Today is my oldest son’s birthday.  We had a barbecue for him last night with some of our close friends.  It was great!  So you might be curious, wanting to know what was different about his birthday with the shopping challenge.  Here they are.

Gifts.

I gave him a budget to shop on eBay for his gift from me.  It pained me to hit the “bid now” button, as the thing he wanted seemed extremely overpriced.  It’s a little Lego guy, used, and including shipping was $27.50.  Ouch!  He’s not even 2″ tall!  Ounce for ounce, I think a drug habit might be cheaper than Legos!

He got many other Lego and Star Wars sets for his birthday.  On of his friends got him a set of rechargeable batteries, because of the challenge, I can’t buy any for him.

Paper plates.

I think I might write a book about the social expectation of paper plates.  I don’t use them (see previous blog post) but there’s a cultural presumption that all parties or get togethers must have paper plates.  A few of my friends offered to go get some, then made some funny jokes about shredding and recycling them.  LOL!  Little do they know how I deal with paper towels!  I took out my roll and let them use my version of paper napkins.

I have way more dishes than most people, as I know I won’t use paper plates, and all of my dishes are mismatched.  If one breaks, I buy a replacement at the thrift store and add the broken ones to my mosaic tile bin.  It’s all good.  :)

Theme?

Cole asked for a Lego themed party.  I looked at him and right away he knew.  He said, “…oh yeah, that would be wasteful…”  He wasn’t disappointed either, it just clicked in his head that it’s not necessary and he’s just as happy without all the decorations and extra stuff.

Choices.

My kids get a birthday dinner at the place of their choice.  Of course, Gatti Town was his choice.  He also wanted donuts for his whole class.  I made him choose between the two.  He chose the donuts.  (happy dance!)  That saved me a lot of money and a bunch of silly plastic junk will not be coming home tonight.  (more happy dance…)