothes to justify a small discount that you could have easily gotten from a coupon online. Unlike the other freebies that give you actual free birthday gifts when signing up for their newsletters, most clothing stores only offer slight discounts on top of already overpriced items. Save yourself the time and money, and instead, go to these stores on sale days or head over to their clearance racks for a better deal.
Beauty Freebies
If you want to dress your face up for your birthday but don’t have exactly what you need, check out Sephora and Ulta Beauty for free beauty gifts on your special day to look as good as you feel.
Even though some of us don’t indulge in makeup, there’s still a pretty clear difference of getting something for free or buying it at full price from any of these places. And just because you don’t wear makeup doesn’t mean you still can’t get your birthday freebie to help create a quality skincare routine with quality products.
Both Sephora and Ulta have plenty of different skincare essentials like this clean face mask from Sephora or this Ulta vitamin C body scrub. Other places like Clinique also offer a birthday gift on anything in their store, like this face exfoliating lotion, my personal favorite.
While shopping is something fun to do, it’s always better to get stuff for free. Especially as college students, it’s great to take advantage of all those freebies out there and enjoy a few birthday treats.
