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A letter arrives from Social Security saying you’ve been overpaid. It might be a few hundred dollars. It might be $11,000. You may know exactly what triggered it, or you might have had no idea anything was wrong. Either way, SSA wants the money back, and under rules that shifted dramatically in 2025, they have more power to collect it than at any point in recent years.

For most people receiving new overpayment notices today, SSA will automatically start withholding half your monthly check if you don’t respond within 90 days. On the average retirement benefit of around $2,071 a month, that’s more than $1,000 stripped from a single payment. On the average SSDI check of around $1,630, it’s over $800. For people living on a fixed income, this isn’t a minor disruption. It can mean choosing between medication and rent.

The part that stings most: the overpayment doesn’t have to be your fault. If SSA miscalculated your benefit, failed to act on paperwork you submitted, or delayed processing a change you reported, the bill still comes to you. You have real options, but only if you act before the window closes.

Overpayments are more common than SSA tends to acknowledge

Roughly two million Americans a year receive notices from Social Security saying they were overpaid. This is not a rare bureaucratic glitch that catches a handful of unusual cases. It’s a steady, high-volume problem rooted in the sheer complexity of the program and years of understaffing at the agency.

The scale is significant. SSA made nearly $72 billion in improper payments between fiscal years 2015 and 2022, the vast majority of which were overpayments. By the end of fiscal year 2023, $23 billion in overpayments remained uncollected, some of it going back years.

A typical overpayment lasts about nine months before SSA catches it and tends to total around $9,300. By the time the notice arrives, most recipients have already spent that money on groceries, utilities, and everyday bills, without any indication that something had gone wrong.

SSA’s own errors are part of the problem

The standard story about Social Security overpayments frames them as a reporting failure. Someone went back to work and didn’t tell SSA. Someone got married and didn’t update the agency. Those things do happen. But a significant share of overpayments originate from inside the agency itself, through computation errors, processing delays, and administrative backlogs that had nothing to do with what the beneficiary did or didn’t report.

Social Security’s operating rules span more than 20,000 pages. Many benefit calculations still require manual processing. The agency has been running at its lowest staffing levels in roughly 25 years while serving a record number of beneficiaries. The result is a system where errors happen, sometimes persist for years, and the bill ultimately lands on the person who received the overpayment regardless of who caused it.

Federal law requires SSA to recover overpayments even when the agency itself is responsible for the error. The fact that SSA failed to catch the problem sooner is not automatic grounds for forgiveness. But it is directly relevant to a waiver request, which is addressed below.

What SSA can now withhold from your monthly check

For overpayment notices issued on or after April 25, 2025, SSA’s default withholding rate is 50% of your monthly Title II benefit. Title II covers retirement benefits, survivor benefits, and Social Security Disability Insurance. If you take no action within 90 days of receiving the notice, SSA will start taking half your check until the balance is paid in full.

The policy that landed here has been anything but stable. For years, SSA’s longstanding practice was to withhold 100% of a monthly check by default. In March 2024, that was reduced to 10%. In March 2025, the agency announced it was reverting to 100% withholding for new overpayments. After immediate and widespread public pressure, SSA issued an emergency directive on April 25, 2025 resetting the default to 50% for Title II recipients. SSI withholding was left at 10% and was not changed at any point during these policy swings.

At 50%, the financial impact is still severe for anyone on a fixed income. If your SSDI check is $1,630 a month and SSA starts withholding at 50%, you’re living on $815 until the debt is cleared. If the overpayment runs to $9,000 or more, that could mean several months of reduced income. And walking away from the notice entirely can lead to escalating collection action, including withholding at higher rates or collection through federal tax return offsets once benefits end.

If you disagree that the overpayment happened, appeal it

An overpayment notice is a determination, not a final verdict. If you believe you were not actually overpaid, or that the amount listed is wrong, you can challenge it formally. The process starts with Form SSA-561, Request for Reconsideration. This is your appeal of the overpayment itself, a request for SSA to review whether the determination is correct.

You have 60 days from the date on the notice to file. The moment SSA receives your reconsideration request, it must pause all collection activity while the case is under review. That means no withholding begins while your appeal is pending. This protects your income while giving you time to gather documentation and make your case.

Your reconsideration should be specific. If SSA claims you earned income above your allowed limit in a given month and you have records showing otherwise, include them. If SSA says you failed to report a change that you actually reported and have documentation of, include that. Bring or send the completed form to your nearest Social Security office.

If you agree you were overpaid but it wasn’t your fault, request a waiver

A waiver is the option that can eliminate the debt entirely. It requires meeting two conditions simultaneously: you were not at fault for the overpayment, and requiring you to repay it would cause financial hardship. Both parts have to be true.

“Not at fault” doesn’t require proving SSA made a specific mistake. It means you didn’t knowingly misrepresent information, didn’t conceal facts that were relevant to your benefit, and didn’t accept money you knew wasn’t yours. If the overpayment built up over many months while you had no idea your benefit amount was wrong, that generally supports a not-at-fault finding. “Financial hardship” means repayment would prevent you from covering ordinary and necessary living expenses including housing, food, utilities, and medical care.

Form SSA-632, Request for Waiver of Overpayment Recovery, is available on SSA’s website. Unlike the appeal, a waiver can be submitted at any time. There is no deadline. Filing the waiver request pauses all collection activity until SSA makes a decision. For overpayments of $2,000 or less where you were not at fault, SSA may accept a verbal waiver request over the phone at 1-800-772-1213 without requiring the full written form. If your waiver is denied, you can appeal the denial to an administrative law judge. Legal Aid offices in most states have attorneys who handle Social Security cases at no cost.

If you agree you owe it but 50% is impossible, negotiate the rate down

There is a third option for people who accept that the overpayment is real but can’t absorb a 50% reduction without falling behind on bills. You can ask SSA to reduce your repayment rate to something you can actually manage. The agency has authority to lower the withholding amount to as little as $10 a month if that’s what your budget supports.

This option doesn’t challenge the existence or amount of the debt. You’re acknowledging what you owe and asking for a repayment schedule that doesn’t put you in an impossible position. Form SSA-634, Request for Change in Overpayment Recovery Rate, asks for a breakdown of your monthly income and expenses. SSA uses that information to decide what a manageable rate looks like.

Filing this form also pauses the automatic 50% withholding while SSA reviews your request. The key is not to ignore the notice. If the 90-day window closes and SSA has received nothing from you, not an appeal, not a waiver request, not a rate reduction request, the default withholding begins automatically and without further warning. You can also file Form SSA-561 and Form SSA-632 at the same time if you want to both challenge the overpayment and request a waiver as a backup strategy.

What SSI recipients need to know

Supplemental Security Income operates under a different set of rules, and those rules didn’t change during any of the 2025 policy shifts. SSI overpayment withholding is capped at 10% of your monthly payment regardless of when your notice was issued. For an individual receiving the 2026 SSI federal benefit of $994 a month, the maximum SSA can withhold is roughly $99.

That protection comes with a caveat. The error rate in SSI is significantly higher than in regular Social Security, partly because SSI recipients must report a much broader range of life changes, including income fluctuations, changes in living arrangements, and shifts in household assets. Missing any one of those reporting requirements can generate an overpayment notice even when the underlying benefit calculation was correct.

The same appeal, waiver, and rate-reduction options available to SSDI and retirement beneficiaries apply to SSI as well. If you receive both SSI and SSDI, the rules apply separately to each program. Your SSDI overpayment falls under the 50% withholding framework. Your SSI overpayment stays at 10%. SSA’s website explains how to resolve an overpayment for each program type, with links to all the relevant forms.

Learn how to stretch your retirement savings and maximize your Social Security benefits for a comfortable retirement:

18 ways to stretch your retirement savings without feeling poor: The goal isn’t to pinch every penny — it’s to protect the big stuff and trim quiet leaks. Here are simple moves that keep freedom high and stress low.

18 budgeting rules that actually work for people over 50: Money habits change as we age. In this post, discover budgeting rules that fit your income and shift of priorities when you’re over 50.

15 clever strategies to maximize your Social Security benefits: Use the facts in this post to make choices that raise your monthly check for years.

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A sit-down dinner for a family of four at a casual chain restaurant typically runs $60 to $80 before tip. That math gets painful fast when everyone at the table under age 12 needs their own meal, drink, and inevitable dessert negotiation. It is why the kids-eat-free deals running at national chains are worth actually knowing about.

Twelve chains are running verified free kids’ meal deals this month. Almost all of them work the same basic way: buy one adult entree at full price, get one free kids’ meal. Several require a free app or rewards account. None are complicated.

Most of these are franchised operations, which means your nearest location may not participate or may have slightly different rules. A quick call before you go is always worth it, especially if you are planning the trip around the deal.

Denny’s kids eat free every day from 4 to 10 p.m.

This one is worth leading with because most chains on this list limit the deal to one or two specific nights. Denny’s runs it every single day from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. at participating locations. One adult entree purchase of $6 or more gets you one free kids’ meal. The better news: up to two kids’ meals are free per adult entree, which makes a real difference if you have more than one child at the table.

The deal is dine-in only and doesn’t stack with other discounts. The kids’ menu covers the reliable hits, including pancakes, chicken strips, grilled cheese, mac and cheese, and mini burgers. Kids 12 and under qualify. Beverages are not part of the free offer.

Denny’s has over 1,500 U.S. locations, and the promotion runs broadly across the chain. Franchise ownership means it’s not universal, so a quick check with your location is worth doing if you are heading out on a specific night.

At Fogo de Chão, kids 6 and under eat the full experience free

This is the sleeper pick on the list. Fogo de Chão is a Brazilian steakhouse where adult meals run $60 to $80 per person, with tableside-carved meats arriving on skewers for as long as you want them. What most families do not know is that children 6 and under eat the full Churrasco Experience at no charge, every day, with no special code or coupon required. This is a permanent pricing policy, not a promotional window.

Kids ages 7 through 12 dine at half price for the full adult experience. For a family with two young children, that changes the math considerably compared to what Fogo looks like on paper. This is not a casual Tuesday-night-dinner kind of place, but for a birthday, an end-of-school celebration, or a special occasion, the total bill often surprises people in a good way.

Fogo de Chão has about 75 U.S. locations, concentrated in major metro areas. Reservations are strongly recommended. If there is a location near you and your kids are on the young side, this is worth adding to the list of places you actually go.

Outback Steakhouse runs a free Joey Meal every Monday this summer

Every Monday through September 1, Outback Steakhouse offers one free Joey Meal with the purchase of any adult entree. The Joey Menu is for kids 10 and under and includes chicken fingers, mac and cheese, grilled chicken, and a 5-oz sirloin. To redeem when dining in, tell your server “Free Joey Meal.” For orders placed through Outback’s own website, use promo code JOEYFREE at checkout.

The deal is one free kids’ meal per adult entree, so if you have two children, you will need to order two adult meals for both to eat free. It applies to dine-in and online orders placed directly through Outback. Third-party delivery apps do not qualify.

Outback has over 600 U.S. locations. This is a seasonal deal that the chain runs every summer, typically from late May or early June through Labor Day. The end date of September 1 is firm, so the back half of June is squarely within the window. If your Monday nights are usually uneventful, this gives them a use.

Wings and Rings covers free kids’ meals twice a week, Mondays and Fridays

Two nights a week is better than one. Wings and Rings offers one free kids’ meal per paying adult on both Mondays and Fridays, for children 10 and under. You need to dine in and spend at least $10 per adult. No app, no rewards account, no code. Show up on a Monday or Friday, order an adult meal above the $10 threshold, and the kids’ meal is free.

Wings and Rings has about 80 U.S. locations, mostly in the Midwest and Southeast. The menu is wing-forward, with burgers and pub staples rounding it out. For families in the chicken-fingers-and-fries demographic, it works well. The $10 minimum is low enough that nearly any adult entree qualifies.

Getting a free deal twice a week from the same chain is not common. If there is a location near you, having both Monday and Friday on the calendar gives you options when the week gets busy and nobody wants to cook. That double availability is what sets this apart from most of the others on this list.

The Habit Burger hands CharClub members a free kids’ meal four days a week

Download the CharClub app (it is free), and a free kids’ meal offer for children 10 and under loads into your account every Monday, usable Monday through Thursday with a $10 minimum purchase. That is four days a week of flexibility. The limit is one free kids’ meal per week per account, and the offer is valid through October 30, 2026.

The Habit Burger is a California-based fast-casual chain with locations in more than 30 states. Its burgers are chargrilled, and the kids’ menu covers burger, chicken tenders, grilled cheese, and quesadilla. The food is a cut above most fast-casual options in the same price range.

Having Monday through Thursday available is practical in a way that a single-night deal isn’t. You can use the offer when life actually allows for it, rather than engineering a specific outing around a Tuesday or Wednesday window. Get the app set up before you need it, so the offer is ready when you’re standing in a parking lot deciding where to go.

Bob Evans gives away free kids’ meals every Tuesday through the app

Every Tuesday after 4 p.m., Bob Evans offers one free kids’ meal with each adult entree purchase, but only through the Bob Evans app. The offer will not apply if you walk in and order at the counter without it. The limit is three kids’ meals per order (one per adult entree), and the offer is one per customer account.

Bob Evans is a Midwestern comfort food institution. The kids’ menu includes pancakes, mac and cheese, grilled cheese, chicken tenders, and most of the comfort hits that kids reliably eat. If pancakes-for-dinner is already in the family rotation, Tuesday evenings here are worth building in as a regular thing.

The chain has about 430 locations, mostly in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Southeast. Download the app before you go. The offer appears specifically on Tuesdays inside the app and will not be honored manually at most locations. Five minutes of setup in advance makes the whole thing work.

Main Event makes Tuesday nights family night with free kids’ meals

Main Event combines arcade games, bowling, billiards, and laser tag with a full restaurant. Every Tuesday, kids 12 and under eat free when an adult purchases any menu item for $11.99 or more. One free kids’ meal per qualifying adult purchase. The deal is not valid at the Orlando, Florida location.

The draw here goes beyond the food. Main Event is built for families to spend two or three hours, not just one meal. The kids’ meal deal removes the food cost from a trip that already involves entertainment spending. If you were heading there for games and bowling anyway, Tuesday effectively makes dinner free.

Main Event has about 50 locations across 23 states, concentrated in Texas, the Southeast, and the Midwest. If there is one near you and you have school-age kids, a Tuesday evening at Main Event is a solid family-night option that does not feel like a budget compromise. It is a full outing, not just a dinner stop.

Ruby Tuesday offers kids eat free on Tuesdays and all day on Fridays

Ruby Tuesday covers two nights. Kids 12 and under eat free every Tuesday after 5 p.m. and all day every Friday with the purchase of a full-priced adult entree. Dine-in only. One free kids’ meal per adult entree.

The Friday all-day option is the more flexible of the two. If your schedule makes Tuesday evenings tricky, Friday opens up the whole day, from lunch onward. The kids’ menu at Ruby Tuesday covers burgers, chicken tenders, pasta, grilled chicken, and mac and cheese, all options that children actually eat rather than push around the plate.

Ruby Tuesday has over 200 U.S. locations and has been running this two-night deal consistently. It is one of the more established policies of its kind in the casual dining space. If there is a location nearby, putting both Tuesday and Friday in the mental rotation costs nothing extra beyond what you were ordering anyway.

Smashburger kids eat free every Wednesday at participating locations

Every Wednesday through December 31, Smashburger offers one free kids’ meal for children 12 and under with the purchase of an adult meal. The adult meal must include an entree, a side, and a drink. The deal is in-store only and does not apply to online orders, app orders, or third-party delivery services.

This is one of the simplest deals on the list. No app required, no rewards card, no code to remember. Show up on a Wednesday, order an adult meal with an entree, side, and drink, and the kids’ meal is free. The kids’ menu includes a cheeseburger meal, hamburger meal, or chicken strips, all with fries and a drink.

Smashburger has about 220 U.S. locations, and the offer runs consistently through the end of 2026. It is worth confirming your nearest location participates, since not every franchise is enrolled. But for locations that are in, it is a no-friction Wednesday option that requires exactly zero planning beyond showing up.

IKEA Family members get two free kids’ meals at the Swedish Restaurant every Wednesday

IKEA’s in-store restaurant has always been quietly affordable, with meatballs, salmon, and hot dogs priced well under what most sit-down restaurants charge. IKEA Family members get up to two free kids’ meals with the purchase of one adult entree every Wednesday. IKEA Family membership is free to join and takes a few minutes online or in-store.

Kids’ meal options at the Swedish Restaurant typically include mac and cheese, hot dogs, and chicken dishes. Nothing elaborate, but reliably kid-approved. The added context is that you are already at IKEA, which for most families means the kids are entertained exploring showrooms well before anyone sits down to eat. The restaurant visit is part of a longer outing, not a destination on its own.

IKEA has 51 U.S. locations, so this one applies mostly to families near a major metro. The membership pays off beyond the kids’ meals, with other discounts built in throughout the year. If you are already going to IKEA this month and have kids with you, make it a Wednesday and the food cost drops significantly.

MOD Pizza gives away a free kids’ pizza every Sunday with one code

Sundays are the kids-eat-free day at MOD Pizza. Get a free kids’ meal for children 12 and under when you purchase a MOD-size pizza or salad and use promo code KEF2026 at checkout. The offer is valid online, in-app, and in-restaurant, and it runs through the end of 2026. Save the code before Sunday so you are not hunting for it at the register.

The kids’ meal at MOD Pizza is a personal-size build-your-own pizza. For most kids, choosing every single topping is a real draw and turns what would be a dinner negotiation into something they are invested in. The result is also something they will actually eat, which is not a small thing.

MOD Pizza has over 350 U.S. locations, making it one of the more widely accessible chains on this list. No rewards membership is required for this deal. Just have the code KEF2026 ready when you order any MOD-size pizza or salad, and the kids’ pizza comes free. It is a clean, no-app-required Sunday option.

My Chili’s Rewards members get free kids’ meal offers throughout the month

Chili’s handles its free kids’ meals differently from the others here. Rather than a fixed night each week, My Chili’s Rewards members receive periodic free kids’ meal offers that load into their accounts and can be redeemed in-restaurant or online. There is no single guaranteed day each week. The offers come through regularly for active members and can be used on any night.

The trade-off is planning uncertainty. You cannot mark a specific Wednesday on the calendar and count on a deal being there. But the flip side is that when an offer appears, you use it on whatever night actually works for your family. Chili’s has over 1,200 U.S. locations, which makes this one of the most accessible chains on the list logistically.

The rewards program is free to join and includes other benefits alongside the kids’ meals, including free chips and salsa on every visit. If you are already a My Chili’s Rewards member, check the offers section before your next trip. If you are not, it takes a few minutes to sign up and the kids’ meal offers are one of the better reasons to do it.

Top Picks

Twelve chains, all running deals in June. The most reliable options for any night of the week are Denny’s (every day, 4 to 10 p.m.) and Fogo de Chão (kids 6 and under always free). For families who can plan around a specific night, Smashburger on Wednesdays and Outback on Mondays are clean, no-app-required choices through the rest of the summer.

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You said yes before you thought through the budget. Now it’s six weeks out, your kid has a guest list of 18, and you’re looking at venue packages that start at $400. The average kids’ birthday party costs $314, and that’s for a home setup. Book a trampoline park, bounce house venue, or kids’ entertainment center and you’re looking at $400 to $800 before the cake is even ordered. Venue parties in major cities run 30 to 50 percent higher than that.

The pressure is real. Social media has made it feel like a simple backyard party with grocery-store pizza isn’t enough. It is. And there are a lot of smart ways to pull off something actually fun without spending money you don’t have or ending up with a pile of plastic junk no kid will remember in two weeks.

Here are 15 ways to cut birthday party costs significantly without the party looking like you cut corners.

Cap the guest list

Guest count is the single biggest driver of party cost. Every additional child adds $15 to $25 in food, favors, supplies, and space. A party for 18 kids costs roughly twice as much as a party for 9. The math is simple and it’s the lever most parents never pull.

A useful guideline for younger kids: invite the same number of guests as the age of the birthday child, plus one. A five-year-old gets six friends. That’s not deprivation; that’s an actual party where your kid talks to every person who came. Smaller groups are also easier to manage, which means you’re not running yourself into the ground trying to keep 20 sugar-loaded children organized.

If your child is school-aged and the school has a policy requiring all classmates to be invited if any are, you have two options: keep the party off school property and invite only close friends, or host a classroom celebration separately using simple snacks rather than a full party. Most parents of school-age kids understand the distinction.

Skip the venue and use what you have

Venue rental is usually the single largest expense on the list, and it’s also the most optional. Your backyard, living room, or a local park pavilion can do everything a kids’ entertainment center does, minus the up-sell on food packages and the venue’s cut of the cake.

Local park pavilions are worth looking into before you write off the idea. Many charge $50 to $150 for a reserved pavilion with picnic tables, grills, and restroom access nearby. The playground does the entertaining. Kids run to the equipment between party activities and you don’t have to plan every minute. Book early, especially for spring and summer dates, as pavilions in popular parks sell out weeks in advance.

Community centers, church halls, and library meeting rooms are also worth a call. Many rent private rooms for well under $100, often with tables and chairs included. If you’re a congregation member, some church halls are available to members at a minimal cost or donation. These aren’t glamorous spaces, but a good tablecloth and some balloons take care of that fast.

Send free digital invitations

Paper invitations, envelopes, stamps, and the time to address and mail them add up quickly, and most end up in the trash two days after the party anyway. Free digital invitations do everything a paper invite does and quite a bit more.

Evite has a large library of kids’ birthday templates you can customize and send by email or text for free. It tracks RSVPs automatically and lets you send updates if the time or location changes. Canva has hundreds of customizable invitation designs you can download and share digitally or print at home if you want something physical. Both are free for basic use.

Beyond cost, digital invitations solve a real logistical problem: you get a running count of who’s coming, which helps you plan food quantities and goodie bags without over-buying. A group text to the parents of your child’s close friends works, too, especially for smaller parties where you know everyone well.

Shop Dollar Tree for supplies

Dollar Tree carries a full range of party supplies at $1.25 each, including plates, cups, napkins, tablecloths, banners, balloons, candles, streamers, and favor bags in a wide range of colors and themes. Themed balloon packs, solid-color tableware sets, and birthday banners at that price point will look exactly the same as the identical items at Party City for three to five times the cost.

The store also stocks number candles, cake decorating supplies, and small gift bags. If you’re making goodie bags (or a pared-down version of them), Dollar Tree is where to fill them. A full table setup of plates, cups, napkins, and a tablecloth for 20 guests can easily come in under $15 if you shop here first. Some locations also stock helium-filled mylar balloons.

Five Below is worth a stop alongside Dollar Tree, especially for slightly older kids. Items run $1 to $5 and include LED party lights, photo booth props, and activity sets that can double as party favors or decorations. The two stores together cover almost everything a birthday party needs at a fraction of what a dedicated party supply shop charges.

Make your own decorations

You don’t need to be crafty to DIY party decorations that look good. A balloon garland is the highest-impact, lowest-skill decoration you can make, and the supplies cost almost nothing. Balloon garland tape runs under $5 and can be reused for future parties. You thread inflated balloons through the perforated strip and hang it against a wall or doorway. Packs of coordinated balloons in your party’s color scheme cost a few dollars on Amazon and most party supply stores stock them in bulk.

Tissue paper pom-poms, paper fans, and streamers twisted into spirals and taped to a wall take about 15 minutes total to put up and look properly festive. A printed birthday banner from Canva costs nothing to design and a few dollars to print at a copy shop or at home. Tablecloths in solid party colors from Dollar Tree can be layered or twisted for a more put-together look.

DIY decorations save $50 to $150 compared to buying pre-made sets, and they can be completely tailored to your child’s specific theme. If your kid wants a hot-pink-and-green dinosaur party, you can build exactly that from solid-color basics. Themed kits from Amazon or Party City often force you into someone else’s color palette.

Skip hired entertainment and run free games

Face painters, magicians, bounce house rentals, and character performers typically cost $100 to $300 or more for a single two-hour appearance. They’re fun, but they’re not what kids talk about when they describe what they liked about a party. Kids describe the games they played, the chaos they caused, and who won the relay race.

A backyard scavenger hunt is free to set up and reliably holds a group of kids for 30 to 45 minutes. Freeze dance, musical chairs, a sack race with pillowcases, limbo with a broomstick, and a relay race cost nothing at all. A Spotify playlist with a kids’ dance party theme handles the music. Freeze dance, sack races, Simon Says, and red light green light require zero supplies and you can run an entire two-hour party on free games with no budget for entertainment whatsoever.

If you want one physical prop, a lawn game like Giant Jenga can be built from 2x4s from a hardware store for under $20 and used at every party for years. Alternatively, check Facebook Marketplace or your neighborhood’s Buy Nothing group for a game set someone is willing to lend for a weekend. Many parents have a foam pool noodle, hula hoops, or a set of cones sitting in a garage that are happy to get one more use.

Time the party between meals

The time you schedule a kids’ party determines how much food you’re expected to serve, which is one of the more significant costs after venue and cake. A party that runs from 2 to 4 p.m. clearly falls between lunch and dinner. You’re expected to serve snacks and cake, not a meal. A party that runs from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. overlaps with lunch and parents will expect real food for their kids.

The math on this is meaningful. Feeding 15 kids a full lunch at $8 to $12 per child adds up to $120 to $180. Feeding 15 kids a snack spread of chips, fruit, veggies with dip, and a drink runs closer to $30 to $50. You’re serving the same number of kids for a fraction of the cost, and no one goes home hungry because they’ll eat dinner two hours later anyway.

Morning parties, typically 10 to 11:30 a.m., work similarly well. A spread of muffins, fruit, juice boxes, and birthday cake is completely appropriate for a late-morning celebration. Parents know what they’re walking into based on the invitation time, so being clear about the window signals the food expectations without having to spell it out.

Make the activity the favor

One of the smartest things you can do at a kids’ birthday party is combine the entertainment and the party favor into a single activity that kids make themselves. Decorating a canvas bag, painting a small clay pot, making slime, tie-dyeing a shirt, or assembling a simple craft kit all serve double duty: they keep a group of children occupied for 20 to 40 minutes, and every kid walks out the door with something they made.

The cost per child for a simple craft activity is typically $3 to $8, which is roughly what you’d spend on a traditional goodie bag anyway. The difference is that a bag of plastic junk ends up in the trash within a week, while a painted flower pot or decorated tote bag actually gets used. Parents who use a take-home craft as the party favor consistently report that kids are more excited about it than a standard favor bag.

Craft activity supplies can be bought in bulk on Amazon, at Michaels, or from Dollar Tree’s craft section. For younger kids, decorating paper crowns or coloring a preprinted birthday banner works fine. For older kids, friendship bracelet kits, paint-your-own keychains, or a DIY terrarium can easily fit a $5-per-child budget with a little planning ahead.

Drop the goodie bag

The traditional party favor bag is a non-negotiable tradition that nobody actually wants. Parents dread hauling home a bag of tiny toys that break by Tuesday and candy their kids don’t need. Kids open them in the car, eat two pieces of candy, and forget the rest. The bags cost anywhere from $3 to $8 per child to assemble and the entire spend is essentially invisible the next day.

It’s fine to just not do it. If you’ve made the party activity the take-home item (see above), kids leave with something they made. If you haven’t, a single inexpensive item works better than a bag of assorted junk. A small paperback book that matches the party theme, a packet of seed mix to grow something at home, a set of washable markers, or a mini Play-Doh container are all under $2 per child and have actual use beyond the party day.

A piñata is another route entirely. Fill it with individually wrapped candy and let the kids go for it. They scramble, they each walk away with a handful of treats, and the whole thing costs $15 to $25 for the piñata and filler. Nobody leaves without something, and parents don’t have to load 15 stuffed bags the night before the party.

Serve generic brand snacks in nice bowls

Name-brand snacks cost considerably more than store-brand or generic equivalents, and once you pour pretzels into a nice bowl and set them on a table next to a balloon garland, nobody is checking the bag. Lays potato chips, Oreos, Goldfish, and Capri Sun juice pouches are familiar names, but their store-brand counterparts at ALDI, Walmart, or Costco taste nearly identical and cost 20 to 40 percent less.

The presentation is what makes a snack table look intentional. Use solid-colored bowls or clear containers that match the party theme, label them with small paper tags, and arrange them at different heights. A cupcake stand, a tiered tray, or even a stack of books covered with a tablecloth creates the look of a thoughtfully styled spread without the party-supply-store price tag. The snacks inside can be as budget-friendly as you want.

For drinks, a large jug of lemonade or fruit punch costs a fraction of individual juice boxes for the same number of servings. Set out cups with a ladle and a small sign and it actually looks more festive than a pile of juice boxes. Individual boxes make sense for kids under five who need something they can manage themselves, but for older groups, a drink station is cheaper and generates less packaging waste.

Stock up on party supplies off-season

Party supplies go on clearance after major holidays, and most of what hits the markdown bins works perfectly well for a birthday party. After Valentine’s Day, red and pink plates, cups, napkins, balloons, and favor bags drop to 50 to 75 percent off at Target, Party City, Walmart, and Dollar Tree. After Christmas, red and green are harder to deploy, but silver, gold, and white items are year-round party neutrals. After Halloween, orange and black are tricky, but the general party supplies that were bought for the season go on clearance too.

Shopping four to six weeks ahead of a party, rather than the week before, saves 20 to 30 percent on average. Last-minute shopping at retail price is consistently the most expensive way to buy party supplies. If you have some storage space, buying neutral-color basics in bulk when they’re on sale and keeping them on hand means you’re always stocked without paying full price.

Party City and Target both run clearance cycles predictably. Amazon Subscribe and Save can also reduce costs on items you use regularly for multiple kids or multiple parties a year. Bulk packs of plates, napkins, and balloons in solid colors are essentially always cheaper per unit than themed packs, and solid colors work with any theme.

Keep it to two hours

A two-hour window is the right length for a kids’ birthday party, and it’s also the most economical. Two hours is long enough for arrival, one or two activities, food, cake, and presents. It’s short enough that kids haven’t hit their meltdown window yet, and parents aren’t sitting around checking their phones waiting to leave politely.

Parties that run three or four hours require significantly more food, more structured activities to fill the time, and often more entertainment to keep kids from getting bored. Every additional hour adds cost and labor. If you’re renting a venue by the hour, the math on this is obvious. At home, the extended timeline means more food to prepare and more cleanup on the back end.

State the end time clearly on the invitation so parents know when to come back. Most parents of young children deeply appreciate a predictable pickup time. Parties that don’t specify an end time tend to drift longer than planned, which costs more money and more energy than you budgeted for either one.

Borrow equipment instead of buying or renting

Before you rent a bounce house for $150 to $300 or buy lawn games you’ll use once a year, check what’s available in your neighborhood. Facebook Marketplace and local Buy Nothing groups are worth checking here. Party equipment, outdoor games, folding tables, extra chairs, inflatable kiddie pools, and lawn games like cornhole or bocce regularly show up in these spaces from parents who bought them for their own parties and have no need to store them long-term.

Most people are happy to lend items for a weekend if you ask directly. A quick post in a neighborhood group asking to borrow a pop-up canopy, a folding table, or a set of yard games will usually get a response. It costs nothing, saves real money, and you’re not storing anything afterward. Return it clean and in good condition and you’ve built goodwill for the next time you need something.

If you do need to rent something like a bounce house and you want to go that route, local rental companies are typically cheaper than national ones, and renting in the off-season (October through March in most of the country) can save 20 to 40 percent compared to peak summer rates. Get quotes from two or three local companies before booking.

Ask close family to bring a dish

If grandparents, aunts, uncles, or close family friends are coming to the party, it’s completely reasonable to ask each one to bring a specific dish. This is a time-honored approach that works well when framed as contribution rather than potluck. Ask one person to bring a veggie tray, one to bring a fruit salad, one to bring chips and salsa. You handle the cake, the drinks, and the main dish.

The food savings can be substantial. A full spread for a party of 30 people, parents and kids combined, might cost $150 to $200 to buy yourself. If four family members each bring a dish worth $20 to $30, you’ve covered half the table at no cost to you. Family members who want to contribute to the party often appreciate being given a specific thing to bring rather than showing up without a role.

This works less well with a purely school-class guest list where most attendees are kids and parents you don’t know well. In that case, keep the food simple and snack-focused rather than trying to cover a full spread. A bowl of chips, a veggie platter, a fruit tray, juice boxes, and cake is more than enough for a two-hour party. Nobody is expecting a catered spread.

Pick one wow element and build around it

One of the most common birthday party spending mistakes is distributing budget evenly across everything and ending up with nothing that stands out. Mediocre decorations, mediocre food, mediocre activities, and a mediocre cake all for $400 is less memorable than one actually great thing surrounded by simple, low-cost everything else.

Decide what your child actually cares most about. Some kids are obsessed with the cake. Some want a specific game or activity. Some care about the decorations and the aesthetic. Wherever your child’s focus is, that’s where to spend more and save everywhere else. A custom decorated sheet cake from a bakery as the single splurge, with Dollar Tree supplies and free backyard games, will land better than a party where every element is mid-budget and nothing is memorable.

This is also the framing that makes a low-budget party feel intentional rather than cheap. A balloon arch over the dessert table as the single statement piece, made for $15 in supplies, photographs well and anchors the whole setup visually. Parents and kids remember the one thing that was actually great, not the comprehensive mediocrity of trying to do everything at once.

Birthday parties don’t need to be expensive to be good. Kids care about being with their friends and feeling celebrated, and those things cost about as much as you decide they do.

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You worked part-time for years while your spouse built a career. Now you’re divorced and looking at your Social Security statement. The number is modest, reflecting gaps in employment, reduced hours, years out of the workforce. What the statement doesn’t show: if that marriage lasted at least 10 years, you may be entitled to a monthly benefit based on your ex’s earnings record instead.

The ceiling is up to 50% of your ex’s full retirement age benefit. That can mean hundreds of dollars more per month than you’d get on your own record. A lot of people miss this because they assume whatever existed between them and their ex ended at the courthouse. For Social Security purposes, a 10-year marriage leaves a financial connection that doesn’t disappear.

The other thing consistently misunderstood: your ex’s remarriage doesn’t cancel your eligibility. They don’t need to consent or even know you’ve applied.

The 10-year rule

The marriage has to have lasted 10 full years from the date you married to the date your divorce was finalized. Not 9 years and 11 months. Not from when you separated or when one of you filed. The Social Security Administration counts the date the divorce became legally final, and there is no exception for being close.

If you divorced and then remarried the same person, the two marriage periods can sometimes be combined. The SSA will do this if the remarriage happened no later than the calendar year after the year the first divorce was finalized. Otherwise, each period stands on its own.

You also need to be at least 62 and currently unmarried when you file. If you had multiple marriages that each lasted 10 years or longer, you can file on whichever ex-spouse’s record provides the higher benefit. You’re not limited to the most recent marriage.

How the math works

The SSA pays your own retirement benefit first. If the divorced spouse benefit is higher than what you’d get on your own record, the SSA tops you up to that amount. You don’t receive both in full. You receive whichever is higher, and the supplement from your ex’s record makes up the difference.

A concrete example: if your own benefit works out to $700 a month at full retirement age and the 50% figure based on your ex’s record is $1,200, you’d receive $1,200 total. That’s your $700 plus a $500 supplement. The two amounts aren’t added together; the higher number is what you get.

One rule that catches people off guard: the divorced spouse benefit is always capped at 50% of the ex’s primary insurance amount. If your ex delays filing until 70 and collects a higher benefit because of that delay, your divorced spouse benefit doesn’t increase. The cap is fixed to their benefit at their full retirement age, not whatever they eventually collect.

Their remarriage is irrelevant; yours matters

If your ex has remarried, that has no effect on your eligibility. Their new spouse may also be collecting a spousal benefit on the same record. Multiple ex-spouses can each receive divorced spouse benefits on the same individual’s record without reducing what the others receive, and without affecting what the primary beneficiary collects on their own.

The rule runs the opposite direction when it comes to your own marital status. If you remarry, you generally lose the right to collect on your ex’s record. However, if that subsequent marriage ends through divorce, annulment, or death, eligibility on the original ex-spouse’s record can be restored, provided you still meet the other requirements.

Worth knowing if you’ve been divorced more than once: each situation is evaluated separately. A remarriage that has since ended does not permanently disqualify you. What matters is your marital status at the time you apply.

You don’t need their permission and they don’t have to be collecting yet

The SSA does not notify your ex when you apply for divorced spouse benefits. They have no say in whether you receive the benefit, no ability to block it, and no way to know through SSA channels that you’ve filed. Whatever the relationship looks like now is irrelevant.

If your ex hasn’t started collecting Social Security yet, you can still access benefits on their record as long as you’ve been divorced for at least two years and they’re at least 62. That two-year rule exists specifically to prevent an ex-spouse from deliberately delaying their own filing to block your access. Once two years have passed since the divorce was finalized, their filing status doesn’t affect your claim.

Your ex does need to be eligible for Social Security retirement or disability benefits, meaning they’ve earned enough work credits over their lifetime. They don’t need to have reached a certain benefit level. They just need to qualify for something.

What early claiming costs you permanently

The earliest you can file for divorced spouse benefits is 62. But the maximum benefit is only available at your own full retirement age. For most people born in 1960 or later, that’s 67. Filing before 67 permanently reduces the monthly amount, and that reduced rate stays with you for life.

The reduction isn’t trivial. SSA cuts the divorced spouse benefit by a fraction of a percent for each month you file before full retirement age. The earlier you file, the steeper the cut. The difference between claiming at 62 versus waiting until 67 can be substantial over a 20-year retirement.

If you’re still working when you claim, there’s also an earnings test that applies before full retirement age. In 2026, the SSA withholds $1 in benefits for every $2 you earn above $24,480 a year from wages or self-employment. That rule disappears entirely at full retirement age. The withheld amount isn’t permanently lost. At full retirement age, your benefit is recalculated upward to account for the months payments were withheld.

What happens when your ex dies

Survivor benefits work differently from divorced spouse benefits, and they’re more generous. If your ex-spouse dies and your marriage lasted at least 10 years, you may be eligible for up to 100% of what they were receiving rather than the 50% cap that applies while they’re alive.

The other significant difference is the claiming age. Survivor benefits can start as early as 60, versus 62 for divorced spouse benefits. At 60, you’d receive approximately 71.5% of the full survivor amount. Waiting until your full retirement age gets you 100%.

The remarriage rules are also different here. If you remarry before 60, you generally lose eligibility for survivor benefits on your ex’s record (though if that new marriage ends, eligibility can be restored). If you remarry at 60 or older, the survivor benefit is preserved entirely. And unlike other benefit combinations, survivor benefits and your own retirement benefit can sometimes be collected strategically in sequence. Depending on the amounts involved, it may make sense to claim survivor benefits at 60, let your own retirement benefit grow until 70, then switch. The math depends on your individual records, so this is worth running through carefully before you file.

If you worked a government job, the rules just changed

Until early 2025, people who worked in government jobs not covered by Social Security faced a provision called the Government Pension Offset. Under GPO, the divorced spouse benefit was reduced by two-thirds of whatever government pension they received. For a teacher collecting a $2,100-a-month state pension, for example, their divorced spouse benefit would have been reduced by $1,400 a month. In many cases, GPO wiped out the benefit entirely.

The Social Security Fairness Act, signed into law in January 2025, eliminated both the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination Provision, retroactive to January 2024. Teachers, police officers, firefighters, federal employees under the Civil Service Retirement System, and others who previously lost spousal benefits due to GPO are now eligible for the full divorced spouse benefit under standard rules.

If you had a government pension and avoided applying because GPO would have zeroed out the benefit, apply now. Social Security generally doesn’t pay divorced spouse benefits retroactively beyond six months from the date you file. Every month you wait without filing is a month of benefits you won’t recover.

How to check what you’re owed and how to apply

Start with a free my Social Security account. You’ll be able to see your own earnings history, projected benefit amounts, and application status. The account won’t show your ex-spouse’s projected benefit directly, but it gives you your baseline so you can see whether the divorced spouse benefit is likely to be higher.

To get a benefit estimate based on your ex’s record, call the SSA at 1-800-772-1213. You’ll need their Social Security number, or their date of birth and their parents’ names. You do not need your ex’s cooperation to request this information. The SSA can confirm whether the divorced spouse benefit would exceed your own and walk you through the process.

When you’re ready to apply, you’ll need your marriage certificate, your final divorce decree, your ex’s Social Security number or date of birth, and your own birth certificate. Apply even if you don’t have everything on hand. Missing documents can be tracked down after you file, and getting that application in early matters: Social Security doesn’t pay retroactively for months before your application date.

A long marriage creates a Social Security connection that survives the divorce. Most people never check whether they’re entitled to this benefit. One phone call or one online account is all it takes to find out.

Learn how to stretch your retirement savings and maximize your Social Security benefits for a comfortable retirement:

18 ways to stretch your retirement savings without feeling poor: The goal isn’t to pinch every penny — it’s to protect the big stuff and trim quiet leaks. Here are simple moves that keep freedom high and stress low.

18 budgeting rules that actually work for people over 50: Money habits change as we age. In this post, discover budgeting rules that fit your income and shift of priorities when you’re over 50.

15 clever strategies to maximize your Social Security benefits: Use the facts in this post to make choices that raise your monthly check for years.

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