Cheap birthday gifts

My youngest child gets invited to a lot of birthday parties. And of course, with a birthday invitation comes a need to buy a gift for the birthday child. Here are some tips I use to do this without breaking the bank:

• One of my favorite places to find inexpensive birthday gifts is the craft store.  Not in the regular aisles, but on the clearance racks.  Often I'll find great age-appropriate craft kits for just a few bucks. My youngest daughter is six, and she and all her friends love to do crafts.  
• You can also check clearance racks at the drug stores and grocery stores.  The best time to do this is now, just after the holidays, when these stores have stocked up on toys that they normally don't have in stock the rest of the year.
• Make a gift basket using items that you already have or can buy cheaply at the dollar store.  You could make a dress-up bag with an inexpensive handbag filled with dollar-store jewelry, for instance.
• You can redeem your Swag Bucks for gifts.  For instance, you can get a Skip-Bo card game for 1,199 Swag Bucks.  And shipping is free!
• You can use toy coupons and combine them with sales at stores to get a toy for cheap!  Toy coupons are often found in coupon inserts before the holidays.  And there are printable online coupons for toys as well!  Here are some toy coupons currently available:

Get 1 FREE PLAY-DOH 4-Pack of Colors Play-Doh when you buy any two PLAY-DOH 4-Pack of Colors (max value $2.99 retail) 

$3.00 off two BABY ALIVE food, juice, diaper packs 

$3.00 off two EASY-BAKE Ultimate Oven Refill 

(This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.)