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Some of you have asked recently for ideas on how to have a great birthday party on a budget.
And you know what? I think this is a GREAT question to share with you all.
Both of my boys’ birthdays are in August. I am a big fan of birthday parties and usually end up trying to outdo myself each year (even though each year I vow I will keep things simple!). I just can’t help myself. I like themes and decorations and lots of people and food and fun.
However, since the birthday cake fiasco last year, I am feeling a little uncertain about my skills in the birthday party arena.
So, help me out, dear readers.
What are your tips for making a birthday party fun without breaking the bank?
{And while you’re at it, I could use some tips on decorating cakes too!}
I combined the take home gift with an activity – the kids got to decorate star cookies and I put white contact paper on top of inexpensive sandwich containers. They got to decorate those, I got to keep all the leftover cookie and container decorating supplies for us to use the rest of the year. I used a star theme for an August b-day, bought all the navy & silver 4th of July stuff I could find on clearance, than added fuschia plates & bowls from the dollar store. Instead of cake the kids got brownies in individual star shaped cups bought on clearance.I started making star shaped raspberry lemonade ice a week before and put that in regular lemonade, some w/cherries in the middle. The kids loved it! We had the party at a park for free.
We just went to a morning party – from 10 to 12. Kids decorated & ate cupcakes, snacks were water, orange wedges, bananas sliced in 1/3 with the peel on, & string cheese. Theme was candy land & my friend made all the decorations on her computer or w/dollar store items. The kids had a ball! We played a game where each child got a toy from the dollar store & everyone left w/a bag of candy (some leftover from Valentine’s Day).
My quick tip would be stock up on candy treats and little toys & decorations at Holiday clearance sales. Buy pots of gold at St Patrick’s day & work into a rainbow theme, etc. Multi task your decorations, activities, take aways. Make the activity something the kids can eat on the spot instead of a $30 cake or something to take home so you aren’t spending a fortune on gifts for guests. – like use Mylar balloons from the Dollar Store with a piece of candy tied to the bottom as your decorations & let the kids take them home.
Well I wanted to chime in, as my advice may be better for someone who like myself has a teenager. My son has a January birthday and in every previous year, I would have so much fun giving a party for his birthday present. Since he is an only child and Christmas is not even 30 days before his birthday, and there are no good toys left after Christmas, it was an easy excuse for me to fund a party and a good time was had for all invited! When they are small it is easy to do dollar store stuff because no one knows any better, but once you get into the teenaged years it changes. And when my husband was laid off almost 9 months ago, facing our first Christmas ever where we could not afford gifts, with no income in the family other than one unemployment check, well I had to become quite resourceful. We explained to our son why Christmas was non exsistenant and Christmas really isn’t about presents. We had a nice meal and got him one gift. And then the dreaded birthday approached and it was his 16th birthday. I really had no money at all to spend and had to really “work it” I used my bread maker to make 3 rounds of pizza dough , bought cheese free with coupons and saved it for the party pizza, went to the local farmers market for some peppers and carrots and onions, made my own fruit punch, nothing to it, one can of gingerale , some juicy juice and some storebrand sherbert dropped in the punch bowl in very small scoops. I bought 2 bags of sweedish fish, made pizzas, cut up the remaining veggies with a little yogurt dip, made one box of homemade brownies I got for pennies with a coupon and did my own cupcakes. I saved a box from my bottle water and decorated the cupcakes some with white icing and some with chocolate. My son has a friend that does not like chocolate. And I made more chocolate than vanilla and used the box to arrange the cupcakes to make a 1 and a 6 in the middle of the chocolate ones with white iced ones, to say 16 for his birthday. I let him deciede which of his favorite friends he wanted to invite and I went over the list with him. I also took a few minutes to go thru my home and put away some family heirlooms incase they all got rowdy. This age , they boys do not want to play games , except on Wii , so we did a little on Wii and we had some food, everything was eaten and everyone was satisfied. They all asked me why did I have the sweedish fish, because it was candy and almost seemed out of place on the table with all the healthy food. I told them it was my son’s favorite as was all of this food. They thought that was cool that I let him have all his favorite foods. After everyone ate, we opened gifts, which strangely at this age is all cards with money or gift cards. And then they wanted to go throw the football around , so they did for about an hour and I called them back in , gave them some hot chocolate ( except the one boy, he had hot tea) and I got the hot chocolate free with a coupon.
The most important thing is for your child to feel loved and have thier friends and family celebrate their birth. It really isnt about decorations and gift bags. I say no gift bags because who needs more junk anyhow? But when the kids were little, you can get away with it. I think in all total I paid about 12 dollars for all the food. We used our regular plates and cutlery, I had a nice table cloth and birthday banner I used from last year and just made due with all I already had. Now some of you may read this and say, I would DIE if anyone of the other parents saw I used the same things twice, well none of the parents even came inside my house and since I had never ever had a party in my house before, no one knew but me. The kids dont care, they just want to have a party. Themes are great, mine was football. We played football, we watched a little football and when they came in cold from playing and had hot chocolate and cupcakes , they were all so happy. I even heard one boy say,”You are lucky your mom made all your favorite things, my mom gets a cake at the store and pizza delivery”
The only down side was the time involved, but when you are unemployed you do what you have to. I was up very late the night before making pizza dough and got up early the next morning to make another batch . And the food prep was a few hours, but it was worth it! I think, when you look back on this birthday, my son and I will both feel good because he had his favorite people and got to pick what all his friends were going to do.
Ok, so you knew I would have to weigh in on this issue! I have so much fun making almost all of my decorations every year. I think if you can start as early as possible, you can do so much more for so much less. I keep my eye out for things at the dollar store or in clearance bins that go along with my theme. I also projected pictures from my theme of Candyland, one year, and traced them on refrigerator boxes (that I got for free) and made giant cut-out characters. It is definitely more time consuming to spend less, but like I said, if you start early, you can do it without being overwhelmed! Also… I LOVE to copy others’ ideas. I search the internet after I decide on a theme and pick and choose things that I like that I know I can duplicate, including the cake!
As far as goodie bags, I have tried, in the past to incorporate activities and snacks that would double as goodie bag favors. Each child can get a little bag when they arrive that they will fill with their “goodies”. So I might have plain cookies or cupcakes that go with the theme and let the kids decorate them. I have also put plain color party hats in the bag when they arrive and left out stickers and the sticky foam pieces so the kids can decorate their own hats. But my favorite idea yet, has been to get cheap generic things from the dollar store, like bubbles, frisbees, or anything with a sticker or label that can be removed. Then I print off my own pictures that coordinate with my theme and glue them on to make customized favors! So cute! This works out to be cheap too because you can get a 6 pack of bubbles for $1, an 8 pack of frisbess for $1, throw in a themed cookie and a glow stick ($1 for 15) and you have goodie bags for really cheap that are ADORABLE! Like I said, time is the biggest saver! Also using clear candy bags, you can print off customized bag toppers and glue those on posterboard to attach to the top of the bag.
We had a “cowboy” themed party for my son’s 2nd party and it was very inexpensive and fun. For food we had hot dogs, chicken nuggets, sloppy joes, b aked beans and homemade mac-n-cheese. We had different games that we played which I spent a total of 5$ on. The kids also cut out and decorated their own cowboy vests out of paper bags in the “Craft Corral” I had made under a canopy outside. There are lots of ideas on the internet as far as games go. I found the sites very helpful. I jut googled cowboy birthday parties. As far as the cake goes my mother made it and it was very simple. She made a double sheet cake and made it look sandy/desert like with graham cracker crumbs and she put cowboy figures, covered wagons, horses etc that she bought at the dollar store on top. It was very cute. For favors I bought a pack of red bandanas from US Toys and filled them with candy tied together with rope. Overall this was one of the cheapest parties we’ve had and the kids had a blast.
I agree about the goodie bags. They are filled with ‘mucra’ and it just gets thrown away. One year for a cowboy party we gave the kiddos a bandana, sherrif badge, and a cowboy hat, all from the dollar store. It was about $2.25 per kid. My hope was that because it wasn’t junk, the kids would put it in their dress up bins at home and play with the stuff for a while. I got nice compliments on them from the parents.
Stock up on cups, plates, streamers, etc. at the dollar store. So cheap & you’re just going to throw them away anyway!
Pick a theme that isn’t a typical party theme. For my daughter’s 2nd birthday, we had an outfit from Chinatown that was adorable, so we had an Asian party. I got Chinese takeout containers cheap, & filled them up with Chinese yo–yo’s, noisemakers, etc. from Oriental Trading Co. I had a cake with a panda on it & served egg rolls, Asian BBQ pork, fortune cookies, etc. as food for the adults. It was a HUGE hit.
Another idea for older girls is a tea party. Buy cheap fancy tea cups at garage sales & serve hot cocoa in them. Have finger sandwiches, cookies, fruit, etc. All easy & the girls feel so grown up!
Having a daughter with a Nov. birthday, I wish we could just go to the park, but living in Seattle means indoor parties. I’ve spent FAR more than I should have on them in the past, & you know what? A party at home with cake & ice cream is just as much fun for them as one at the indoor inflatable places. They don’t know the difference, so why should we stress over it?
Oh, & I am also trying to bring back the NO GOODIE BAG rule! I have done them in the past & spent lots of money on them, & it’s just garbage the kids lose in a day anyway. Save the money & tell the other moms not to do them at their next kids’ birthday party. Just say no to goodie bags! 🙂
I do a lot of handmade stuff like printing pictures off the internet that go with the theme or hand drawing things. Last year for my son’s Ben 10 birthday party I drew his favorite character onto posterboard and they used it to play pin the Omnitrix to the alien. I printed out pictures of Omnitrix and added tape to the back. For my stepson’s party (today) I did the same type of stuff, hand drew the FarmVille logo onto posterboard and printed out pictures of FarmVille animals and buildings to tape around the house. Hung streamers (cheap and easy and great for decorating), balloons in coordinating colors finish it off. I do get a store bought cake but add my own decorations. You can visit my blog to see what I did for his party today. I had a lot of stuff already here at the house and maybe spent $80 on everything (cake included). I have lots planned for my daughter’s birthday coming in July!
We have three winter birthday children. This makes December an even more expensive month. We usually pick a non-commercial theme (glitter, snow, penguins, etc). This makes it easier to buy solid colored tablewear and decorations. We then make several “stations” around the house. Each station has a craft or an activity. The kiddos rotate through the stations. The most popular station usually is always temporary tatoos. They are cheep and highly entertaining. I usually serve homemade cupcakes and floats (way cheeper than the store bought cakes). I get a lot of ideas from this site http://www.amazingmoms.com/htm/party_bigbirthdaylist.htm
Although it has commercialized party ideas (and links to overpriced plates) there are a lot of good cheep ideas. Don’t forget about the dollar store for party favors and streamers! I like to decorate with metallic shread (usually used for gift bags). I hang it from the ceiling fans, chairs, and dinningroom light. It looks amazing bunched on the table. It packs a big “bang for the buck”, and it is easier to decorate with than traditional streamers.
I do cupcakes and for the toppers (which are way overpriced at party stores) I make my own toppers. I did this for my daughter’s last birthday, which was Scooby-Doo themed. I bought one package of the Scooby-Doo party confetti (about $1.99) and glued the large pieces onto toothpicks. You could also print off, on thicker card stock, any picture you want to use for the toppers. For decorating, I bought only a few Scooby-Doo items (cake plates & napkins & a few decorations) and then bought lower priced, color coordinated: large plates, large napkins, plastic silverware, streamers, ballons, etc.
I like the idea of buying a ton of those cheese pizza’s that are about $1.00 each (tony’s, geno’s, mama celeste’s etc) and then chopping up a ton of diff toppings. Each kid gets his/her own pizza and chooses personal toppings….it counts for two columns food and entertainment.
I also like cupcakes that are baked inside ice cream cones…you can decorate with varies candies to make all types of creatures. Or even set out bowls of candies and let ur guests do the work.