Guest post by Shannon
Birthday parties are great, but throwing one these days can almost break the bank. It is possible to throw a birthday party on a budget and make it a party that your child and their friends will long remember. Here are five tips to help:
1. Make your own cake.
Buying a birthday cake from a bakery can be a costly proposition. Instead, get a couple boxes of cake mix and frosting to make your own. Even better are cupcakes. Get a fancy star tip and decorating bag to put a neat swirl on top.
2. Use solid color party-ware.
Your child’s party can still be themed with their favorite character or activity, but instead of having all matching cups, plates, napkins, and more, pick up some solid color items to match. They are less expensive and are easy to match the themed items. You will save money by just getting the themed invitations, a centerpiece, and a mylar balloon.
3. Just serve cake and ice cream.
Much of the cost for a birthday party is in the food. Invite your guests over in between lunch and dinner. That way the only items on your menu can be cake and ice cream.
4. Go back to the basics for party games.
It is easy to host some party games with items found around your home — think three-legged races which only require something to tie ankles together, a spoon and egg race, musical chairs, and freeze tag. Serve cake and ice cream before the games so that the kids can burn off all the extra energy!
5. Cut back on party favors.
It can be so tempting to go overboard on party favors to send home with your guests. Instead bake some cookies, place them in a cellophane or sandwich bag, tie with some ribbon to match your party theme and place them in a basket by the door to hand out as people are leaving. This a great activity for your child to participate in if they love to bake.
Your child can still have a great birthday party even without spending a bunch of money. Follow one or all of these tips to help celebrate their special day and stay on budget.
Shannon Weidemann is best known as the Partyelf. Check out all the great party ideas on her website to help plan your next celebration
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For my daughter’s party one year, we did a cake and instead of gift bags /pinata I offered to my daughter to do a ice cream sundae party. We got big tub of ice cream and some toppings (when on sale) and the girls LOVED it! For my son’s birthday he wanted a police theme party, so I made the cake myself and just used wax paper and placed the police cars he had around the house on it and since daddy is a police officer we used his badge and handcuffs…all the parents’ loved the idea and the biggest hit was the police car pinata I made my self out of cereal boxes and crepe paper…my son still talks about it to this day!
Great ideas. When I was growing up we only had cake. I always wonder how that idea slipped away. Glad you brought it back. Party favors do get pricey. I buy pencils, eraser and sometimes just give a bakes item.
Oops-meant erasers and baked item-bad keyboard.;0)
We just had my daughter’s party this weekend. We bought party favors at the dollar tree- she picked out 2 bags of candy and a set of stencils to give out. We made homemade play dough and used that as an activity and then sent the play dough home as part of the favors. It was super easy and my daughter had a great time helping me make it!
My DS turns 3 next month and I have been thinking about making homemade play doh for the kid as an activity and favor. What did you use to send it home in? Please and thank you!
My daughter just turned three also! We wrapped them in plastic wrap and then just stuck them in ziplock bags. We wrote each chid’s name on it. They weren’t fancy looking, but they are 3 year olds and LOVED them! We had some left overs. We made it on Friday and they are still soft!
THANKS!!! I am going to try it.
I’m loving all of the birthday party ideas here! Does anyone have suggestions for baby showers on a budget? I’d love to hear them!
For my baby shower, my Aunt made “clotheslines” of baby clothes by clothes-pinning doll clothing on rope and hanging them around the party room. Very cute! There are lots of printable baby shower games online.
Instead of a birthday party for my children (now 7 & 9), I would bring in pizza, drinks, and cupcakes, plates and napkins to their classrooms when they were in preschool. Now that they are older I just bring in cupcakes and drinks during their snack times at school. It too much hassle to have a party. I made cupcakes following the designs from “Hello Cupcake” book. The kids always ooh and aah with those cupcakes.
I have been to some CRAZY parties. Extremely lavish parties aren’t done for the 4 year old, know what I mean???
I tend to do small parties with a cake I make (folks say I’m creative but really it’s all you wonderful bloggers who give me ideas!!!), simple games (pin the X on the Y… depends what the theme is!; put lots of prizes in balloons, which the kids stomp to pop to get their prize — fun!), one themed paper product, one or two snack items or a light lunch (for very small kids who still nap — it can be HARD to do a cake and ice cream party at 2-4pm and sometimes only an 11-1pm party will work, but you can make a light lunch very economically!).
My older 2 have birthdays within 9 days of each other. Now that their circle of friends is expanding, and the actual KIDS are getting bigger, to have a joint party in our small home is getting difficult. For their 4th and 6th birthdays we had a small joint party, and my 6 year old daughter had a cupcake decorating party for a few friends one night while my husband took my 4 year old son out for a special father-son outing. Worked well! This year I may look into a bounce house — for 2 kids, the price might work out OK. Tough call!
Loved all the suggestions. I am doing most of those myself already. One thing to add for the party favors is simply doing a pinata and letting the candy inside be the favors. The Dollar Tree has pinatas for $1 and I will buy candy on clearance after holidays and save it for the parties.
Another suggestion about the cake is to make it the day ahead! I have often stressed myself out by not following this simple step. If you make the cake or cupcakes and then stick it/them in the freezer, the frosting will go on easier the day of.
Three things to add, that relate to the already given advice!
1. My sister always makes my kids cakes. She’s very creative and loves doing it for them. She’s also a college student and low on funds, so the cake doubles as her gift to them. It’s a win-win for us all. I don’t have to buy or make a cake. She spends maybe 5 bucks to make a cake, and doesn’t have to buy a gift. And I don’t have extra toys cluttering the house!
2. Every time I host something at my house, I buy the same color paper products…red. It goes for everything, Christmas, birthdays, informal get-togethers etc. That way I can use the leftover paper products for the next event. Less waste, less money spent! The article is correct in saying that a balloon and centerpiece and themed cake are enough.
3. Make your invitations! Print the info on cardstock (one piece of cardstock for 2-4 invites). Glue the white cardstock with info onto a colored piece of cardstock. Buy stickers that match the theme and let your kid decorate each invite. Use the backside of the invite as a postcard. Postcard postage is about half the price.
Okay, one more thing I just thought to add!
I buy each kid (that expected to come) one item from the Dollar Tree. One year it was water guns (not the tiny ones, big ones!). Another it was coloring books that went with the theme. I skip the bags and just pass out the favor as the kids leave. One inexpensive item that the kids will use is so much better than a bag full of plastic trinkets and candy. Plus, who needs more candy after a birthday party? I usually end up eating the candy we receive from parties…lol.
Ever since we started having kid parties, my policy has been to buy 1 package of plates and 1 of napkins in the “theme”. Then I buy a matching solid color (or usually I have a color I bought on clearance from a season — green from St. Pat’s Day; Pink, white, red from V-day, etc). My daughter is now 4 and instead of a theme, she picks a color for her parties now! LOL And she’ll ask anyone else what “color” their birthday is going to be.
This is what we do also, only instead of cookies i recycle crayons, heat them up and let them cool in cute molds! put a few in a bag with matching ribbon and you are all set and the kids LOVE the swirls of colors
That would be a fun project for kids to make these (supervised, obviously) during the party.
Another easy, inexpensive favor is to let the kids do crafts (we did foam “alien masks” once for an outer-space party; the kids’ treehouse was decorated with cardboard as a rocket ship) and foam super hero masks (we found templates online). FamilyFun.com has lots of craft ideas. We’ve also given out favors that kids play with during the party and then take home, such as dollar-store plastic golf sets. We made a big course in the back yard.
My son’s birthday is usually right after Easter, so we buy discounted candy after the holiday and do a “candy hunt” instead of a pinata. Have the kids stay inside as some adults (or older siblings) toss candy around the yard, some spots harder to find than others. We usually hide one large candy bar in a particularly tricky spot (e.g. up in a tree) as the big treasure to find. Some years we do a scavenger hunt with clues that leads to a treasure chest full of the party favors, which might be candy, or a dollar store item that goes with the theme.
I love all these frugal ideas!
For decorations we make use of our home printer. (We have a very economical printer to use as we researched the cost of replacement cartridges before we bought the printer. It costs us about $.02 per page to print.)
1) We find clip art or images online and print them out to put up around the party area. For a Baby Einstein party we made a page with the colored words logo and another page with the Baby Einstein head logo, printed them out, glued them to different colors of construction paper and taped them up in an alternating pattern all around our porch rail. For a Pixar Cars party we printed out pictures of all the characters and hung them around the living room.
2) We make theme-related banners. For a Mary Poppins party we printed out each of the letters spelling “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” hung them on a string and hung the banner across one wall in the kitchen. Other times we have simply spelled out “Happy Birthday” or the child’s name.
3) We have sometimes printed out coloring pages relating to the theme (1/2 page per picture, landscape and fold it into a book) for party favors.
4) To dress up those plain paper goods we have printed out address label-type stickers for the cups. For a VeggieTales party I found a clip art of Bob & Larry, designed a label with the image and “Happy 3rd Birthday, Benjamin,” and put them on green cups.
Also, I wanted to share my recipe for cake icing. Sometimes creative cakes can require a lot of icing! I make this cheap (and yummy!) icing to keep the cost of the cake down:
1/2 c. shortening
16 oz. powdered sugar (I stock up when it’s on a good sale)
2 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
1/2 c water
Beat 3-5 minutes
(If you are making anything beyond a typical double-layer cake you may want to double the recipe.)
Instead of water try milk! Even better!
I was glad to see I do most of these things already. I agree simple is better. Last year my son had a Sesame Street theme. I bought an Elmo cake mold at Micheals with a 40% off coupon and plan to use it for one of our other kids. Games were trying to throw “trash” (recycling I saved) in Oscar’s can and decorating Sesame Street (we drew a a picture of a street on poster board and gave the kids stickers). Favors were a small box of crayons and coloring books from Target I found for a dollar.
The year before we had a frog/beach theme with a frog shaped caked (we used a bear mold) favors were sandpailsand beach balls I bought at Michaels for a dollar a piece
My daughters birthday is December 10 so for her first birthday I just made a giant cupcake birthday cake and home made frosting. Two friends with kids came over and the rest was a few family members. No goodie bags, no food, just all about Kenna and I think I spent about $4 on the cake stuff & cream cheese for the frosting =] I just don’t see a point in HUGE parties. We never had big ones, why do these kids need to?
My sister-in-law did a Cars themed party for her two boys last year and it was so fun and cheap. They made the cars out of boxes that the kids tied on their shoulders (like suspenders) and they had a pit stop race and some other fun activites. I am totally stealing her idea for my boys this year. She even made a Lighting McQueen cake. That girl has talent.
I did for my now 6 yr old’s 5th birthday party……Napkins, silverware, and plates are from the dollartree, not all dollar trees have balloons or at least around here they don’t………I did buy the cupcakes from Sam’s for $13…….I did do goody bags but I put school supplies in them…..pencils, erasers, crayons, and a pirate patch (because my kids’ school mascot is the pirates)……..Then because it was June and hot, I bought a package of 100 water balloons for $2 at the dollar general and then turned the kids loose……..:D I spent probably about $30 and the kids are still talking about it……
Thanks for all of the great ideas. We just celebrated our twin boys’ third birthday last week, and we did a Thomas themed party at our church (for free) because our house is too small to fit family and friends.
It was on a Saturday morning, so we served fruit, veggies, and cake, plus coffee, water, and juice boxes (bought at the store with a gift card). For entertainment, we had face-painting (done for free by friends), a coloring corner, Pin-the-1-on-Thomas game (given to us), a slide/fort play set (brought by a friend), and a pinata (which was our biggest expense).
It’s reassuring to know that I’m not the only one who hates party favor bags. It bothers me when my kids go to a party and come home with huge bags of loot–and I know that mom spent more money on our goodies than we spent on her kid’s nice-but-inexpensive gift. For the Thomas party, our guests received toy train whistles from Oriental Trading Company ($9.99 for a dozen).
We end the party with a treasure hunt. We have them go upstairs and downstairs several times so the get some energy out. The treasure is a snack size ziploc bag with some candy in it. I buy larger bags of candy after a holiday when they are marked down to use for these. My kids love it!
This year, I am too lazy to throw a party, so we will take my daughter to the zoo => no cleanup after it’s over
I have 3 kids, only 19 months apart, and the 2 youngest are twins! We’ve always had AWESOME huge parties, on a VERY stingy budget. I work here and there all year long preparing things for their parties. Everything is home made, or bought at the dollar stores. The cakes are home made, as are the party favors. We serve hot dogs and other simple home made foods, and have fun party themed games with stuff around the house. I love parties, and growing up my mother always made sure I had awesome parties (also on a budget), so I do the same for my kids. Love the money saving ideas on here!
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