Birthday parties can be expensive and it’s hard to keep them on a strict budget. But it is doable. Here are some great tips from the readers on how to save money on a birthday party:
The Theme
Have a miniature party. Reader Holly says “I made tiny invites on the computer, we had all mini food – you can get mini taco appetizers, mini quiche, mini hot dogs, mini m&m’s, even make mini pb & j sandwiches if you like! I made mini cupcakes. It was fun to come up with things that were tiny and the kids loved that everything was their size!
Have a garden party. Reader Holly says “This past summer we had a “garden party” where all the kids came prepared to plant. They each got to pot a flower to take home as their party favor. They had a great time!”
Reader Nicole says “Have a puppy party…then you could give out hand made puppy ears as the favors, with dog bone shaped cookies. You could paint their faces with little whiskers and a nose. The ears are really easy to make. Just get a package of head bands, cut some ears out of felt and hot glue them on.”
Reader Sandi says “Have a Disney World party. You could do a hidden Mickey treasure hunt for the kids, make mickey ears headbands out of construction paper, and mickey shaped finger foods. You could even make a Mickey cake pretty easy. The Dollar tree has red and black party supples for $1, with a little yellow thrown in of course. You could also print out a photo of each of his favorite Magic Kingdom rides and make some sort of station for each of them. Like Small World make paper flower decorations, download the song, and maybe decorate gingerbread kid cookies. The Peter Pan section each kid could be either a pirate or tinkerbell. Again the Dollar Tree has lots of Disney related things, from puzzles to coloring books.”
Reader Robin says “When my son was turning 3 or 4 we did a race car party. We got some paper boxes and let each child decorate their own race car. You cut the bottom of the box out and tie ribbons to put over their shoulders to help them stay on. We bought helmets from the party store and then had our own race around the yard. It was lots of fun! The best was Daddy in a paper box with a helmet. HA!”
Reader Carra gives her kids their party money. “After spending $300 for a gymnastics party a few years ago, I decided enough is enough. Now I give my kids $100 for their birthday party. If they choose to invite friends and have a party, the cost comes out of that $100. If they choose to just have a family party, they get to keep the $100. My kids are 13 and (about to turn) 10. We’ve been doing this for several years now and they always choose a party. They usually have 3-4 friends sleep over. They use the money for pizza and party favors. I offer to bake the cake but they have to pay for ingredients. It’s amazing how frugal kids can get when they’re spending “their own” money. They always have some money left over. One year, my spendthrift son had over $50 left over! Anyway, it has worked wonderfully, saved me quite a bit of money, and has taught my kids a great lesson on the value of money.”
The Cake
Order a plain cake and place your own figurines on top.
Reader Jessica shares her birthday cake recipe:
16 ice cream sandwiches
1 container whipped topping(or you can use the real stuff)
1 candy bar grated or any favorite candy
Layer bottom of 9×13 baking dish with half of sandwiches. cut sandwiches as necessary. next add half of whipped topping evenly on sandwiches. add remaining sandwiches and then again with the whipped topping. decorate with candy or to whatever theme you would like.
Reader Tiffany made her son a dirt cake. “The cake idea we did for our BOY, a simple 1 layer chocolate cake, chocolate frosting on top, crumbled Oreos and gummy worms! A dirt cake! ALL the kids loved the cake and it was the cheapest thing ever!”
Party Favors
Pick up a bunch of bouncy balls (the medium sized ones). Let the kids play games with them and then take the balls home as party favors.
Reader Leann says “For party favors, I got a 6 pack of bubbles at the $ store, along with some Cars stickers, some little race cars and some bubble gum. I used brown lunch bags that I stamped with race cars and checkered border and tied with red ribbon. ”
Reader Carla says “For party favors I had paper bag lunch bags I closed them (fold the tab down once) each and hole punched them and with yarn I already had I made like a bow to close. One the front of the bad I placed another Disney Character larger and we colored those too. They had different Disney Character and the children got to pick which one they wanted. They did not have anything in them since we bought a Mickey pinata the candy they got from the pinata went into the bags for them to take home. ”
The Decorations
Buy your party supplies at the Dollar Tree. Reader Christie says “I always use the Dollar Tree for decorations and favors. They have colored plates and napkins, streamers, balloons and great things like play doh and books for favors.”
Buy 1 package of themed decorations and mix it with solid matching colors. Such as buying a package of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse plates and mixing with solid red plates of the same size.
The Food
Have a candy buffet. Reader Rachel says “We had a candy buffet at our party. I used sales and coupons to get most of it free! Everyone loved it. Plus I had little bags so they could take alot of the candy home. So then I didn’t buy any party favors since they had a ton of candy to take home.”
Reader Leann says “I really like to get pizza from Sam’s or Costco. They are reasonable and I personally think they taste better then some chain pizza restaurants. That and a simple veggie tray makes a nice lunch.”
The Games
Reader Carla says “We made our porch into the birthday area since it was in July. We hid numbers and color shapes around the party area and on the walls. One of the games was to find a specific number, color shape, etc. The one that scored the most the fastest won.”
Please add your favorite tips for part 2 of the series!
While we were recently discussing options for my soon-to-be 9 year old’s party, I came up with an option I hadn’t thought of before: a family getaway. After researching options, she went for it! Now, for same $130 as paying for a party at the local skating rink or bouncy-house place, we will be heading to a nearby city, staying overnight at a hotel with a pool and free breakfast, and spending the day at a science museum. We would have gone out to dinner anyway, so that will be equal as well. Result: we’ll have a great time, experience something new, not have to stress over invites, RSVPs and cleaning (if we had had a home party), and NO EXTRA STUFF TO BRING INTO THE HOUSE!
It takes a little work but I really like creative parties, that’s why I love etsy! I usually spend about $25 and order images and designs that I can print everything at home and put together myself. This year my son is turning 5 and we are having a super hero party. I spent $30 and was sent via email a ton of personalized and non personalized images already formatted for all sorts of super hero words, banners, invitations, water bottle and soda labels, and even a huge coloring wall art plus lost more. All I do is print everything from home and cut to size or set up how I want everything. It does take work assembling everything but for a little amount I have a very custom/unique decorated party. I even saved all our moving boxes and I am using them to make a super hero city skyscrape by wrapping solid red and blue colored wrapping paper around the boxes and then drawing on windows. I am going to use this as the backdrop for the food table. I am aslo making capes for the kids and masks which costs me a whopping $6.45 for 10 capes and 10 masks which double as favors! My son loves that his parties are never like anyone else’s and I love that I usually spend well under $100 including food.
My kids’ school has a “Prize Walk” every year at the Halloween Bazaar, so I had a prize walk party at home for my daughter’s 8th birthday a couple of years ago. My son will be 7 in a couple of weeks, and we are going to have the prize walk party for him this year. You just draw a path on concrete with numbers in each box, and the kids walk around while you play music. When the music stops, they stop, and you call out which number wins. You can use dollar store prizes or even cheaper things you find on clearance. The kids love the idea of winning a prize.
Also, we have had Bingo parties before, with small prizes for the Bingo winners, and it went over very well.
For my then 5 year old (obsessed with Princess) we did a Princess Party. We had 2 aunts come, one did hair (curling and a little color hairspray) another did make up (individual mini lip gloss and mini nail polish doubled as party favors). Then the kids used our assorted dress up clothes / shoes and played. We set up a tea party table (just a tablecloth and cute plastic cups) for the princesses and took pics. The girls strung beads to make their own necklaces and bracelets (rubbery beading string – bday girl is allergic to metal) for the rest of the party favor.
For my 6 year old, we had a “How to train your dragon” party. Hubby printed pics of some of the dragons and we glued them to cardboard and placed them strategically around the house (we got rained in day of party). The kids used the Nerf Crossbow to try to get them. Hubby drew a large pic of Toothless (love having an artist in the family) and the kids drew “tails” to pin onto toothless. I made cupcakes and each kid decorated their own with a bunch of decos I had picked up on clearaces after several holidays.
My now 0 year old had an Alice in Wonderland party (after her grandma made her a Queen of Hearts costume for Holloween, she wanted to wear it again). We set up a tea party with different size/color plates and cups for all (again, plastic and they each took theirs home after the party). We set up the croquette set in the yard and they each pinned a SMILE on the Cheshire cat (love the artist who can draw these things on postor board for us!) For party favors, we picked up dollar store items, and clearanced/free items collected throughout the year and wrapped them up. Kids played the Left and Right pass game (usually used for xmas, but we had a birthday theme version) and after lots of giggles opened a very unique gift for all to take home. Who needs goody bags when they each got a present!!!
All parties listed here cost less than $50 all inclusive, most cost less than $40. Food is favorite snacks of the birthday girl and party time is usually 2 -4 (after lunch, before dinner). :)
I love all of these party ideas!
One year when my twins were smaller, since their birthday is in late October, we did a pumpkin themed party. Since my house was already decorated for fall, I didn’t have to go and get extra party decorations, I just left what fall decor I had up,and also used all my fall serveware. Any extra partyware I got cheap at the dollar store. I made pumpkin cupcakes, and served homemade fingerfood and for an activity, the kids each got to paint their own gourd sized pumpkin, any way they liked. It was also their favor to take home!
I have signed up for Toys R US’s birthday club and I usually get a $3 gift card and a $5/$25 coupon a few weeks before each kids’ birthday which can help with gifts or party supplies or wrapping paper.
I also subscribe to Birthday Express’s emails and they have frequent sales and they really do have the most variety!
I also subscribe to my local party store’s emails and I get coupons from them too!
My daughter’s party is coming up in June and so far I’ve bought about 2/3 of the stuff at two different places for the party and will get the other 1/3 elsewhere. It pays to shop around for me.
I did a cupcakes and games party for my daughter’s 2nd bday, last summer. It was Sesame Street themed. I filled the baby pool with rubber duckies and the kids had to find the one with their names on. They were also the favors. I also filled 200 water balloons. I did a few games with prizes from the dollar tree. I had juice boxes and cupcakes. It was about an hour long and super cheap.
I really love the idea of a birthday party allowance.
I totally disagree with the $100 limit, I would cry hahaha. I rather thave an amazing parties then have a vacation. I spend around $300 on birthday parties. Last year I used a groupon and got a cotton candy machine, snow cone, chairs, and some other things from the rental for $80 ( saved $100) ..I had friends bring ponies for free. Other friends brought a petting zoo for free. My sis got a bounce house for $75 on craigslist that we use at every party for free. My sister did face painting for free.I got all the decor whe it was half off and saving goes on and on. I got all the food and cake from SAMs. It should of been a $1000 party but I spent around $300. My son had a blast!!!!! And so did his friends. This year I’m doing ponies, huge water slides, face painting, ponies, games and more also around the same price. Friends and family wil pitch in..you just have to ask. You never know what friend has a bounce house in thier garage, or owns two ponies…….resources !! Birthdays are huge in my family!! My husband didn’t have any when he was growing up, nothing …and I know how he felt. My son will never get to say he didn’t have amazing birthdays. It’s one of the best parts of childhood.
I asked in an online yardsale group for anything Mickey Mouse related. As a result, I got plates, cups, and napkins for FREE. I am also making treasure chests from diaper wipes containers as a party favor holder (all donated from friends, so FREE again!) with knick knacks from Oriental Trading. We are printing our own invitations at home. A friend is making the cupcakes at cost to her. We’re using our church fellowship room, so that is free as well!
We always make homemade Pinatas not only is it easy and cost effective but my boys really enjoy making them, they look forward to making them every year.
How do you make them?
I have done this too, it’s fun but takes time. You get a balloon blow it up then you use liquid starch and strips of newspaper putting many layers on you let it dry completely then cut a small hole in the pinata pop balloon and remove. You can then paint it or you can use crep paper and liquid glue make strips fold in half and make cuts after that you wrap and glue to pinata.
I bet she did a paper machet (?sp). You blow up a balloon, use a mixture of glue/water and dip newspaper strips in it. and make layers around the balloon leaving a part where you can pop it after it dries. Once it dries, you pop the balloon and pull it out. Paint it and fill with candy. It has been years since I did it but it is relatively easy and super cheap.
For my sons 7th birthday this past weekend we had a pirate party. I was able to get a lot of pirate stuff from the 99 cents store and dollar tree. I even found plastic coins and mini treasure boxes that I used for a treasurr hunt. For the prize I used battleship that I got a coupleof of weeks ago with coupons. It was a great party and came in within my budget. My son had a blast and so did everyone we invited.
I love this topic!
If you schedule your party for before or after lung, you don’t need to have a big lunch, finger foods will work. So for a 2pm party, I assume my guests will have eaten lung and only have cake and ice cream and a veggie tray, chips, etc.
Stock up on holiday candy clearance to fill pinatas or treat bags. Most of the time you can get candy like nerds, Hershey kisses, etc for cheap. I always check holiday clearance for trinkets to use. Valentine’s Day last year, target had mesh bags of bouncy balls that I paid under $1 for 12 bouncy balls. They were just assorted colors and worked perfectly. Also always look at Targets $1 spot for these types of clearance.
Plan ahead and look online. With shoprunner, birthday express ships free. You can buy a few themed items and mix with solids, as others have said for cheap.
I agree with the Dollar Tree, they are my favorite place to find birthday decorations, including mylar balloons.
If your child has a birthday during a warmer month, look into using a park area, most times they are free and offer free entertainment.