Frugal Birthday Planning

My middlest child, Braeden, will be turning 4 next Sunday! So, of course, we need to have presents and cake and, in my family, we eat whatever the birthday person wants for dinner on the day of their bday. Braeden has been too young to really appreciate his birthday or have any understanding prior to this year. I want to start him off right, not expecting a huge pile of presents and being appreciative of whatever he receives. With that, and my budget, in mind, I went garage saling this weekend. He is also still young enough not to care if he gets used gifts!

To be honest, I expected to find one or two things that were in good enough shape to use as presents and end up at Walmart for a few other gifts. However, I found this:

In all honesty, this was a frugal buy. It may not look like it, and it WAS beyond our budget, but it was a great deal! Brand new, these jeeps run about $425 plus tax. This jeep was new at Christmas, had been driven by another 4 yo boy who was more interested in his sister's 4-wheeler and had been parked on the family's carport for most of the summer. We got it for $100. Luckily, I had just received a gift of $100 from my hubby's Aunt to buy presents for both Braeden and myself for our birthdays. So, I made the decision to get it for him. He will not be receiving any other presents from us, but he does have several gifts from his Grandmothers and his sister that he will get to unwrap.

Now, I just need to plan the cake! We are having his favorite meal (pizza) for dinner on Sunday, but it will be homemade with items we already have in our house. Right now, we have no friends in the area to invite for a party and no family within driving distance, so it will be just us and one extremely excited little boy!

Any ideas on how to save money on a teenagers birthday? Whent hat one comes up in February we will be looking at a definite budget buster! LOL